In my opinion one of the worst things a person can do when they are going to be late on a car loan payment is not communicate with their lender. Being late and not communicating with your lender could result in your next loan being a bad credit car loan Calgary or an everyone approved car loan. Some lenders will offer a deferral payment or a grace payment. I think one of the best options to practice would be to call your lender and be completely upfront with your situation. Most lenders will accept a completely honest answer and work with you to resolve the situation. It is easy to say “don’t put yourself in this situation to begin with”, but we all know this may not be reality. I have found in the past that calling a lender and letting them know your lack of judgment on that particular month has put you in a bad position. Of course a lender will not want you to miss a payment because moving forward, this lender wants your business again for your next loan. Lenders want repeat business. They want to say “yes” you’re approved for a car loan or you’re approved for a credit card. When you call a lender and ask for GWA(good will adjustment) for a payment being late you are not asking them for permission to be late again. This is very important to remember. A lender being nice and allowing 1 late payment does not give permission to you to be late again. It is also very important to clarify with the lender that the missed payment can be overlooked when being reported to the credit bureaus. It is also very important to remember that this is a favour, not a right. Keep in mind that this late payment will ALWAYS be kept on their internal records. Just because a late payment is not reported to the bureau, doesn’t mean that they don’t keep track of if internally. I have found that many clients have applied for a bad credit car loan in Canada or a Car Loan application and have stated that they have perfect car loan history because they have pulled a bureau and have seen no late payments registered. What they don’t realize is the lender that is looking at approving a car loan for them has internal record of them being late and will decline an application if they don’t want to have a risk for a client.
Last words. Communication with the lender is important. Be Honest. Ask for a GWA, and double check that it will not affect your external credit rating
Just my 2 Cents
-M
Mark
