As New Yorkers face another COVID-19 uptick, businesses continue to take monetary hits, but some car repossessing towing companies are reporting upticks as out-of-work residents struggle to pay their monthly bills.
Brooklyn based auto company Super Towing, 251 Front Street in Vinegar Hill, reported while overall business is down, they are seeing an increase in the number of repossessed cars.
“The numbers are up,” said Rich, a representative from the company. “We’re getting a lot of calls to repo.”
Super Towing has seen a steady increase in calls for this service since all the way back to the first wave of the virus, but Rich reported not extending the overhaul towards people who couldn’t make their car payments because of the pandemic.
“We try to stay away from that kind of situation because we understand that people need their cars right now,” Rich told KCP. “The assignments that come in – we pick. We can turn them away. We ask the question- why? Is it because of a missed payment? The stuff that we pick up right now is those people going out of state and buying cars then bringing them back.”
According to Edmunds.com, a digital news site dealing with the auto industry, most lenders contract with a third-party agency that offers repo services to get the job done. Due to the economic turmoil the pandemic has wrought, automakers have been offering deferral programs and banks, credit unions, and auto financing companies are willing to negotiate or delay payments if a request is made, the industry source said.
Normally, missing a car payment means damage to one’s credit score or having the bank repossess your vehicle if missed payments have been occurring for 2-3 months, but lenders have been increasing this missed payment deadline or offering lower monthly payment plans, said one source knowledgable about the auto industry.
But not every towing company has their phones flying off the ringer. New Rochelle-based NY Collateral Recovery Corp has been seeing the repo’s decrease along with every other aspect of their business, as has T-Birds Automotive, 688 Henry Street in Red Hook.
“We used to do 300 cars a month here and we’re hovering around 200 now,” said Roberto, the owner of NY Collateral Recovery Corp.
The company’s repo’s had decreased to an average of 25 cars in the months ranging from July till October. While things started picking up again for the company last month, currently the numbers are dropping, Roberto explained.
