
Most borrowers refinance to get a lower monthly payment by either extending the loan term or lowering the interest rate. Refinancing is when you replace your current auto loan with another one on the same vehicle. Some may adjust the terms of your loan or move the payment due date to something more convenient to your pay schedule.Īnother route to explore is refinancing. Occasionally, lenders may be willing to work in other ways as well. This involves getting one or more payments paused and then typically added to the back end of your loan. Some lenders offer deferment programs for borrowers in tough financial times.

For them, it's a costly and time-consuming process, and they’d rather have you actively paying on the loan. It may be hard to believe, but your lender likely doesn’t want to go through with the repossession process, either. While your lender may not be required to notify you that repossession is coming, you’re still likely to get some form of communication from them once you’re 30/60/90 days late on a payment. It may be up to you to open a line of communication with your lender to stop a repo. Some lenders may send notices of an impending repossession, but it’s not always required. It’s important to know that in many states, your lender isn’t required to notify you when or where they’re going to repossess the vehicle – or even tell you that the repossession process has started.

After this point, your loan is likely considered to be in default. This disables your car and sends the location to a recovery company for immediate pickup.įor borrowers who aren't financing through a BHPH dealership, the repossession process is likely to start once you’ve missed a payment typically, that’s at least 30 days past due. In some cases, these dealers place kill switch devices and GPS trackers in the vehicles they sell to make the repossession process easier. Some lenders, such as buy here pay here (BHPH) dealerships, may start the repo process when you’re no more than a day late on your car payment. How quickly a lender hires a recovery company to collect the vehicle depends on your state and your auto loan contract. Depending on your lender, the repossession process can start one day after a late payment, though. When the loan is actually considered in default can depend on the language in your loan contract. Generally, most lenders start the repossession process once you’re in default – usually at least 90 days past due on a payment.
