Get your Car Back

Was your car taken in the middle of the night? Were you close to resolving your situation but ran out of time? You may still have a way of getting your car back.

Once your vehicle has been repossessed, understand that your current lender has completely given up on working with you to allow you to keep the car. They might be willing to make arrangements for you to repay the deficiency balance, but they will not consider any option other than selling the car to recoup most of their losses.

That being said, you can buy the car back if you can arrange the funding to do so. To buy it back from the lender, you will have to pay off the loan balance in its entirety. That includes any fees and accrued interest added to the balance.

If you have another asset that you can sell, that is one way of raising cash quickly. You might convince a relative to lend you the money directly so that you can get your car back. Then you would have to make payments back to your family member.

Another option is if someone agrees to cosign another loan with you. You might be able to qualify for a new loan to get your car back if you can convince someone with good credit to cosign your loan.

This might sound appealing, but you need to consider this request carefully. Many friendships and family relationships have suffered because the cosigner got stuck repaying a loan for someone else. Imagine how your family or friends might treat you if you failed to repay your new loan.

Even if you have the best intentions of repaying the new loan, circumstances could prevent it. You might lose your job. Perhaps a medical emergency keeps you from getting to work. If you don't repay the loan, your cosigner will suffer too.

If you do decide to pursue getting your car back, you may have a very limited period of time to do so. The lender is liable for storage and any damages that occur to the car prior to its sale. Therefore, they typically want to dispose of the vehicle as quickly as possible to reduce additional costs.

They are happy to pass these costs onto you by adding them to the loan balance. However, if they cannot collect these fees, then they ultimately bear the cost of them.