Thousands stuck with worthless car warranties

Last year, Russell Lashbrook paid $1,600 for a four-year warranty on the used Dodge Durango he was buying. But as the Waseca, Minn., resident discovered last Friday when his "check engine" light came on and he took the SUV in for repair, the warranty is already worthless.

Some 137,000 people across the United States and Canada -- including more than 11,000 Minnesotans such as Lashbrook -- may be holding worthless car warranties from Ultimate Warranty Corp. The Ohio-based company has all but disappeared, leaving $15,000 in a loss fund to cover an expected $48 million in claims, according to South Carolina regulators who are investigating the company.

Its nationwide collapse has come with a new twist, as officials handling it plan to ask car dealers who sold the warranties to cover the repair claims themselves. That's because dealers pocket from one-tenth to more than half of every premium they sell, said Doug Hartz at the South Carolina Department of Insurance, which got involved because South Carolina is home to the company on the hook to insure Ultimate Warranty.

In the meantime, some of Hartz's staff are at Ultimate Warranty's headquarters, answering calls from car dealers and warranty holders, although there aren't many answers yet, he said.

In Minnesota, Ultimate Warranty ignored a ban to do business in this state, said Bill Walsh, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Commerce. It has a long and public record with the department, he said.

Minnesota denied it a license to sell here in 2002, for lack of adequate capital. Enforcers then discovered it selling here anyway in 2004, so they issued a cease-and-desist order and fined it $2,000.

Out of cash

"It would appear that Ultimate has run out of cash entirely," Hartz said.

On Oct. 2, the company filed a claim with its insurer, the Capital Assurance Risk Retention Group, to cover the warranties, some of which run into 2017. The size of that claim could collapse Capital Assurance, too, which prompted South Carolina insurance regulators to put it in receivership, a process similar to a bankruptcy.

With Ultimate Warranty essentially out of the picture, the fate of its warranties is now tied to that of Capital Assurance.

If the insurer is liquidated, the customers of Ultimate Warranty will be very low on a list of people making claims on any assets -- a process that also could take years.

Hartz, who is heading South Carolina's efforts, said it's possible to avoid that with the help of others involved in the warranty sales.

To encourage their cooperation, Hartz promises that, if it comes to liquidation, letters will go out to all warranty holders with the names of their auto dealers, warranty sales agents and any finance companies -- and what slice of their warranty premiums went to each one.

If Capital Assurance emerges with assets, dealers and others who pay these claims eventually can file for reimbursement, Hartz said.

It's a new approach, said Walsh at the Commerce Department.

"Nobody here could remember an attempt like that," he said.

Still Walsh questioned why dealers didn't check with the Commerce Department before selling Ultimate Warranty contracts, given its ban on doing business here.

"Car dealers will work to satisfy their customers," Lambert said. "But from what I could gather, it's the South Carolina Department of Insurance that has egg on their face, so I'm not sure that threatening letters are appropriate."

'We want to do something'

Lashbrook's dealer offered to meet him halfway.

Car Time of Owatonna, where he bought the Durango, said it would cover half of any repairs.

Dealership co-owner Dean Maher said the company will offer discounts to any of its 100 to 150 customers with Ultimate warranties.

Lashbrook's repair turned out to be a small one, so he paid for it, he said. But even half of a new transmission would be more than he can afford if it came to that -- especially since he folded his extended warranty into his car loan, which means he's still paying for it.

He just wished he'd known before his truck broke down. "Why wasn't anybody told?" he said. "People are walking around out there with worthless warranties, and they don't know it."