Finance Tips » Negative Equity

Do I Need Gap Protection For My Car Loan ?

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:38:15 +0000

Do you realize how much you are at risk financially if you wreck your car or it gets stolen? Your auto insurance policy might not provide all the financial protection you need, if the value of your car is less than the balance of your auto loan. Gap coverage is designed to cover the difference between the value of your car when it was lost and the balance of your car loan.

This is also called Negative Equity. Having to continue to pay off your car loan every month, when you don’t even have your car anymore is probably not what you had in mind when you bought it.

Let’s say you lost your car in a hurricane or other disaster, one year after you purchased your car: Now let’s say you still owe $20,000 on your auto loan and your deductible is $500. Let’s also say your car was worth $15,000 at the time you lost it. The insurance company pays you $14,500. Then your Negative Equity or Gap is $5,500.

Gap Protection isn’t really insurance, it’s a Debt Cancellation Agreement. You could call it a waiver of the part of your auto loan contract that requires you to pay the difference between the value of your car and the amount still owed on your car loan. There are a few states that do consider Gap Protection a form of insurance, but most states do not.

Is Gap Protection for you? Talk to the person considering your auto loan. Car buyers who are putting little or no money down on a car may need Gap Protection. If you are transferring the balance of previous car loans into the current car loan or taking out an extended car loan like a 60 month loan you may need the extra protection. Any car buyer who will owe more than their car is worth needs Gap Protection.

HARP and HAMP modify and refinance mortgages

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:25:34 +0000

One of the quotes seeming to live forever is, “Never give a sucker an even break.” Coming from the movie of the same name, starring and written by W.C. Fields, it’s supposed to be a comic line but, first used as an ad-lib by Fields in 1923, it accurately represents the ruthless streak in US business. So, over the last eighteen months or so, banks and finance companies have been playing to packed houses, always trying to portray themselves as caring and sympathetic but, more often than not, coming over as the heartless mortgage-holders in potboiling melodramas who throw the heroine out on the streets when there’s six foot of snow on the ground. What is the evidence for this? Walk through any suburb or exurb and count the empty properties and their weather-beaten “For sale” signs as the foreclosures cut into the neighborhoods. Property values everywhere have been dropping like stones. We were all suckers, it seems, and no bank is ever going to give us an even break.

One of the “systems” supposed to help us navigate through all this negative equity is the joint package of Home Affordable Refinance Program and Home Affordable Modification Program. These run through http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/ and they help some people either refinance their existing loans or modify the terms to make them more affordable. If you run through the questionnaires, you can find out whether you are eligible. It would be fair to say this pair of programs has been controversial. With the politics so polarized, you hear whichever song you want to hear. From one side comes the attack that the plans are another example of “big government”. If folks cannot keep their payments up-to-date, that’s their problem. They should not look to the state for handouts. Taxes should not be used to bail out freeloaders. From the other side come the attacks that the programs are drawn up in a way that cuts down the number of eligible people to a minimum. Instead of helping the millions who are underwater with their loans, this is a Band-Aid trying to staunch a major hemorrhage.

In a way, it does not matter which side is right. What matters is whether anyone has been able to get real help. Well, the Bank of America has not been slow in coming forward with numbers. Since Home Affordable Modification Program began, it claims to have modified the loans of 700,000 people. So how does this work? The first step is to negotiate and agree a trial modification. If this trial is a success, the bank agrees to make the modification permanent. Obviously, the trials have to run over a period of time to prove the borrowers can afford to pay. That explains why the Bank of America has only made 12,200 modifications permanent. It quickly says it has a further 13,700 loans waiting for the borrowers to sign the permanent agreement. Only 26,000 permanent modifications agreed may not sound many but do not forget the headline that 700,000 were admitted to the trial process. To encourage us, the Bank also says it will negotiate on a second mortgage. Putting the politics to one side, if you have problems with your home loan and your home is at risk, you should check out whether you are eligible under HARP or HAMP. No-one cares about which side is right about these programs so long as they help you solve your mortgage problems.

No Money Down Bad Credit Auto Loans – Getting the Financing You Need With No Upfront Cash Down

admin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:38:20 +0000

When most people think of buying a car with bad credit, they think about big down payments and high interest rates. This is mainly due to what people have been told over the years from car dealerships. Usually, when you go to a car dealership, they will only offer a bad credit auto loan with money down.

This is because of a couple of factors…

1) The amount financed is regulated by the lenders. A loan company may approve you for the car that you want, but only finance a certain amount. When it’s less than the sale price of the vehicle, you have to come up with the difference.

2) Dealerships ask for down payments because it increases their gross profit. When they can get a maximum retail price for a car, plus a down payment on top of that, they make more money.

3) When you have negative equity in your trade-in, sometimes there isn’t enough room to add on that amount to the new loan. A down payment would be required to reduce the amount financed to fit within the guidelines set forth by the lender.

So how can you get an auto loan with bad credit, with no money down?

By using specialized lenders that work with people that have bad credit, you can pre-arrange your financing. This helps you to know what amount of car loan that you qualify for. By knowing this in advance, rather than choosing a vehicle and seeing if the numbers will work, you can know ahead of time if the vehicle will fit within your qualified loan amount.

One of the fastest and easiest ways to see what you can qualify for and also to get approved, is by trying online lenders. There are good companies that provide legitimate auto loans for people that have bad credit, with little to no money down. This can be a real life saver if you’ve been told that you’ll have to come up with a lot of cash, at a local dealership.