Car repossessed and I'm broke: what now?

March 31, 2017 2:55 PM

My car was repossessed right before I started a new job. I'm broke. What can I do? Is there any chance of getting my car back before Monday (discovering this on a Friday)?
posted by anonymous to Travel & Transportation (6 answers total)

How much did you owe on the car? How many payments had you missed? Also, there's a possibility you may be able to get public transit assistance for the next week, depending on your area, with various programs designed to keep people out of instability.
posted by corb at 2:59 PM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]

If you're somewhere where business hours remain in the day, get on the phone immediately to find out as much as you can from your lender, the repo company, etc. Stay calm and polite. Find your keys and loan/ownership documents. It's also worth brainstorming solutions for getting to your new job Monday in case you can't get the car back, like figuring out a friend to drive you, using credit or asking a friend to front you an Uber round trip or a night in a nearby hotel. Don't let the car distract you from doing whatever it takes to get to your new job. Maybe if you ask a mod to post the localities involved you'll get good specific answers.
posted by carmicha at 3:06 PM on March 31, 2017 [3 favorites]

Please send me a mefi mail if you're comfortable - I have a suggestion.
posted by prefpara at 4:05 PM on March 31, 2017

Yes, you've got to attack this on two fronts. One is getting your car back (and that means lots of phone calls to find out what the administrative work involved is) and the other is getting to work on Monday (via public transportation, favors, loans, etc) no matter what. Assuming that having a new job is a rare and beautiful thing in your life (i.e. this isn't the first day of a temp gig and you have multiple gigs per year if not per month, in which case you can maybe sacrifice this one) showing up on time at the first day of your job is more important than solving your car problem ASAP.

It's a tough balance, having your car stored on site at an impound lot is a daily fee, and there are costs associated with getting to work without it... but showing up at and keeping your job has to be the number 1 priority if you want income allowing you to be non-broke in the near future. Without knowing what kind of job, culture, expectation, contract, hours, etc, it's hard to advise whether it's okay to talk to your boss on your first day about making sure you have time off during business hours to handle this emergency, but my gut instinct overshadowing all those factors is that you don't do it *before* your first day.

I'm so sorry this happened to you, the timing on that really sucks.
posted by aimedwander at 7:00 AM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

If the repo was legit -- i.e. you were behind on the loan -- in most states you have "redemption rights" -- but you will not to be able to exercise them without paying AT LEAST your entire arrears and the costs of the reopo and storage, which will be $500+. Sometimes you have to pay off the entire note on the car to redeem.
posted by MattD at 8:13 AM on April 1, 2017

Strongly suggest NOT talking about this on the job, not taking time off to deal with it unless there is nobody else you can possibly ask, none of that. Managers - especially new managers - can be very skittish and victim-blamey about anything that sounds like potential drama. If you have to make calls, make them on your lunch break and try not to let anyone hear about it.
posted by fingersandtoes at 11:31 AM on April 1, 2017 [3 favorites]