Tweet
I shook a dying man's hand and repossessed his car today. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Last week, I got a call from the man's wife, who explained that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given three months to live. He was starting hospice that day. They were trying to simplify their finances so she didn't have to worry about it as his health declined. So they wanted to give back the car securing their loan with us.
After some discussion with them, and then with our Senior Loan Officer, we agreed to let them voluntarily surrender the car. I tried to convince her to try to sell the car - if there was a family member or friend they could rely on to sell it, she wouldn't even have to deal with it herself - because the value of the car is more than enough to pay off the loan, so they'd have about $1500 left over. And she said that money was a concern - she didn't want to make any more monthly payments on the loan.
But we relented, and they drove the car down this morning and signed the car over to the bank. I, of course, expressed my condolences and tried to be as sympathetic as possible. I shook each of their hands in front of the bank before they drove away together.
Just by coincidence, the board of directors held their annual board meeting in our state today. A dozen old white men invaded our branch around 11:00 this morning, after the couple left. They had all heard about the vehicle and the situation surrounding it, so they wanted to see it. (Most of them would have visited our branch anyway.) Our old Branch Manager drove it back to the main branch because they already had a buyer - someone they work with frequently on repossessions.
One of the nice things to come out of that is the chairman of the board promised to give any excess funds from the sale to the couple.
Last week, I got a call from the man's wife, who explained that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given three months to live. He was starting hospice that day. They were trying to simplify their finances so she didn't have to worry about it as his health declined. So they wanted to give back the car securing their loan with us.
After some discussion with them, and then with our Senior Loan Officer, we agreed to let them voluntarily surrender the car. I tried to convince her to try to sell the car - if there was a family member or friend they could rely on to sell it, she wouldn't even have to deal with it herself - because the value of the car is more than enough to pay off the loan, so they'd have about $1500 left over. And she said that money was a concern - she didn't want to make any more monthly payments on the loan.
But we relented, and they drove the car down this morning and signed the car over to the bank. I, of course, expressed my condolences and tried to be as sympathetic as possible. I shook each of their hands in front of the bank before they drove away together.
Just by coincidence, the board of directors held their annual board meeting in our state today. A dozen old white men invaded our branch around 11:00 this morning, after the couple left. They had all heard about the vehicle and the situation surrounding it, so they wanted to see it. (Most of them would have visited our branch anyway.) Our old Branch Manager drove it back to the main branch because they already had a buyer - someone they work with frequently on repossessions.
One of the nice things to come out of that is the chairman of the board promised to give any excess funds from the sale to the couple.
Comment