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Returning A Leased Car


_femme333_

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Hello All,

 

I have a little situation going on and I wanted to ask for an advice.

Recently, I helped my boyfriend to lease a car because he had low credit history. He's British so he does not have any credit history in this country yet. I helped him to open up a credit card in his bank few months ago to start building up his credit score. I also helped him to look for a car since we were supposed to move in together, but never got to that point. We bought the car under my name. I'm a full-time student without any income, but he was earning decent money, and he had no problem making car payments.

 

Things did not turn well for us, and it looks like the car needs to go back to the dealership soon because he's unemployed now. He can continue paying for the car, but he's very forgetful and I don't want to leave it up to him to make the payments because I'm afraid that he may pay it late or forget to pay. He's famous for forgetting to pay his bills.

I don't want my credit score to go down since I've never missed any payments, and my credit score is very high now. I did him a favor, but now I regret it. He may move to a different place (not certain though) so I really want the car to go back. I am not familiar with how leasing works, but what would you guys suggest me to do. Do you think that the dealership will take the car back (is there such a law) since we've only payed for it 3 times since we bought it.

 

How does that work in general, and are there certain rules that I should know? I don't want to be cheated by the dealership (if they even do that) when we take back the car.

The car is a brand new Nissan Xterra 2006 and the payment on it is $368/month. It's leased for 6 years I think. The milage is around 500/miles, we bought it in mid-December of last year. Also, he put $2,000 as a down payment.

 

Any adivice is appreciated at this point lol!

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The best situation for you would be to transfer the lease to his name if at all possible. Then he can take over the lease and you will be free and clear.

 

One other option is to work out a deal with the dealer but I doubt this will help ... They usually will take the car back IF you go and get a different car and pay a lot more money.

 

Chances are, you will be very screwed on this if the ex doesn't make the payments and keep the car.

 

Another option I can think of is if you find someone else who would be willing to take over the lease. It is kind of like "selling" but instead by transfering the lease. Considering the car is very new, I don't see why someone wouldn't just go and get a new one unless you somehow take a big hit and make it financially worth while for them.

 

 

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Thanks for your reply.

I can not transfer the car to his name now because he just started building up his credit history so some time needs to pass until the car is transfered to his name.

I could have just done that, but at this point I don't think that they can transfer it, until he uses his credit card for a while.

 

Do you think that the dealership can buy the car from him even if he looses some money in the process?

I know that if he bought the car then it would have been much easier if he just payed it off or sold it.

Are these only options I have in this situation?

 

 

 

 

 

The best situation for you would be to transfer the lease to his name if at all possible. Then he can take over the lease and you will be free and clear.

 

One other option is to work out a deal with the dealer but I doubt this will help ... They usually will take the car back IF you go and get a different car and pay a lot more money.

 

Chances are, you will be very screwed on this if the ex doesn't make the payments and keep the car.

 

Another option I can think of is if you find someone else who would be willing to take over the lease. It is kind of like "selling" but instead by transfering the lease. Considering the car is very new, I don't see why someone wouldn't just go and get a new one unless you somehow take a big hit and make it financially worth while for them.

Edited by _femme333_
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It all really depends on what exactly your lease contract says. I would suggest you read it very carefully because in the end, that is the only document that matters.

 

Now with dealers, it's all about money. If they make money on a deal, they will go for it. However, lease contracts usually have huge penalties for breaking the lease early. So it might be more beneficial for them to have you break the lease and have to pay them all the extra fines and penalties ... they will say oh we are not involved and you are dealing with this and that bank (which is ture, the lease is usually with some bank or financial entity and not the dealer itself).

 

They may even have a clause in the contract that doesn't allow the lease to be transfered. I'm not sure because I've never leased a vehicle before.

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Hello All,

 

I have a little situation going on and I wanted to ask for an advice.

Recently, I helped my boyfriend to lease a car because he had low credit history. He's British so he does not have any credit history in this country yet. I helped him to open up a credit card in his bank few months ago to start building up his credit score. I also helped him to look for a car since we were supposed to move in together, but never got to that point. We bought the car under my name. I'm a full-time student without any income, but he was earning decent money, and he had no problem making car payments.

 

Things did not turn well for us, and it looks like the car needs to go back to the dealership soon because he's unemployed now. He can continue paying for the car, but he's very forgetful and I don't want to leave it up to him to make the payments because I'm afraid that he may pay it late or forget to pay. He's famous for forgetting to pay his bills.

I don't want my credit score to go down since I've never missed any payments, and my credit score is very high now. I did him a favor, but now I regret it. He may move to a different place (not certain though) so I really want the car to go back. I am not familiar with how leasing works, but what would you guys suggest me to do. Do you think that the dealership will take the car back (is there such a law) since we've only payed for it 3 times since we bought it.

 

How does that work in general, and are there certain rules that I should know? I don't want to be cheated by the dealership (if they even do that) when we take back the car.

The car is a brand new Nissan Xterra 2006 and the payment on it is $368/month. It's leased for 6 years I think. The milage is around 500/miles, we bought it in mid-December of last year. Also, he put $2,000 as a down payment.

 

Any adivice is appreciated at this point lol!

Unfortunately, if you go and try to return the car now, you will have to pay A LOT of money to give it back. I think that you have few options. First of all, try to call Nissan, and see if you can transfer ownership to his name. Then if he forget the payment, you will not be affected.

Second of all, there are websites where you can try to get out of your lease, by transfering it someone else.

