Trying to Buy a Used Car after Deer Totaled my car

[addisonsmom]

We are not even a full year into our 100% payback plan. We received aprox. $3800 from the insurance company for the car that was totaled when a large deer jumped in front of my car. We must have a 2nd car. We have a special needs child that requires Occupational and Speech therapy every week. I am a stay at home mom and my husband works full time.

I was speaking to my attorney and we have petitioned the court to take out extra money for a dependable car from our personal IRA. I know some would disagree with this decision, but we would rather not take on another payment. At the time, the attorney's office told me it would be 2 weeks. Now it looks like it could be mid-July before the judge makes a decision. What gives? I have locate the mini van we want through an individual and he agreed to hold it for 2 weeks. I was told we have to find the vehicle first and have the dealer/seller sit on it while we wait on the court's approval. (Is this right?) Now, we will have to start this whole process over again. How are people supposed to go about life? We live in a rural area. The nearest town is 20 miles from where I live. I have to have a dependable car to get us back and forth. My husband works at a nuclear facility. I can't just drive up and pick him up from work because you must have a high level security clearance.

What would be the repercussions if we just up and decided to take the money out, buy it, and dealt with the court later? We make ALL our payments on time and have never once been late. We are not deadbeats, but just made some mistakes. I am so over it and it seems like they set you up to fail. I know I have asked a few questions. I just frustrated with the whole process. We currently are borrowing a vehicle from my mother, but they need it back. I am at a loss as to what to do.

[lolly78]

Wow your car story sounds so much like ours. My husbands car broke down and he's been borrowing his mom's car during the week and gives it back on the weekend. We are about to borrow from our 401K to get the transmission replaced. If you're not taking trying to get financing through the dealer to pay for the car I don't see the need to inform the trustee, but I could be wrong. I don't plan on "getting permission" to take my money out the 401K to fix a car we need. We've only been in our chapter 13 4 months so we haven't had a chance to build enough savings to pay for the repairs.

Question though, why don't you try to get financing through the dealer? Wouldn't it reduce your chapter 13 payment? Mine isn't confirmed yet so I didn't want to try, I may reconsider though.

[addisonsmom]

We are on a 100% payback plan. When we filed, we surrendered our brand new SUV and house. Our payments would still be the same, since our payment is low. We just would rather not finance any car, ever again, for the rest of our lives. (That is how we got into the mess to begin with. We had no business driving a $40k SUV and just because we had "good" credit, we were able to get financing. ) I think the best thing for us to do is to just use our money to buy a car and just deal with it. We have, however, already filed the petition with the court through our attorney. I can't claim "innocence" or anything since I knew that I should probably done that to begin with. I hate this whole situation though. I feel like we are finally trying to get out life on track, just to have them mess with us. The attorney is "confident" getting our money shouldn't be a problem, but I know the seller will not be willing to wait another 2-4 weeks. I most certainly wouldn't.