Entering the repossession lane - Boston Globe(Cash Pay Advance)
Last year, Chilcot, 21, bought the $15,000 car - a sweet ride with tinted windows and custom chrome rims, and a loan with $370 monthly payments that he could not afford on his $12 hourly wage at Home Depot . As the economy boomed, lenders made it easy for shoppers to buy cars they couldn’t afford by stretching their loan payments to five or six years, which more than doubled the total of Americans’ auto-loan balances over the past decade to $772 billion from $282 billion in 1998. As with home buyers, lenders relaxed standards for car buyers such as Chilcot, who had blemished credit and put no money down. During the last two quarters of 2007, the riskiest subprime borrowers had interest rates of about 15 percent for their auto loans, while borrowers with top credit ratings carried car loans with 5. Jack Tracey, executive director of the National Automobile Finance Association, the trade group that represents subprime lenders, said, “The nonprime auto-financing industry is very important for the economy because it provides many economically disadvantaged consumers with the ability to own a car and have the ability to hold a job where they need to commute to work. Find Out More
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