Financing a Car Prior to Discharge

[mrrsn83]

Hello all. I have been reading through this forum for a couple of weeks now and have some questions regarding financing a new car prior to my discharge.

Here's some quick background.

Filed Chapter 7 on 2/24/10 and had my 341 hearing on 3/21/10. The last date for objections is 5/21/10 so I'm not expecting my discharge until late May (almost 2 months away).

So prior to the BK filing I had 2 vehicles. One of which I was making payments on and choose to surrender. The other vehicle was an older car that I bought private party and kept. About 1 week prior to my 341 the car I was making payments on was repo'd and so I was left with 1 vehicle. Sadly my luck with cars is not that great and the vehicle I kept died literally the weekend before my 341. So I drove a rental car around for a little while until I found another used car for dirt cheap and bought that. Unfortunatly the used car that I just bought needs about $2000 in repairs to stay running. So I made a horrible decision on a used car, hoping it would get me by until my discharge which looks like it will not.

So long story short I have a very un-reliable car that could break down on me any day now and almost 2 months until I will get my discharge. Now I have been getting a few offers in the mail from dealerships, and if I'm reading them correctly, they say they can put me in a new/used car prior to my discharge. Is this possible and how does this work?

I really don't want to risk buying another used vehicle from a private party or putting thousands of dollars into the clunker I just bought. Even if I wanted to I don't have that kind of cash flow after buying this car. I would prefer to finance something with at least some kind of short/long term warranty. I am a single father with a 4 y/o and the closest family I have is about 6 hours away so if my car breaks down I'm stranded having to pay for towing and a rental and I can't afford not to have transportation for my daughter and to get to work.

Any advice?

P.S. I am so glad I found this forum, it has been a great help answering some of my questions already and providing some directions.

[NHC]

I would watch those offers....while they 'state' that they can get you financing prior to your discharge, it appears to be exactly the opposite....and the interest rate is going to be obnoxious....21 to 23 percent....

A friend of mine (newly post Ch. 7) just went 'car shopping' and fled the stealership in horror....she found a car she liked...but only had about 500 to put down....of course they did the salesman/sales manager/special finance manager/financing person parade....held her up for practically 2 hours....then told her they needed more money down but she could write up to 3 post dated checks to make a full 1500....at one point she called me and asked me to come 'get' her...so I rolled up on my motorcycle and scooted into the room where she had been all this time since the test drive....what happened next absolutely floored me....we get escorted to the finance guy's office.....this goober made no eye contact...no 'hi how are ya'....none of that...he just started pushing paper across the desk for her to sign. At one point I looked at this guy and said "can you give us a minute, I want to talk to my friend here"....he gets up and leaves his office without a word....I told her "by the time these three checks clear, you're going to be into the 45 days and the first payment will be due. You just dug yourself out of this hole and now you're ready to dive back into it?? Have they even told you WHO the finance company is? What is your exact payment amount and date? What is your finance rate? How long is the loan for?"....so it turns out the finance guy went to get the "Special financing guy" who sits down and my friend starts asking him these questions.....he hems and haws around...admits that they've submitted her to three banks but they're working off one pre-approval....and he smiles and scoots outta there like his pants are on fire. Finance paperwork guy starts shoving more paper at my friend who says "you know, I'm not really feeling comfortable with this deal"....Paperwork guy (i'm not kidding here) picks up her paperwork....stacks it up nice and neat...and places it on a table in the corner of his office and proceeds to work on the next customer.....WTF? So after a minute of stunned silence, I say "can I look at something in that stack of papers over there?" He actually just shrugs like he doesn't give a rip....so I walk over, rifle through and find her post dated checks, yank them off the paperwork and rip them up.....No one has ever seen two chics hop on a motorcycle and high tail it out of there faster than we did....

Lesson learned....look out for the Stealerships....they're out to take ya for whatever they can get these days.....I sent her down to the place I went through for my beater car....