GM Financial to pay $3.5M to U.S. service members for illegally repossessing vehicles

[hpman66]

I would think that GM Finance would already have to be aware of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act?

GM Financial to pay $3.5M to U.S. service members for repossessing vehicles

GM Financial has agreed to pay more than $3.5 million to 71 U.S. service members who had their vehicles illegally repossessed or were denied requests to terminate their auto leases, according to the Justice Department.

www.upi.com

 

[hpman66]

With the above, this sounds rather ironic:

https://www.gmmilitaryappreciation.com/?ppc=GOOGLE_700000001302989_71700000013686159_58700001099203010_p9959502547&d_src=313715&d_adsrc=5139219&d_campaign=71700000013686159&d_site=GOOGLE&d_adgroup=58700001099203010&d_keyword=%20general%20%20motors%20%20military&gclick=EAIaIQobChMI7YHCxtnU-gIVmBXUAR2hzQ0nEAAYASAAEgL8GvD_BwE&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7YHCxtnU-gIVmBXUAR2hzQ0nEAAYASAAEgL8GvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[RSIno1]

Looks like that's only $2,600 for the leased cars and $12,600 for those who had their cars repoed. Not a bad deal for GM at all when you consider most of those repos were probably Corvettes for the unmarried guys and Suburbans from the married ones.
.gov of course is the big winner with $65,480. If you break it down even further GM ended up with 1071 cars for $3,631 each which they then resold or released.

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

You may not hang around with military members very often. My son (19+ year Army Blackhawk pilot) lives in an almost-all military neighborhood near Fort Hood. I assure you there are zero Corvettes or new Suburbans/Tahoes in the driveways. Military pay is sufficient to make monthly payments on a home mortgage/lease and a payment on one used car, but not much more. The only military members I'm aware of who routinely own/drive Corvettes are fixed-wing pilots, and Air Force Acadamy recent graduates (for whom purchasing a new Corvette during their senior year is a 50+year old tradition). My son? He and his bride drive a 15-year-old Ford pickup and a 5-year-old minivan.

 

[RSIno1]

All my friends (Vietnam era) bought Corvettes and Shelby's (or other muscle cars) when they got home - then drove like idiots. They seemed to feel they were invincible since they made it home. A very close Green Beret friend was having problems and I suggested he go parachuting. He explained that the interesting stuff happened after the jump. He reenlisted and left his 65 Shelby clone and 68 428 Super Cobra Jet Torino drag car with his brother who moved and abandoned them.

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

I, too, have vivid memories of my military service (1969-1973), in particular being as poor as a church mouse. But 50+ year-old war stories aren't remotely relevant to today.

 

[hittman]

Well the 1970s are long gone. Many of our service members, especially enlisted personnel, live at or below the poverty level.

I worked in the collection industry for years and saw many times a creditor didn’t know about such laws protecting those on active duty and/or deployed. I don’t remember a time when a creditor intentionally violated the rules though. What was equally disappointing is the number of spouses left here that were not educated by their deployed spouse in handling the creditors. Surely someone teaches those being deployed about those things but …. I can’t say for sure.

In one incident a young Army wife with 2 small children arrived at my office to answer a small claims summons about a $5,000.00 medical bill. Long story short, she had not told the E.R. staff that her husband in active duty and deployed, had never answered the hospital or our agency when letters were sent or phone calls were made. Only came in when she got sued.

While she was in my office I alerted the creditor, they removed the debt from collection, we had the court case dismissed and she visited the hospital with the info they needed to get paid. Lesson learned. That young Army wife actually returned in a few days and thanked me for helping her.

Sorry for rambling …..