—a rising problem at car dealerships, especially for seniors.
A spreading problem at car dealers occurs when the dealership fills out the finance application and misrepresents the monthly income of the car buyer. Dealers do this to make car sales—a higher monthly income makes it more likely that a finance company or a bank will approve the loan for the car purchase or lease. The only problem is, dealers are flat-out lying to the finance companies about the monthly incomes of many prospective buyers.
How is this harmful? The car buyer, often a senior citizen (seniors tend to have better credit scores because they borrow less, and with a good credit score, banks or finance companies are more likely to approve loans) can get stuck with a monthly payment for the car that they simply cannot afford.
Making the problem worse is the overuse of “docu-sign” technology at dealers. Consumers are really not given the opportunity to actually read over the contract, as it is either hard or impossible to read on the computer screens and where the consumers sign—the signature pads—do not show the actual terms of the contract to the consumer. So, consumers, particularly seniors, sign for cars that they cannot afford and that have monthly payments that often exceed their total monthly incomes. Or, even worse, dealers forge signatures on the finance contracts without the knowledge of the consumers.
If this happens to you, consumers generally and seniors particularly enjoy the protection of California laws. My firm has successfully handled several such cases, and we have managed to unwind the deals, obtain damages for our clients and have our attorney’s fees paid by the dealers. Please contact us if you or someone you know has fallen victim to this fraud.