Released: March 18, 2012

Trading in a car? Don’t get taken for a ride

Source: Michelle Singletary, The Washington Post

I met a woman who was having trouble making her car payments. When I saw how much she was paying — more than $1,000 a month — I could understand why. The woman, who earns about $40,000 a year, ended up with that eye-popping payment because when trading in her old car, the dealer rolled the remaining loan balance into a new loan. In describing why she would sign such a deal (because it didn’t make a bit of sense to me), she said the dealer promised to “pay off” her old loan no matter how much she owed.

Read Full Article: Trading in a car? Don’t get taken for a ride