 Paying
off trade-ins when nothing is owed
|  Dear
Terry,
I recently bought a used car and traded my old one. The bad
thing is that the dealer added an extra $2,300 to the contract to cover paying
off the balance on my old car. I saw this and told them that I already had paid
off the old car. The dealer said to come back the next day with proof of the payoff,
and I did. They told me that they will call me back to sign a new contract. It's
almost been a week now and they left me a message saying that they are still working
on the deal. Do I have any recourse on this?
-- Aldridge
 Dear
Aldridge,
If the contract calls for a balance to be paid on the trade-in and
the trade-in is paid for, the contract should be voided.
While you should never have signed a contract you
knew to be wrong, the dealer can't represent that it's using $2,300
from the loan proceeds to pay off a nonexistent lien. You don't
mention whether you're driving the new used car, but if you are
you'd better return it to them quickly and get this matter straightened
out.
 |
| This week | |
| |
If you have a question for Terry, e-mail him at Driving
for Dollars. | 
