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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: 2) by Nobuddy on Friday September 26 2014, @10:02PM

    by Nobuddy (1626) on Friday September 26 2014, @10:02PM (#98722)

    Or she could, you know, pay her fucking bill instead.

    They are cellualr, so the range is anywhere a cell phone works.

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  • (Score: 2) by Blackmoore on Friday September 26 2014, @11:31PM

    by Blackmoore (57) on Friday September 26 2014, @11:31PM (#98752) Journal

    or the check would get there late; or it would not get processed after received. (how is that for service?!) or lost in mail..
    didnt matter she always had more month than money. Eventually that car died anyway. it's expensive to be poor.

    • (Score: 2) by Nobuddy on Monday September 29 2014, @01:13PM

      by Nobuddy (1626) on Monday September 29 2014, @01:13PM (#99561)

      Then you take the bus and don't buy a car.
      And before you even try- bullshit. unless you live in podunk, SD- yes, the godddamn bus goes to your work. And even then they tend to fill the gaps with shuttle busses for the working poor. I have been down this road many many times with people online. They eventually name a place they "live" (actually naming the most remote backwoods they can think of) and I show them a fucking bus schedule in town and between neighboring towns.
      This has failed once, in a West Texas town that had a population of 2 and a cat.

      • (Score: 2) by Blackmoore on Monday September 29 2014, @02:39PM

        by Blackmoore (57) on Monday September 29 2014, @02:39PM (#99601) Journal

        Sir, i said she was poor, not bright. she had moved from a city - where bus would have been practical, out to aint no transit here podunk. so she could drive out to suburbia to work minimum wage.. as a manager.