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posted by martyb on Friday September 26 2014, @02:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the scorn-the-poor-man-as-a-thief-in-country-and-in-towne dept.

Auto loans to borrowers considered subprime, those with credit scores at or below 640, have spiked in the last five years with roughly 25 percent of all new auto loans made last year subprime, a volume of $145 billion in the first three months of this year. Now the NYT reports that before they can drive off the lot, many subprime borrowers must have their car outfitted with a so-called starter interrupt device, which allows lenders to remotely disable the ignition. By simply clicking a mouse or tapping a smartphone, lenders retain the ultimate control. Borrowers must stay current with their payments, or lose access to their vehicle and a leading device maker, PassTime of Littleton, Colo., says its technology has reduced late payments to roughly 7 percent from nearly 29 percent. “The devices are reshaping the dynamics of auto lending by making timely payments as vital to driving a car as gasoline.”

Mary Bolender, who lives in Las Vegas, needed to get her daughter to an emergency room, but her 2005 Chrysler van would not start. Bolender was three days behind on her monthly car payment. Her lender remotely activated a device in her car’s dashboard that prevented her car from starting. Before she could get back on the road, she had to pay more than $389, money she did not have that morning in March. “I felt absolutely helpless,” said Bolender, a single mother who stopped working to care for her daughter. Some borrowers say their cars were disabled when they were only a few days behind on their payments, leaving them stranded in dangerous neighborhoods. Others said their cars were shut down while idling at stoplights. Some described how they could not take their children to school or to doctor’s appointments. One woman in Nevada said her car was shut down while she was driving on the freeway. Attorney Robert Swearingen says there's an old common law principle that a lender can’t “breach the peace” in a repossession. That means they can’t put a person in harm’s way. To Swearingen, that would mean “turning off a car in a bad neighborhood, or for a single female at night.”

 
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  • (Score: 1) by Arik on Friday September 26 2014, @04:13PM

    by Arik (4543) on Friday September 26 2014, @04:13PM (#98613) Journal
    "“I had a client who was in an intersection with a child,” Swearingen said. The car stalled, and when she tried to restart it, the starter was blocked. “She had to roll the car to the side of the road, get the child out and beg somebody for money to get on a bus.”"

    In theory it makes some sense to say that you can turn off the starter without disabling the car, but in practice engines do need to be restarted from time to time. Never had your engine stall out on a crowded freeway? Consider yourself lucky (and likely in a different socioeconomic bracket from the people victimized with these devices, whose cars may tend to be less reliable than your own.)

    Going after the loan-sharks under common-law for breach of the peace is a fairly old and standard tactic at this point, in both the US and UK at least, I am not sure about other common law jurisdictions. Whether or not remotely disabling someones car is a breach of the peace is the question before the court, and I find myself wondering if any of the judges that will hear the case have had their own car stall out on the freeway, or in a bad neighborhood.

    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 26 2014, @05:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 26 2014, @05:08PM (#98628)
    your font choice makes reading your comment difficult. please consider changing it back to the default font.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 26 2014, @06:45PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 26 2014, @06:45PM (#98663)

      ...is every bit as questionable.
      Try something besides Courier. Monofonto [google.com]

      -- gewg_

    • (Score: 2) by paulej72 on Friday September 26 2014, @07:25PM

      by paulej72 (58) on Friday September 26 2014, @07:25PM (#98675) Journal
      It is an issue with the default setting for monospaced fonts in all browsers. The next release of the slashcode has a fix for this issues. Sorry for not noticing and fixing it sooner.
      --
      Team Leader for SN Development
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 26 2014, @08:28PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 26 2014, @08:28PM (#98696)

      I think it is easier to read. Enough said.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 27 2014, @12:20AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 27 2014, @12:20AM (#98764)
      Your font choice makes browsing the web difficult. Please consider changing it to something other than the unreadable defaults in whatever browser you are using.
  • (Score: 2) by Nobuddy on Friday September 26 2014, @10:05PM

    by Nobuddy (1626) on Friday September 26 2014, @10:05PM (#98724)

    Tell the client to quit skipping payments. Case dismissed, next case.