Auto surrender question

[zimbra]

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Zimbra, the first thought that comes to mind is that having filed Ch7 in January, and mot having paid since February, Chase could come get that car at any minute!!!

With that in mind, I think you would be very wise to go ahead and buy a beater with the cash that you have, and worry about rebuilding credit until after your discharge. You didn't say what you were wanting to finance in the next year or so, but a house probably isn't in the forecast for the next two years.

A car you can get, and maybe even a good deal on it. So go ahead and get something you can live with for at least a few months and trade it in later, a few months or a year from now, when you're in a better position to deal with it and negotiate terms.

Also, as a practical note, you *really really really* need to go ahead and get anything you care about out of that car, ASAP. If the Chase repo man comes tonight and tows it out of your driveway at 3am, it will be very hard to get anything back out of it later (*especially* anything of value). So clean it out now and treat it like a rental (i.e. keep nothing in it) because it literally could be gone any day.

Good luck!!!

[zimbra]

Thanks Fresh,

I have been stressing every night when I hear a "big" truck outside, so I have had the car cleaned out for quite a while. My attorney gave me the impression that they couldn't pick the vehicle up before discharge without lifting the stay, but since Monday is THE DAY (for discharge) I have become extremely nervous. I have a line on renting a home, so now I am just trying to figure out the auto situation.

I have heard about many people wanting to surrender their vehicles in bk, but couldn't really find anything about what happens after that. Was their a notification from the creditor? How far behind in payments were they? Did it take the creditor days/weeks/months after discharge to collect the vehicle.

I guess I am just beyond stressed...

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Zimbra, nothing against your atty, but when you are not current on your car payments in a Ch7, they can come get it anytime. Usually, when you indicate you want to reaffirm, you work out the details with the lender. But if you haven't signed a reaff, are not current, and have not heard from the lender... well, it could be any day, literally. It not only varies from lender to lender, it varies from person to person, so there's really NO telling when it will be. There are so many factors involved: loan structure, credit history, payment history, state law, repo man backlog, lender atty backlog, etc. There really is no good guideline. If you read through this board, there are people who got repo'd almost immediately after missing a payment, and others that held onto the car for months.

I didn't want to worry you overmuch, but it sounds like you've been expecting it anyway, so go ahead and take that next step of finding a cheap car for yourself. Then you can call Chase and tell them to come get it (if they haven't already by that time) and that's one less major thing you have to worry about. It's really easy to get paralyzed when there's so much stress in your life, but you're literally days away from having a lot of it off your back. I'm so glad you have some cash available for this and that you're not without options.

I wish you all the best!!!