February 8, 2007
I owe, I owe
So, a few weeks back, Robin in Savannah asked me about my car loan. For some reason, that question stuck in my craw, and while I put it on the back burner so I could focus on paying off the final credit card, I knew I had to get to the bottom of something that was puzzling me.
A few months back, my amount owed was $5,004, I remember that # b/c I felt a huge relief knowing by the next payment I'd be under 5g's. Fast forward to January, I check MS Money, only to find, I still owed $4,999.
WTF?!?!
When I tallied up what I paid since using MS Money, it was well over a grand, yet the amount owed only went down a few hundred bucks. Not only that, I had to put in an account adjustment of $117 (more!) to get MS Money to be in synch w/what I owed.
I called up World Omni Toyota.
The rep, Chris, who was QUITE rude by the way, and this isn't the first time I've called them and been treated rudely. Matter of fact, in the 3 years I've had the car, it's only my 2nd call to them. BOTH times the reps act as if they are collecting money and I'm behind calling to make a payment. Just plain old surly and rude.
Anywayz...
From Chris I got some basics, the percent is 7.4% and the pay off amount is different than what I currently owe b/c they factor in 10 days of interest. She's going to mail me a history of my payments, which since I pay by direct debit, I don't get. I went ahead and opted to have my statements emailed to me.
I went back into MS Money, deleted the old account and made a new one w/the new figures. Worked like a charm. Give or take a few cents, it now matches what I see online.
I also saw if I pay online, as in sending extra ducets, those bastards charge me $9.95 for the privilege. How kind of them *gag*
Bump that, I'll be paying them for free via my bank account thankyouverymuch. The one bright spot, there is no prepayment penalty, I'm past that point. You better believe I'm paying this sucker down pronto.
Now I have a similar tale about my Direct Student Loans, minus that nasty customer service, so I wont go into more details. To sum it up, interest rate is 7.125%, I deleted the old account, added the new one and that too is matching what I see online.
All of this made me think. Perhaps I should leave the William & Fudge debt for last, I'll have to double check w/Sallie Mae, but W&F aren't charging me interest. Though psychologically it'll feel good to get that paid in full, just like my rationalization on why to pay the car first, the $100 I pay getting added to another debt is far less than adding say $263 from the car or $131 from Direct or even $318 from Sallie Mae.
I don't mind them hanging around a bit longer if I can get the interest charging loans out of the way first.
And I'll put it out there, again, I'm really looking forward to having the Toyota Car Loan PAID IN FULL by the end of May, which would be so awesomely amazing if all I have left to tackle in the last 1/2 of 2007 are my student loans.
;)
10:40 AM in Auto Loan, Grrrr, Loan Repayment, Loans, Student Loans
Technorati Tags: car+loans student+loans customer+service+reps interest+loans sallie+mae william+fudge direct+student+loans paying+debt ms+money