Try these website:

http://www.leasetrader.com/

http://www.swapalease.com/g1.asp?gclid=CMX...CFRtAgQodhT-okQ

 

Good luck!

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I was going to suggest lease trader as well, but I see dianjan already did. It would be your best option...

 

One other word of advice. If you or anyone wants to improve the credit score of a person the best thing to do is to call your credit card company and add that person to the credit card. Get the card in mail and cut it up. Tell the credit card company that you are the primary contact and that person cannot call and request a card without your permission. This way they do not hurt your credit score or anything at all. But once the credit burros see that a person has a credit card with their name and a large credit line their score will instantly jump close to your credit score. and the beauty is in no way thier actions after that can harm your credit score

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I'm going to look into the contract today once I get hold of his British butt.

I'll see if I can resolve the matter until the end of this week.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I will let you guys know how it turn out.

 

 

 

I can only give all of you one advice. The advice is not to do any financial favors for anyone. This reminds me of how some girls get their boyfriends names tatooed on their bodies thinking that this is it, but once the relationship is over, they're stuck with the tatoo for a while.

Learn from my stupid mistake. At least that's what my dad tells me.

 

 

 

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if the lease trader will not work you can sell the car and pay of the bank - but do this only if the balance to pay of is same or close to what you can seael the car for

since you have place a $2000 dawn payment and have made some payments you might be right at or bit less then the price that you can seal the car / i don;t know the value of your car but its a way out if you can afford to pay the difference pay some money to the bank

it will also do good for your credit ;) your paying off a car in less then a year

 

ahhh - just get the car back then me you and SIP can go on 4x4ing in Colorado ;)

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if the lease trader will not work you can sell the car and pay of the bank - but do this only if the balance to pay of is same or close to what you can seael the car for

since you have place a $2000 dawn payment and have made some payments you might be right at or bit less then the price that you can seal the car / i don;t know the value of your car but its a way out if you can afford to pay the difference pay some money to the bank

it will also do good for your credit ;) your paying off a car in less then a year

 

ahhh - just get the car back then me you and SIP can go on 4x4ing in Colorado ;)

IMO You can't sell a leased car, because you have the car for the lease duration and after that you return it back or have the option to buy it. You can only sublet the lease to another person.

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Baron yervant yes you can sell a leased car

 

call your leasing Co and ask them what the total payoff is

but don;t tell them that you will be paying off the car - since you might get charged if you don;t pay it of

Aren't we saying the same thing? You call it "total payoff" and I call it the "option to buy" therefor you need to buy it first and then sell it, once you buy it it is no longer a lease you own it.

Total payoff includes the rest of the lease and buy out value of the car at the end of the lease.

 

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  • 1 month later...

I have to apologize for one tiny mistake from the past. I just found out that the car is bought as opposed to a lease. I don't know how I could have thought that it was leased so I'm sorry for making such a stupid mistake when I was asking for an advice.

I'm guessing that this way it would be easy for us to return it to the dealership right?

Is this a better news for me when we go to the dealership?

How would this work?

I know that some of yuo said that returning a leased car is more of a hassle and that we had to pay for penalties.

 

Thanks in advance.

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Hahaha .. yah now it is MUCH better. Just sell the car. You will probably lose less money if you sell to a third party than to try to take back to the dealer.

 

Either way, you probably will not get nearly as much as you owe on the car as there is a huge depreciation on new cars as soon as you drive them out of the dealer (the value drops basically). But it will depend on how much you actually end up selling it for.

 

To get an idea of how much the car is worth, try www.kbb.com ... that website will tell you three things:

 

1. How much the dealer will pay you if you sell it back (trade in price)

2. How much you can expect to get for it if you sell to a third party

3. How much the retail value is (how much the dealer will charge for it if they were selling it).

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Actually, I always wanted to know what exactly is the benefit of leasing a car? I was always under the impression that it's an excellent way to throw away your money, but then again, I don't know much about it.
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Of course leasing a car will make you loose money ... but unless you have the thousands of dollars you expect to spend on the car in your bank account, you have no alternative to leasing. So people lease and accept to lose some money instead of having no car at all. It's basically the lesser of two evils!

 

A.

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Actually, I always wanted to know what exactly is the benefit of leasing a car? I was always under the impression that it's an excellent way to throw away your money, but then again, I don't know much about it.

 

Leasing allows people to drive cars that are valued beyond their purchasing power. They do not own the car while leasing ... their "payments" is a lot like rent to the bank. At the end of their lease, they can "return" the car and walk away with nothing, pay off the car and own it (will cost much more than if they had originally bought it), or lease another one ...

 

A lot of people justify their choice to lease a car by the fact that they get to drive very nice cars and change to other new cars every few years. They end up paying a monthly fee for this.

 

It is also justifiable to some since cars go through a huge depreciation and if they try to make payments for several years to own the car, afterwards, the car that they own isn't worth much.

 

All in all, it's a complicated decision. Sometimes leasing makes sense ... sometimes it is not a very good idea.

 

For me, leasing has never been an option since I purchase to keep my cars for far more than just a couple of years (I've had my blazer for 7 years now and plan to keep it for at least another 3). My jeep I plan to keep for a VERY long time (maybe 15 or so years). Plus, I modify my vehicles a lot which is again something you can't do with leased cars as the bank owns them. Also, I tend to drive a lot more than 12K miles a year at times which is another constraint with leasing cars (the limit can be changed while signing the lease).

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