So, I have gotten myself into a bad place financially. Here is the story:
I quit my job last month because I hated it and was crying at work too often. I walked out in the middle of a stressful day. Before quitting I had bought a certified pre-owned Toyota Corrola from the dealership for $14,000. My plan was that if I had a nice enough car, and finally reached my breaking point at work, I could quit and drive Uber until I found a new job, giving myself the freedom to be somewhat selective in my job search since I had an income from Uber.
On Wednesday morning I accelerated into a parked car when I was pulling into a roadside parking space. How that happened, I am not sure, but I think I just completely spaced out somehow while driving. The police were called and a report was filed. After getting my car towed to the Toyota dealership collision center, I filed a claim with Progressive. The people at Toyota were very helpful, especially since I was a little bit disoriented at the time and didn't know the steps for dealing with an accident.
Progressive contacted me the next day and let me know that I did not have collision insurance on my policy. After that, I spoke to the estimator at the dealership's collision center who told me repairs would be at least $6000. She advised me to tow my car to an independent body shop to see if I could get a cheaper estimate from them, so I did.
Yesterday, several people told me "Someone should have told you to get collision insurance." or "I thought collision insurance was required for financed cars." It turns out that I was supposed to buy collision insurance, according to the Toyota Financial contract. However, I did not know this. My reasons for not buying it were simple and dumb. It was expensive, and I didn't think through the possibilities. I bought my insurance online through Progressive on a weekend night after getting a call from my Salesperson reminding me that I needed to buy insurance if I wanted to be able to get the car from the dealership lot. (It turns out that it wasn't ready on time after that anyways). I have never bought a car or insurance before.
Now I cannot pay rent this month because I can't Uber. I am only about $200 short, since it is only $415, not including utilities. I am selling some clothing on Ebay and may be able to borrow money to cover that, though. Also, I am starting a job at a call center (inbound calls only!) next week on Tuesday. It will pay $12/hr bi-weekly.
I am sort of hoping that the fact that I was not informed about my insurance coverage requirements could work to my advantage in finding a way to help pay for my car repairs, but I doubt it. I didn't buy the insurance I needed. I have $2000 available on a Chase Slate credit card that has 0% apr until the beginning of next year, and $8000 available on a Discover card.
I will have a $260 car payment due on the 15th of August, which will be before my first paycheck is deposited, so I am also not sure or the best way to pay that.
I have no savings, a good credit score, and I have student loans which I currently owe no monthly payments because I am on an Income based repayment plan. I am 27, single and without kids. My last job was my first ever full-time job, which is because I was in college for 7 years, and only had a part time job last year (along with side gigs.)
If anyone has any advice or thoughts on how to handle the situation with my car, or about my financial situation in general, I would appreciate very much hearing from you.
Submitted July 29, 2017 at 07:55AM by sleeper90 http://ift.tt/2eW3aWE
