I have experienced a prolonged illness and haven't had any income since Apr 2006.  I have recovered and am anticipating being gainfully employed in the very near future (weeks).  Here is my question.  I have a financed 2006 H3 Hummer.  Last fall, when I was not recovering and approaching the end of my savings I tried to sell it in order to pay off the remaining balance.  I found a $9,000 gap between what I owed and what the market value of the vehicle was.  I would love to keep the vehicle and know I will be able to resume normal payments shortly and pay the outstanding balance.  I have spoken many times with the finance company and even in person with a =93repo=94 man that came to my house last week.  They ask me to surrender the vehicle.  I respond with I will never surrender it and I know I will be able to pay in full shortly but I understand if you need to repossess it.  I just got off the phone with one of their representative's who told me it is now going to legal  but will not elaborate further as to exactly what that means.  Any advice as to what the right action for me should be?  Can anyone tell me what GMAC=92s =93Legal=94 will be doing?

I have experienced a prolonged illness and haven't had any income since Apr 2006.  I have recovered and am anticipating being gainfully employed in the very near future (weeks).  Here is my question.  I have a financed 2006 H3 Hummer.  Last fall, when I was not recovering and approaching the end of my savings I tried to sell it in order to pay off the remaining balance.  I found a $9,000 gap between what I owed and what the market value of the vehicle was.  I would love to keep the vehicle and know I will be able to resume normal payments shortly and pay the outstanding balance.  I have spoken many times with the finance company and even in person with a =93repo=94 man that came to my house last week.  They ask me to surrender the vehicle.  I respond with I will never surrender it and I know I will be able to pay in full shortly but I understand if you need to repossess it.  I just got off the phone with one of their representative's who told me it is now going to legal  but will not elaborate further as to exactly what that means.  Any advice as to what the right action for me should be?  Can anyone tell me what GMACs Legal will be doing? What you are doing is forcing GMAC to spend money on lawyers to fully document your case and perhaps take you to court.  All the while, these charges are being billed to your account. Unless you can pay for the vehicle, they will eventually take it away, and you will be stuck with thousands and thousands of dollars in bills between the shortage and the legal costs.  And when GMAC sells the vehicle at auction, it is going to bring far less than your proposed private sale, so the shortage will be far more than the $9,000 that you ran into. Perhaps a more pragmatic view of this would help.  This is just a car.  It isn't like it is important or anything, it is just a car.  Let it go, and clean up the mess later.  Everyone has troubles from time to time, an life doesn't always work out like you plan.  So don't ruin your future over something that can be easily replaced.  After all, they make new cars every day. -john-

I have a financed 2006 H3 Hummer.  Last fall, when I was not recovering and approaching the end of my savings I tried to sell it in order to pay off the remaining balance.  I found a $9,000 gap between what I owed and what the market value of the vehicle was.  I would love to keep the vehicle and know I will be able to resume normal payments shortly and pay the outstanding balance.  I have spoken many times with the finance company and even in person with a =93repo=94 man that came to my house last week.  They ask me to surrender the vehicle.  I respond with I will never surrender it and I know I will be able to pay in full shortly but I understand if you need to repossess it.  I just got off the phone with one of their representative's who told me it is now going to legal  but will not elaborate further as to exactly what that means. The first thing you need to do is to check with your state laws to see what your rights and obligations are.  In some states a lender has to give you the opportunity (though briefly) to make up back payments, or to pay off the loan in full and get to keep your car (or get it back if it's been repossessed). If the lender follows the law but won't cooperate, they will sue, either after they repo the car, or before if they can't find the car. In the end they will sell the car for about half what it's actually worth, and a judgment will be entered against you for the difference, plus repo expenses and costs to fix the car up to re-sell. If you have any chance of saving your car and your credit, you'd better come up with quite a bit of money as soon as possible. Good luck. Stu

since Apr 2006. =A0I have recovered and am anticipating being gainfully employed in the very near future (weeks). =A0Here is my question. =A0I have a financed 2006 H3 Hummer. =A0Last fall, when I was not recovering and approaching the end of my savings I tried to sell it in order to pay off the remaining balance. =A0I found a $9,000 gap between what I owed and what the market value of the vehicle was. =A0I would love to keep the vehicle and know I will be able to resume normal payments shortly and pay the outstanding balance. =A0I have spoken many times with the finance company and even in person with a =3D93repo=3D94 man that= came to my house last week. =A0They ask me to surrender the vehicle. =A0I respond with I will never surrender it and I know I will be able to pay in full shortly but I understand if you need to repossess it. =A0I just got off the phone with one of their representative's who told me it is now going to legal =A0but will not elaborate further as to exactly what that means. =A0Any advice as to what the right action for me should be? =A0Can anyone tell me what GMAC=3D92s =3D93Legal=3D94 will b= e doing? Thank you. I have been trying to view it in a detached, nonjudging, and accepting way but now that it has actually been repossessed, I realize how diminishing it actually is.  Do you have any advice further advice?