Q. We can't keep up with our car payments. Should I just call the finance company and tell them to take our car and truck back?

A.Not if you can avoid it. Allowing your vehicles to be repossessed doesn't automatically mean you won't owe anymore money on them.

The big question is whether you have any equity in your car or truck. In many cases new cars and trucks depreciate or lose their resale value more quickly than their buyers can pay down the loan.

So if the car and truck are relatively new, you didn't make big down payments and financed them over a long period of time -- five or six years -- then you could owe more than the vehicles are worth.

In auto-speak, you'd be upside down. If you sold them you'd have to write a check to make up the difference between their sales price and what you owed on the loan.

But if they're worth more than you owe, then consider selling your vehicles, paying off the loans and buying less expensive replacements. You must, after all, drive something to work, right?

If you allow the finance company to repossess your car and truck, they'll be sold at a wholesale auction. They'll fetch even less than if you sold them yourself.

If you owe more than the vehicles sell for, the finance company will send you a bill for the difference. It will tack on the towing, storage and sales costs, too. If you don't pay right away, you'll be charged interest on that debt at a very high rate.