A few Questions

[RainMoM]

Hello Everyone,
First I'd like to say I'm new to this site and so thankfull for the information that is here !! I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in all this mess.. I've done so much reading here but yet i still have a few questions ! Let me start by telling u about my situation .. We did a Refin back in June of 07 with Wells fargo, back then my husband was making 55k a year, so our payment of 1480.00 a month wasn't to bad.. well needless to say, His hours were cut to less then 40 a week and now there is no way in Hel* we can afford our home.. Other then the house which is worth about 140 k now and we owe 192 K, we have two Credit Cards with about 3 k due between them.. We are thinking of walking away from the house and filing for Chap 7.. My question is.. We have two cars .. I owe 6 k on mine and 13 K on his. We are current on payments and would like to keep the cars, Can we keep BOTH CARS if we file Chapter 7 ?? Question #2 Should we close our bank account ( cheaking) if the home loan is NOT at the same bank ?? and last question.. #3 If we didn't file for Chapter 7 .. Could wells fargo garnish our wages ?
Any advice is welcome.. I'm in the state of Florida

[dealdas]

Check out [Removed URL]

[RainMoM]

Check out what ?

[RainMoM]

any answers ?? or any links to the site here for more information ..

[StartingOver08]

RainMOM, the link was removed in the prior posts because it was spam.

To answer your questions:

Yes, if your cars fit in the FL exemptions you can keep the vehicles. Here is a link to the FL exemptions:

http://www.legalconsumer.com/bankruptcy/state_bankruptcy_info.php?st_fullName=Florida

There are lots of us from Florida on this forum. If you surrender your home, you have $10k of exemptions if you both file CH 7 together and that INCLUDES $1k of auto each. There is a thread that discusses Fl exemptions by Fltoo - if you do a search you will get lots of good information.

You should not keep a bank account with a creditor with whom are discharging debt - they can offset the debt through your account. The best policy is to have a bank account in a neutral bank where you have no debt. Open the account BEFORE you file. Do not provide that account number to any of your creditors.

As to keeping your cars, you should be able to as long as the amount of equity does not exceed $1000. (Most cars are upside down, so there is no danger there )

[RainMoM]

thanks for the reply.. Ok as it stands, we are NOT upside down on our cars.. the equity does exceed more then $1,000 on both cars.. what about if we were to pay one off, at lest on one car and put another in a family members name, Would we still be able to keep Both cars, or would that count as assets and we would have to turn it in ??? thanks
as for the bank account.. i have no credit cards or other debt with them, just a checking account for my direct deposit

[StartingOver08]

thanks for the reply.. Ok as it stands, we are NOT upside down on our cars.. the equity does exceed more then $1,000 on both cars.. what about if we were to pay one off, at lest on car and put another in a family members name, Would we still be able to keep Both cars, or would that count as assets and we would have to turn it in ??? thanks
as for the bank account.. i have no credit cards or other debt with them, just a checking account for my direct deposit

This is a problem. How do you know what your cars are worth??
The idea is to have as little equity as possible in your cars. If you go to, for example, carmax, how much would they pay you for the vehicle? Certainly less than what NADA shows as a valuation.

Do not pay off the car - the car will be taken by the Trustee to satisfy your unsecured debt and you will be turned into an asset case. You can not put a car into a family members name - it is considered fraud. That is why the Trustee checks all the transfers of any asset (cash, bank accounts, homes, cars, etc) - they will look back one year if it is a transfer to an insider (family member or friend).

Sometimes people go out and buy a new car (or newer car) before filing bankruptcy so they will have a vehicle that can not be taken by the Trustee.

Remember, the Trustee is there to look for $$ to pay creditors. The Trustee represents the creditors - not you. Your petition is a snapshot of your financial condition as of the date of filing - but they do look back to see how you got there to make sure you did not hide any assets.

[RainMoM]

My Hubbys car is a Mercedes ML 500 2004 and we owe $12,700 on it.. now the Kelly blue book tells me that the Trade in Value is $11,625.. So maybe.. I'm good there, but on my car.. I have a Lincoln Ls 2004 and I owe $6,200 on that , but the trade in value is $ 8,100 so i'm not sure what to do there, I can't go get a new car credit stinks.. and my payments are only $140.00 a month.. thats why i want to keep my car !

[StartingOver08]

RainMom, I bet if you took your car to CARMAX and got a valuation from them in writing as to what they would pay for your car - it would be less than the $8100 KBB is saying - heck it might even be less than what you owe!

One of the other posters here found that the Middle District of Fl (maybe the other districts too) allow you to use the Carmax valuation. Do a search here on this forum for that thread. As long as your equity is less than $1000, then you are fine.

[RainMoM]

Thanks Starting over 08 .. I'll look for thread.. Middle District.. would that happen to be Orange County ?? I live in the Metro Orlando area

[RainMoM]

p.s. Could you tell me a little more about " 'redemption' or 'reaffirmation.' still not to sure as to what that is ? ? thanks

[RainMoM]

ok question.. after reading about reaffirmation, could i do that to keep my Car ?? Also if i can do that, would the bank change the payment or add more to the pay off amount.. ..