Richardson said the electronic device, which install beneath the dash board, has lowered his company’s repossession rate by more than 25 percent and cut back on the number of collections agent he employs. Disabling a car for a late payment may sound severe, but Richardson said some of his clients have used the device to improve the payment habits that sent them to his dealership in the first place.

“All of our customers have bad credit” Richardson said. “We put it on every auto we sell.” Express Credit Auto, with sites at 4000 N May Ave. and interstate 240 at Santa Fe, is a player in the growing buy-here-pay-here used-car business, which sells older, higher-mileage cars to lower –income people who, for lack of credit, barrow from the dealer and deliver periodic cash payments directly to the dealership.

Express Credit sells about 100 cars a month from its two car lots, one in north Oklahoma City and one on the south side of town. Richardson admits he would be offended if a car dealer wanted to put an “On Time” system on his vehicle, but he’s the car dealer of last resort for most of his customers. ”Several people tell us it’s made them more responsible on the other bills, It reminds them they need to pay,” Richardson said, “It’s a weird deal.” Jennifer Delcamp, vice president of Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Central Oklahoma, said Richardson’s business charges extremely high interest rates—topping 20 percent in some cases, but serves a unique clientele.

“He makes lots of money doing this, but he’s also taking greater risk,” Delcamp said, “I can see both sides of it. I wouldn’t want a car that wouldn’t start if I missed a payment, but they are higher risk tender.”

Express Credit Auto reports its customer’s payment history to the national credit bureaus, which benefits those who making timely payments. Buy paying of their car on time, customer can established credit that might allow them to buy their next car from a mainstream dealership. “We break the buy-here-pay-here cycle,” Richardson said.

Breaking that cycle for many customers would cut Richardson profits but he doesn’t sound worried about depleting his customer base. “We do get people who fall on hard times and have to file bankruptcy and they come to us for help.” He said “we also have customers who are buy-here-pay-here and have been for several generations.”