This is scarry!
 

Hey all,

I had a pretty scarry phone call today from HHRNole, as some of you know his HHR was the victim of a bear attack. Well, he is back is Florida and he spent the day on the phone making plans for repair. During his many phone calls, he found out that GMAC now Ally Finance, has been holding a lein on his car for the full purchase price, even though it was paid for at the end of last year. So he spent several more hours hunting this down, turns out that Ally Finance is holding leins "to protect the customer, in case they lose their title". HHRNole is looking into legal action against Ally, contacting the media(cnn), and asking people to check to see if they too have leins against their paid off cars. He has been in direct contact with GM, and they are not too happy about this. He actually has a scheduled phone call with some execs. again tomorrow.

He is really really upset over this, and as he put it... "Christien, if I die tomorrow, the finance company can come and take my car!" Also, "if I didn't have the bear attack, I would never have found this info out"

The lien would also have come up, if he tried to sell the car. Which he won't. Also, it would have show up when trying to purchase another car, or during a credit check.

How he found out... Progressive wouldn't cut him a check for repairs made out to him. It would be in the name of the finance company....WTF!!!!!!!

Can anyone shed some light on this?
I know finance companies get a lien on your car, but all that is supposed to go away once you obtain the title. He got a letter stating that all that was taken care of when he got his title... Only to find out that he has a full purchase price lien held by an off-shore company. Again,WTF??????

He is asking all Chevy owners that financed through GMAC to check to see if their PAID FOR cars/trucks/etc. have liens against them.

Oh boy, now this is a can of worms.

I'd love to look at his contract or a representative example. That being said, I'm not licensed to practice law in his state, so it would just be looking at the contract, I can't offer legal advice.

HHRNole can always PM me here or e-mail me through the site.

Thanks! Mike, I was hoping you would chime in on this. He spends most of his time on the family forum and called me today to post on here, but I will pass this along. He told me he was gonna contact every person he could through social media. His only idea of why they would do this.... Holdings used as collateral for other endevours.

I'm with ALLY also, just not paid off yet. It seems to me if you have the proof of the payoff AND the title, then ALLY does not have a legal lein.
( holding leins "to protect the customer, in case they lose their title"). Not sure what that line means. Protect them from what?
Maybe Mike our moderator/lawyer can shed some light on this.

Protect them from what was his response too, and he never did get an answer. I hope HHRNole(Tim) will join us for an explanation... even if we are a little more crass than the family site:D

Yeah "protect them from what" is the big question, I'll do some serious digging on this in the morning, its disconcerting and potentially disastrous for folks caught in this apparent trap.

" Holdings used as collateral for other endevours."


^^^ This ^^^

Has he got a florida paper title or electronic title. Here if Florida it cost $70 to get a paper title. They don't just send one when note is paid off. If you don't go to the tag office and get one it is just on record, no paper.

HHRNole look here http://www.flhsmv.gov/html/titlinf.html

This is interesting....my 07 was with GMAC and turned over to Allay about 2 years ago..will have to watch this as I'm just about paid off....
Makes you wonder what else they do...

I am financed through ally.
I am hoping they would do the same thing that others do here in new York
Then you pay off your loan they send you a lien release?
Since I have an extended warranty on mine and it's built into the loan could I get a loan from my local bank. Foolmoon. Glad to see you are helping out hhrnole with this.
Hope everything works out.