The Repo Man Returns as More Americans Fall Behind on Car Payments
Pandemic relief measures shielded many people from repossession, but that’s changing as interest rates and auto prices soar.
The repo folks have come to the land of Disney World, “The Happiest Place on Earth,” with an unhappy message for America: Business—their business—is looking up.
It’s a recent Thursday morning in Orlando, just up the road from the Magic Kingdom, and a few hundred conventioneers are arriving for the North American Repossessors Summit. Here, license plate readers and tow trucks mix with sun and golf into a heady cocktail for these uneasy economic times. With more Americans struggling to pay their bills, the $1.7 billion industry for repossessing such assets as cars, trucks and boats is gearing up for a boom. The effects are expected to reverberate through countless ordinary lives and onto Wall Street, where car loans are packaged into bonds and sold to investors.