Motorcycle selling/repossession/etc.

[Fierce Critter]

Jon and I are toying with the idea of letting Yamaha repossess his motorcycle.

We're up-to-date, never been late with a payment, but need this payment GONE NOW. MAJOR NOW.

We'd sell it at a loss if we could, as our loan is set-up like a revolving credit loan - the more we pay off, the less we owe each month. If we took, say, a $1000 loss on it, we could easily sell it on eBay and just pay off that last $1,000 at probably less than $50 a month payments.

But last time I checked, you HAVE to pay off every penny you owe, or you can't get the title from the creditor. Thus, if we can't sell it for what we owe, we can't get the title and therefore, are screwed.

I've tried things like Craigslist, local buy/sell/trade Yahoo & Google groups, putting a sign on it, etc. No luck. It'd cost nearly $100 to list it in the Cycle Trader, and we can't swing that AND make the monthly payment. We're that tight right now.

Getting rid of this bike would put us much ahead of the game. It's really the difference between meeting a decent budget and struggling. Even with my eBay.

I let GMAC repossess a car once, and it was actually a decent experience. I lost my job within months of having bought the car, and hung in there for almost 2 years until I just had to give up the ghost. It wasn't a big deal, and my credit was already fucked so it didn't hurt much worse.

Jon's credit is screwed right now, so the hit he'd take wouldn't feel as bad as trying to afford the payment & insurance each month.

I dunno. We're going to check out Dave Ramsay's website to see if he gives any advice on this sort of thing. Also gonna call a local Yamaha dealership to see if they'd help us out (last time I checked, the consignment/commission fee would have been equal to almost an $800 loss, which, again, we'd have to have up front).

I've heard about "taking over payments" but don't know the legalities of any of that. It's always sounded like a dumb risk to me. Unless I'm missing something somewhere.

Anyone know anything about this sort of thing or know how we could sell this damn thing?

[Brenda Starrr]

I wish I had the answer for you. All I can say is that I hope everything works out. I know just how hard it is. I've been there.

*Hugs*

[kellygrrrrrl]

DO they offer a "Skip Pay" Coupon? My finance Co. offered it to me, and it's good until I decide to use it.

[Fierce Critter]

Well, to hell with Dave Ramsey. You have to pay or at least use a debit card to access anything from his site that even resembles advice.

I know the guy makes his living giving this kind of advice. But I mean, whatever.

[bean]

*hugs*

Maybe you could call Yamaha and tell them that you've hit a bit of a rough patch, and ask them if you could miss one payment or only send them $20 or something. A friend of mine did that with her car and because she had payed on time each time before that, they let her slide that one time. Could be worth a shot.

Good luck! :clover

[Brenda Starrr]

*hugs*

Maybe you could call Yamaha and tell them that you've hit a bit of a rough patch, and ask them if you could miss one payment or only send them $20 or something.  A friend of mine did that with her car and because she had payed on time each time before that, they let her slide that one time.  Could be worth a shot.

Good luck!  :clover

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh yeah!!!!

I had hit a rough patch where I couldn't make a payment. For a small fee ($35, I think), they put it on the back of the loan.

[Ginevra]

I'm not sure the entire details but you can let the company do a "voluntary reposession". You know that you can't make the payments and while you might take a small hit to your credit, it wouldn't be nearly as much as it would be for a "regular reposession". Not sure who you could talk to other than Yamaha about it. A bank or credit union might be able to help you out with more details.

[Fierce Critter]

Thanks all who responded.

But it's not a "we need sympathy 'cause we're so bad-off we're gonna lose a toy" situation. If we wanted to, we could keep making these payments. But when we knew we were moving back, we knew our budget depended on our selling the bike as soon as we could. With the bike, we are at EXACTLY the break-even point, and that leaves no room for emergencies, "extra needs" (such as car repair emergencies, vet bills, etc.) or wants/fun. So we knew all along it would have to go.

it's just that with winter encroaching and unforseen hits the bike took, selling it is near impossible. It's decent mileage for it's age - Kelly Blue Book sets average mileage for a 2003 650cc at 10,500. It's got only 7,100. But one of the mufflers fell off on the expressway so to balance out things, Jon had to cut the other one off, too. Replacements run only about $60 plus shipping on eBay, but the thing is - there are plenty of this same model out there WITH the mufflers with LESS mileage, so the competition would require us to sell below what we owe on it. Thus, the problem.

Finances are going to get tighter in November when Jon's health insurance kicks in. His weekly payment will be $64.50 - so as important as it is right now that we sell the bike to balance the budget, come November 8th, that "important" will become MANDATORY.

I make a really, really good income with eBay, which I'll be ramping up to full-speed this week. But eBay is supposed to be "extra" money. We don't want to depend on 2 incomes to pay the bills. So, the most expensive "toy" - the motorcycle - has to go.

Thusfar, Ginevra has come closest to the mark of what will probably end up working for us. The car I gave up years ago was just that - a voluntary repossession. I'm declaring bankruptcy, so it doesn't affect me. Jon's not near that kind of credit mess, so we wouldn't mind paying off the difference on the bike after they take it and sell it at all. Just need to eliminate the full payment price and the cost of insurance to help the budget.

Our next payment comes due November 6th. Gotta do something before then. My next step will be calling that Yamaha dealership. Then, probably contacting Yamaha financing.

Such a shame. This wouldn't be an issue at all if we could just sell it at a loss and continue paying off the difference. I don't understand why they don't make that an option.