My car loan company refuses to lower interest rate when my husband was deployed, we had the loan before deploy

Question

My husband is in the National Guard and works full time for them. He was deployed to Iraq for a 22 month deployment. We had a car loan with a high percentage rate before the deployment. The creditor it refusing to reduce the rate to 6 % say that because he works full time for the National Guard he was already on active duty so he doesn't apply. We did make a little less money while he was deployed due to me staying home more after having our second child alone. Are they correct in saying that soldiers in the National Guard who are deployed are not included in the SSRA benefits?

Answer 1

You have to have the car loan before he joined...My husband is active duty and has been for 14 years and we are not covered by the 6% rule for vehicles, Our interest isnt even 6% so It didnt bother me however our friends interest was 14% and they were refused and they are also active duty

Answer 2

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Answer 3

If he worked full time for the guard before hand then they may be right. He didn't transfer to the military from a higher paying civilian job to deploy, he just changed his duty station in the guard. The act doesn't take into any consideration any spousal income at all so a loss of pay from you staying home doesn't count.

Answer 4

Take a look at the site: http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/Relief_Act_Revision/ It talks a lot about the rules. Since he was already full time in the national guard, the rule may not apply to him. It says in part "This provision applies to all debts incurred prior to the commencement of active duty and includes interest on credit card debt, mortgages, car loans and other debts. The provision, Lindemann emphasized, applies to pre-service debts, and the interest rate reduction doesn't occur automatically — service members must request it." I think the loan company can argue successfully that he was already on active duty before he was deployed. May be worth a chat with the legal aide on base.

Answer 5

From the question I think that your husband was on active status with the guard at the time he signed the loan and therefore is not eligible for the reduced rate. The SRRA covers people who were called up from IRR, TPU, etc.

Check the orders history and if he wasn't actually on tour at the time the loan was signed then he is eligible.

Answer 6

if the creditor can show that your income was not drastically reduced by activation, then no, they are not obligated to reduce the interest. Since he was already full time Guard, he does not qualify since his income remained the same, and in fact went up since he is no longer paying taxes and is getting Family Sep as well as HFP/IDP.

Answer 7

The loan company is correct. He signed up for the loan while he was on 'active' status. SSRA only covers people who were in reserve or civilian status - then transitioned into an active status.

Answer 8

sounds to me as if you dont qualify due to the fact that he was full time before the deployment....also there are a million loopholes in that law and most lenders find some way out of it anyway.

Answer 9

I'm not sure of the specifics of the SSCRA. I do know that it is in place to assist soldiers in acquiring unrealistic financial burden during their call to serve. My best advice would be to talk to your JAG office, someone in Finance or your local ACS office. They would have that information for you.

Answer 10

if he was on active duty when you got the loan then you are stuck with it unless you refinance it