I registered my car in WA after bringing it across the border

[Brunette 0]

OKay, I posted this in another topic but it seems as if no one is reading that topic anymore....so here I go again.....

I brought my car over back in April. I'm financing through Honda-Acura Fiance and I am still making payments on it (I only owe $6,000 by now). Well when I brought it over the border, the customs guys asked if I was still making payments on it, I said I was and they still gave me the papers to bring it across. Then I went to the licensing branch and got it registered in Washington. They did send a letter to Honda Acura Finance. Well Honda fiance called my mom's place asking to speak to me.....and they told my mom that it was illegal for me to bring my car to the states??!! Is that true? If it were true why didn't the border guys stop me? Also I can't believe they told such private information to someone other than me. Does anyone know if this is illegal and if I am now a criminal or something?

[ceriserose 1]

I'm a little confused, since in this thread you state that you had been told by Acura Finance that you'd need to pay the balance within 30 days of moving to the US, so you knew that you needed to do that, right? As you haven't, I would imagine you're in breach of contract...because so many people move and default on their creditors, they probably have specific clauses about this kind of thing in the finance agreement you signed.

Whether that makes you a "criminal" or not, I'm not sure. You had been told by others on this site that there were issues with financing companies and you were told by your own financing company what the 'rules' were. What did you think would happen when they found out?

As for disclosing the information to someone other than you, I would say it puts them in deep do-do as that is completely against the privacy act. It was probably a third party collections office that called your Mom's house and it was probably also a scare tactic. That fact *might* give you some leverage if you want to work out a payment plan with them. The other thought would be to investigate a loan here in the US so that you can pay them back and carry the balance of the loan here.

Best of luck.

[Brunette 0]

I know, I know.....I'm a bad girl.

I have the money to pay it off, I'm just being a pain in the butt.

[gimygirl 0]

I know, I know.....I'm a bad girl.

I have the money to pay it off, I'm just being a pain in the butt.

so then the point of this thread was ................

[Brunette 0]

The point of this thread is the "illegal" word the woman at Honda-Acura brought up. Did I really do something illegal here? Are they going to come and get me..throw me in jail....tow my car away.....make my credit look bad? I have not defaulted on any loan payments and I have returned to Canada to visit almost every 30 days, so my car has never been outside of Canada for more than 30 days at a time. I do plan on paying off the car and soon and I was waiting for them to get back to me after hearing that I have registered my car in the States. I was just trying to put it off for as long as I could...until the "illegal" word came up.

Edited July 10, 2006 by Brunette

[john_and_marlene 162]

They have a legal lien on the car title. There are legal stipulations of the lien that you violated--removing the collateral from the country without permission of the lien holder. Yes it is illegal and they do have the right now to attempt recovery of the vehicle regardless of the payments being current.

When I took a financed car from the U.S. to Germany, I had to get a letter from the lien holder giving their permission for me to take it out of the country.