I got a loan on a car from CarMax for my girlfriend. She was to make the payments but instead took off with it & I can't find her. Should I report it stolen? The insurance, loan and registration are in my name. I want to let it go back for repossession.
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Call the police and see what they can do to help get the car back (which might include reporting it stolen). Don't stop making payments or it will wreck your credit (not hers). When you get the car back, see how much carmax will give you for the car. Hopefully it is more than what you owe. If not, you can either hand it over, in which case that will still report it as a bad debt and might come after you for the difference, try and sell it yourself, or come up with the difference and pay off the rest of the debt.
And don't get a car loan (or any loan) for another person in the future unless you're married.
D Stanley
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I was in a similar situation 20 years ago and want to highlight one aspect you didn't mention, that kept me awake at night. This is your car, your insurance and your registration that she is driving on. If she damages property or injures someone, you are liable. This caused me to finally track my ex down, take the plates off the car, then call her and sell it to her for $1. I didn't want the car, I just wanted her to be liable for it. Plus, this got her out of my life for good.
The outstanding loan amount is nothing compared to what you could owe someone due to this liability. Good luck!
Jim
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It is obviously best for everyone (you, the lender, and the insurance company) that she returns the car. Unless she is escaping your abuse, taking off is unacceptable.
Unless you wish to give the car to her and meet the payment for the car itself and insurance, you must report the car stolen. Failure to do so effectively gives consent to her using the car for which you are stuck paying. By taking an expensive asset of yours, she has clearly shown contempt for you. Ditch her and find a new girlfriend as she is untrustworthy with your basic economic interest.
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The loan tag & insurance are all in my name.
Good, this means that your property was actually stolen. If your name wasn't on the title then you're just paying for an asset that you don't own.
Do i jist let Carmax deal with it or what should i do from here???
Carmax doesn't give two squats what happens after they sell you a car. Carmax got paid in full by the bank (presumably CarMax Auto Finance for you) and you owe money to the bank. Unfortunately, for you, you no longer have the physical collateral for your loan.
Read over your loan documents carefully because there could be a clause in there that reads something like "loss of asset/collateral requires immediate repayment".
Report the car as stolen so that you have an official police reference number and file an insurance claim; I really hope your policy covers theft! Inform your loan lender as well!
Keep making your car payments on time until this situation is resolved or else you will wreck your credit.
If the car remains unrecovered for a certain amount of time then your insurance company writes you a check for the market value of the car. You take this money and use it to pay off your bank loan.
If the insurance check isn't big enough then you have to pay the remainder out of pocket; or in the unlikely event you got gap coverage then it would cover the difference.
MonkeyZeus
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The situation here is that you took out a loan to buy a car, and then your girlfriend stole the car.
The only financial advice to give here is that unless the loan terms say otherwise, you still owe money to the lender. It is not their concern what happened to the car you bought with their money. If you fail to make payments, they will treat it as any other unpaid loan: They may sue you to try and force you to pay them money, they may try to seize other property (usually the court would have to authorize it first), at the least they will report it as a delinquent loan and your credit score will go down. This will probably happen through a collection agency rather than the lender itself, but unless your girlfriend's name is on the loan as well, the collector (or the lender) will probably not want to track down your girlfriend for you and get the car from her. They'll probably just say it's your problem and expect you to pay anyway. But that of course depends on the specific lender, collector and exact terms of the loan.
If you want the police to help you get the car back, you should of course let them know. This may have some not-so-nice consequences for your girlfriend, but stealing your car also sounds like not very nice. After you have a police report about the theft, you could try your insurance provider and see if they're willing to pay you anything - it depends entirely on the terms of your insurance plan.
This is mostly a legal matter, and you should talk to a lawyer about what your options are. They usually do free consultations. Just make sure you bring the paperwork, such as the title, bill of sale, loan contract and insurance contract, in case they ask to see it. You can also ask on https://law.stackexchange.com/. Note that your jurisdiction matters for the legal aspect.
Jessica
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You didn't answer the MOST IMPORTANT detail: Who is ON TITLE to the car - that is, who is the official owner? From your post it sounds like she is - in which case the car is not stolen. It's her car, and she can do what she likes with it. Note that it doesn't matter if you are ALSO on title. As long as she is on title, the car is not stolen and she can take it where she likes.
However, the LOAN is all yours. You will have to pay it back or suffer the consequences to your credit history, get calls from collections, etc. Eventually, if the loan defaults, the bank will try to repossess the car. They will come to your house looking for it, ask if you know where it is, etc. You don't have the car, so in that sense it's not your problem. But it will still be a big hassle for you.
Michael
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This has happened to me and the police weren't interested. What they told me is that if you give someone the keys, the car isn't stolen. On the other hand, I've heard about Hertz getting customers arrested when the customer extended the rental and the paperwork didn't go through, so your mileage may vary.
Maybe you can get her to drive you to McDonalds or something, and throw a tracker under the seat and repo it when she's asleep?
