REPO MAN going BYE BYE-new device
07-05-06, 01:14 AM
#1
REPO MAN going BYE BYE-new device
If repo men become a vanishing breed, they can blame an annoying little gadget, invented and manufactured by a Temecula company, for rendering their profession obsolete.
Jason Fritz / The Press-Enterprise
David Cole, national director of sales for Payment Protection Systems, holds an ON TIME device. The device, manufactured by the Temecula company, disables a vehicle's engine if a car payment is not paid.
Car dealers install ON TIME, the electronic device made by Temecula-based Payment Protection Systems, in vehicles they sell to buyers with poor credit ratings -- customers considered a bad risk for auto loans.
But, as company officials tell it, those same people typically become more responsible and improve their credit scores, thanks to ON TIME's combination of benevolent nagging and no-nonsense capitalism. Don't make your car payment by the due date? Your engine won't start.
The size of a pack of cigarettes, ON TIME is generally installed below the steering wheel, its keypad with the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 clearly visible. The lender or car dealer programs the device with the customer's due date, and three days prior the number 3 will flash as a reminder.
The next day the keypad's number 2 will flash. The day before the payment deadline, the number 1 will flash and the device will beep every four seconds.
After the customer makes a payment, he or she must call the dealer or finance company to get a code number. Once that number is entered into ON TIME, the car will continue to operate.
If no payment is received, the engine won't start -- but as a safety measure, ON TIME won't disable the car while it's running.
Incentive to Pay on Time
Company President and CEO Mike Simon said there are 200,000 cars equipped with ON TIME, which he and his older brother Frank invented and patented in 1999.
The threat of being without wheels motivates customers to see car payments as a priority, Simon said. In Southern California's sprawl, where you live and where you earn your living are rarely within walking distance of each other -- elevating car ownership to a level of importance equal to that of food, water and electricity.
That's the rationale behind the device: allow customers to get a car loan without an exorbitant interest rate, and persuade lenders to take a leap of faith and forget about keeping a repossession team on retainer.
Joe and Dorena Giordano own Autoscope, a Redlands automotive repair shop that also sells used cars. They have installed ON TIME in about 30 vehicles they've sold.
"They work exceptionally well," Joe Giordano said. "These are high-risk customers. No lender is going to carry them. By allowing me to install these units, we have an agreement that they're going to make their payments."
ON TIME customers span the age groups, with various reasons for their spotty credit histories. "Some of them have gone through divorces or have bankruptcies or repossessions. If you look at their credit (reports), they don't pay their bills," Giordano said.
"What proof can you give me that you're going to make a $300 monthly (car) payment if you can't pay a $40 phone bill?" Giordano said. "How can we make sure they'll pay and not run out on us?"
ON TIME bridges that trust gap, to the benefit of both buyer and seller. "I take their word and actually put some faith in them to re-establish credit," Giordano said.
Car owners don't have to worry about being stranded on railroad tracks or on a desolate highway, unable to start their car because they missed a payment. Payment Protection Systems' attorneys thought of all the scenarios that would expose the company to liability and the customers to danger, David Cole, the company's national sales director, said.
That's why cars equipped with ON TIME have a sticker on the sun visor with an emergency code. "You punch in the emergency code and they can start the car for 24 hours," Cole said.
No Shortage of Customers
The Simon brothers had invented and sold an anti-car-theft device earlier. During a 1996 automotive convention, a car dealer gave them the idea that helped lead to the creation of ON TIME.
"'I wish you guys could make a chip that would make people pay,'" the dealer told them, Mike Simon recalled. "At the time, the technology to do that was very expensive."
With 13 million Americans having C-minus or lower credit ratings, Simon said, there's no shortage of prospective ON TIME customers whose low wages -- but more often bad spending habits -- have painted them into a financial corner.
ON TIME not only hounds car owners into making their payments, but it also forces them to interact with their lender every month -- to get the post-payment code, or to plead for a few days' extension in the event of a financial emergency. No longer are buyer and seller faceless entities who exchange checks and official correspondence through the mail, Simon said.
"You follow them and you build a relationship with them. Sometimes they get into a situation where: 'No problem, I'll give you a few more days,'" Giordano said.
"But the ones who take advantage of you every month, you have to say, 'Stop it. I can't keep hearing these excuses,'" Giordano said. "I tell them, 'Just think if you had a traditional lender. They would just come out and repo the car.'"
Other companies make a similar device that's hidden on the car and equipped with a Global Positioning System. Often those customers don't realize the car they just purchased has that device, but ON TIME car buyers have to sign a disclosure form in seven places, Cole said.
