AdamB wrote:I did think about it. Hence my response. Can you reference how many people are reverse mortaging their cars? Is that like borrowing against a car already paid off? And people are doing this...BY ACCIDENT?
evil genius wrote: I worked with those people.
So...how did they not know that borrowing against their car was...borrowing against their car? Didn't they have to sign a paper or something, to allow at the least a lien to be initiated?
If they were working with a legal entity, like a car lot or a bank or something, then they must have. Now, whether they bothered to READ it or UNDERSTAND it or keep their copy or anything responsible like that, of course, could well be another matter.
A reverse mortgage on an expensive house MIGHT make sense for an old person, as long as their lawyer makes SURE they aren't being ripped off and that the terms are actually what the bank in question claimed they were when marketing the thing. A reverse mortgage on a paid off car that is running well almost certainly won't be a good thing for the consumer, considering the class of consumer such things would be pursuing. (The same folks who pay at least 3X what an electronic thing like a TV is worth to "buy it on time", paying huge interest rates for several years. Hell, when I checked on that for my mother because we happened to be standing outside the door of one of those outfits while TV shopping, even if you paid in cash, the "nice" folks at those places charged roughly twice what the TV was worth, compared to buying at a big box store. Heaven forbid people save a LITTLE money and give themselves a MUCH MUCH better deal on things.
But no doubt, it's ALL the fault of "the elites" like the conspiracy theory says.
Whenever I buy a car I make the salesperson go away (or sit and wait if they want) while I read through the stuff I have to sign. I don't read every word, but I make sure I have the gist of what I'm signing. When they say it's not important, I say, "Fine. If it's not important, I won't read it OR sign it. How's that work for you?" Then they mumble something about it being required, and I say, "Fine. So like I said, if it's important enough to your boss that I have to sign it, then it's important enough to ME that I have to read it and understand it."
Apparently there are a LOT of people who don't bother to understand what they sign, or I wouldn't have to go through that rigmarole just about every time, from the time I was 22, for four decades now.