North Carolina, southern states seeing highest rates of late auto payment, data shows

Some good news: car prices are taking a turn – they’re down more than 6 percent since the beginning of the year. But, they're still more expensive than last year. That means that people are taking out more money to finance that purchase as rates are going and inflation is affecting prices on everything we buy.

"All of a sudden, they find the cost of other things going up, whether it's rent and food and other other materials and they have this big car payment, and they go delinquent on it," said Forbes Dixon, an economics instructor at Wake Tech.

In North Carolina, 10.3 percent of people with car loans are 30 or more days behind, with 5.8 percent of people behind by 60 days and 4.1 percent behind by three months or more, according to Experian - a credit reporting company. The auto loan delinquency data is from the third quarter of 2021, so before inflation and interest rates went up, North Carolinians were struggling to make payments.

"There may be some some tough times for people who took out some big loans," said Dixon.

The percentages of people not paying their auto loans puts North Carolina at 8th highest in the nation. Washington D.C., as well as most of the south, all have double digit percentages. Dixon feels financial literacy is a large reason why.

"It is kind of like a cycle in that it just compounds on itself until if I'm that person, I have to make decisions to stop the bleeding and to get my financial house in order," said Dixon.

Dixon says now that everything has higher price tags, people need to account for that when making financial decisions.

"People - when their income goes up, their lifestyle also goes up, not just their savings."