Ford Credit and Lincoln Automotive Financial Services are extending payment deferrals of up to 60 days for customers in Hawaii, Indiana, and Washington state hit by severe weather events. That includes Hurricane Lala, tornadoes and flooding, and wildfires respectively.
The relief covers customers in FEMA-designated counties eligible for its Individuals and Households Program. Interest continues to accrue on deferred payments, a detail that matters when your truck is sitting in three feet of water and you’re wondering how to make next month’s note.
Indiana’s list is the longest, spanning 20 counties from Lake and Porter in the northwest to Wayne and Union along the Ohio border. That corridor suggests a broad swath of tornado and flood damage cutting across the central and eastern parts of the state. Hawaii’s relief applies statewide.
In Washington, six counties are covered, including Spokane, Yakima, and Chelan. These are areas where wildfire seasons have grown longer and more destructive with each passing year.
Customers financing their vehicles can request extensions online at ford.com/finance or through the Ford Credit app. Lease customers must call the 1-800 number, a distinction worth keeping in mind if you’re juggling insurance claims and FEMA paperwork simultaneously.
Ford is far from the only automaker that rolls out disaster payment programs when FEMA declarations hit. Most major captive lenders do the same. But the scope here, three separate disaster types across three states, underscores how relentless the 2026 weather cycle has been.
Hurricane Lala alone put Hawaii on alert in a region that rarely sees direct hurricane landfalls of this magnitude.
The 60-day window provides breathing room, not forgiveness. Deferred payments still carry accruing interest, which means the total cost of the loan or lease ticks upward even while monthly bills are paused. For customers already stretched thin by repair costs and temporary housing, it is a short bridge, not a solution.
Ford has not disclosed how many active loans and leases fall within the affected counties. Indiana alone includes Marion County, home to Indianapolis and one of the state’s densest vehicle markets. The potential volume of eligible accounts there could be substantial.
No word yet on whether the list of covered counties will expand as FEMA assessments continue. These declarations tend to grow in the weeks after initial damage reports come in, and more counties in all three states could be added as federal teams complete their surveys.
For now, the clock is running on both the weather damage and the interest.
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