"Our philosophy is we don't want the car back. We want you to succeed," Cole said. "The other (companies') philosophy is: If this guy doesn't make his payment, we're going to go and ****** the car, wash it, put it back on the lot and re-sell it.
Jason Fritz / The Press-Enterprise
David Cole, national director of sales for Payment Protection Systems, holds an ON TIME device. The device, manufactured by the Temecula company, disables a vehicle's engine if a car payment is not paid.
Car dealers install ON TIME, the electronic device made by Temecula-based Payment Protection Systems, in vehicles they sell to buyers with poor credit ratings -- customers considered a bad risk for auto loans.
But, as company officials tell it, those same people typically become more responsible and improve their credit scores, thanks to ON TIME's combination of benevolent nagging and no-nonsense capitalism. Don't make your car payment by the due date? Your engine won't start.
The size of a pack of cigarettes, ON TIME is generally installed below the steering wheel, its keypad with the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 clearly visible. The lender or car dealer programs the device with the customer's due date, and three days prior the number 3 will flash as a reminder.
The next day the keypad's number 2 will flash. The day before the payment deadline, the number 1 will flash and the device will beep every four seconds.
After the customer makes a payment, he or she must call the dealer or finance company to get a code number. Once that number is entered into ON TIME, the car will continue to operate.
If no payment is received, the engine won't start -- but as a safety measure, ON TIME won't disable the car while it's running.
Incentive to Pay on Time
Company President and CEO Mike Simon said there are 200,000 cars equipped with ON TIME, which he and his older brother Frank invented and patented in 1999.
The threat of being without wheels motivates customers to see car payments as a priority, Simon said. In Southern California's sprawl, where you live and where you earn your living are rarely within walking distance of each other -- elevating car ownership to a level of importance equal to that of food, water and electricity.
That's the rationale behind the device: allow customers to get a car loan without an exorbitant interest rate, and persuade lenders to take a leap of faith and forget about keeping a repossession team on retainer.
Joe and Dorena Giordano own Autoscope, a Redlands automotive repair shop that also sells used cars. They have installed ON TIME in about 30 vehicles they've sold.
"They work exceptionally well," Joe Giordano said. "These are high-risk customers. No lender is going to carry them. By allowing me to install these units, we have an agreement that they're going to make their payments."
ON TIME customers span the age groups, with various reasons for their spotty credit histories. "Some of them have gone through divorces or have bankruptcies or repossessions. If you look at their credit (reports), they don't pay their bills," Giordano said.
"What proof can you give me that you're going to make a $300 monthly (car) payment if you can't pay a $40 phone bill?" Giordano said. "How can we make sure they'll pay and not run out on us?"
ON TIME bridges that trust gap, to the benefit of both buyer and seller. "I take their word and actually put some faith in them to re-establish credit," Giordano said.
Car owners don't have to worry about being stranded on railroad tracks or on a desolate highway, unable to start their car because they missed a payment. Payment Protection Systems' attorneys thought of all the scenarios that would expose the company to liability and the customers to danger, David Cole, the company's national sales director, said.
That's why cars equipped with ON TIME have a sticker on the sun visor with an emergency code. "You punch in the emergency code and they can start the car for 24 hours," Cole said.
No Shortage of Customers
The Simon brothers had invented and sold an anti-car-theft device earlier. During a 1996 automotive convention, a car dealer gave them the idea that helped lead to the creation of ON TIME.
"'I wish you guys could make a chip that would make people pay,'" the dealer told them, Mike Simon recalled. "At the time, the technology to do that was very expensive."
With 13 million Americans having C-minus or lower credit ratings, Simon said, there's no shortage of prospective ON TIME customers whose low wages -- but more often bad spending habits -- have painted them into a financial corner.
ON TIME not only hounds car owners into making their payments, but it also forces them to interact with their lender every month -- to get the post-payment code, or to plead for a few days' extension in the event of a financial emergency. No longer are buyer and seller faceless entities who exchange checks and official correspondence through the mail, Simon said.
"You follow them and you build a relationship with them. Sometimes they get into a situation where: 'No problem, I'll give you a few more days,'" Giordano said.
"But the ones who take advantage of you every month, you have to say, 'Stop it. I can't keep hearing these excuses,'" Giordano said. "I tell them, 'Just think if you had a traditional lender. They would just come out and repo the car.'"
Other companies make a similar device that's hidden on the car and equipped with a Global Positioning System. Often those customers don't realize the car they just purchased has that device, but ON TIME car buyers have to sign a disclosure form in seven places, Cole said.
"Our philosophy is we don't want the car back. We want you to succeed," Cole said. "The other (companies') philosophy is: If this guy doesn't make his payment, we're going to go and ****** the car, wash it, put it back on the lot and re-sell it.
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