Wife's Wedding Ring

[cptne33]

[justbroke]

Quick question for all the gurus out there.
I got married in June and bought my wife her wedding ring in May. I was planning on paying cash, but the store offered to finance me through Wells Fargo and I got approved with no interest for a year. I figured I would take the money I had and invest it in a 9 month CD and then pay the balance at the end of the 12 months.
I did invest the money in a CD, however, now my business has failed and it looks as if I will have to declare BK.
Do they have any claim on my wife’s ring? It was purchased from a small jeweler but financed through Wells Fargo Financial.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

They absolutely have a claim on your wife's ring.

Almost all store "credit" is done so with this fine print part of your retail installment agreement which reads, basically, that you grant them a purchase money security interest in everything you buy, until it's paid off.

In other words, anything you buy automagically gets a lien placed on it! This makes it a secured debt.

However, you may be able to avoid the lien in Bankruptcy, if your State law (or federal law if you use the Federal Exemptions) excludes wedding rings from seizure. Then you have to file a Motion to Avoid Lien to get the lien stripped off the ring. Then the balance would be covered by the Bankruptcy discharge and you keep the ring.

However, the short answer is yes, they do have a security interest in the ring, and will likely file a secured claim. Even if they don't file a secured claim, that doesn't get rid of the lien because liens survive Bankruptcy unless they are avoided (by motioning the court).

[TEW]

Quick question for all the gurus out there.
I got married in June and bought my wife her wedding ring in May. I was planning on paying cash, but the store offered to finance me through Wells Fargo and I got approved with no interest for a year. I figured I would take the money I had and invest it in a 9 month CD and then pay the balance at the end of the 12 months.
I did invest the money in a CD, however, now my business has failed and it looks as if I will have to declare BK.
Do they have any claim on my wife’s ring? It was purchased from a small jeweler but financed through Wells Fargo Financial.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

If they do as they did mine I offered redemption for the ring. you offer garage sale price for the ring. I owed 600 I paid it off for 100. there is not a big market for used wedding rings.

[AngelinaCat]

Depending on what state you are in, you may have an exemption for things like wedding rings.

This Google search contains many sites that may aid you. Good luck to you and Merry Christmas:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=bankruptcy+exemptions&btnG=Search

[2muchinDebt]

Speaking of rings....DH bought me a 15th anniversary ring and new band in Oct. for our 15th wedding anniversary (before knowing we'd file..we still had hopes of me finding a FT job back then). It was about $3-4,000 and I had my original engagement ring made into a pendant necklace. Our state allows for wedding rings, but my first one is now a necklace...will they take the anniversary ring? (The ring looks like an engagement ring though. So he finally buys me one...are we going to have to give it up? He purchased it on a MC acct. so it's not store financed.

[TEW]

You most likely will not have a problem. As far as the value use your head when it comes to the figuring out how much it is worth to the trustee. I bought my ring with a store card Wells Fargo or a major CC may not hold a lean on the rings. They will let you know.

[coloradomrg]

It may depend on the amount of the ring, but my atty told us to ignore the jewelry companies request to re-affirm the account even though they actually offered to settle for far less than was owed. While they have the "purchased money security" in the fine print, my atty said it was pretty easy for him to take the creditor to task in court and that for the amount we owed, it wouldn't be worth it for them. He was right and they never asked for the ring back or pushed for the re-affirmation , even though I would have gladly re-affirmed my wife's ring!