No, No, NO!...

Just the other day, I was reminded of a rumor I had heard and forgot about. On Jimmy's message board, a member calling himself colton asked this question...

"if you have a car loan from gmac can they take that money out of the buyout?"

Well, I answered the question there, and I will also answer it here, in slightly more detail. The answer is an emphatic NO! My wonderful husband, being a automotive finance guru, checked in with his rep at GMAC to get a definitive answer for me and my peeps. General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC, for short) is a bank, and is therefore limited to the laws that regulate banks. That means, even though you are about to come into a sizeable chunk of change, the only way that they can put their grubby little hands on it is...

• First, you have to be behind in your payments to them and...
• Secondly, they would have had to already gotten approval through the courts to attach your wages. They just can't take your money without the permission of the courts. If your loan is current, your money remains yours.
• Third, even if they do have permission from the courts to attach your wages, they can only take the amount that you are behind, not the whole amount of the loan. Capiche?
  

Credit unions, however are a completely different matter. There's a nifty little thing that they can do called "Right of Set-Off". The following is from 717 Credit Union's Membership and Share Account Agreement and Disclosure. Read on, McDuff...

Right of Set–Off

You agree that the Credit Union may, unless prohibited by
law, use the funds in your account to pay off any obligation or
debt, whether direct or indirect, as borrower, guarantor, endorser
or otherwise, you have with the Credit Union. If your account is
a joint account and one or more joint owners are indebted to us
in any manner, we may use the funds in the joint account to pay
the debt, without notifying you in advance. We may exercise
our right of set–off at any time without prior notice to you or to
any joint owner in the case of a joint account. If we exercise our
right of set–off against your account, you agree to release and
indemnify the Credit Union from all liability for its actions. The
right of set–off does not apply if the debt is created under a
consumer credit card plan or your right to withdraw funds from
the account arises only in a representative capacity. Our right
to set–off is automatic and superior to any claims on the account
arising through right of survivorship.

That, simply stated, means if you have money in your account at the credit union, and, you have a loan with the credit union, they can AT ANY TIME take your money to pay your loan without your consent. And, if I read this correctly, you don't even have to be behind in your loan payments, either. Blows, huh?

I know I'm going to regret this, but, if you have any questions about this, leave a comment, and I'll get back to you on it, OK?

Later,
Dawn