Yet another car question...reaffirming & upside-down.

[Clover329]

Hi All,

I filed last Friday and am reaffirming the car. I owe $9200 but according to my lawyer, it's worth $6600. I am current with my payments.

My lawyer mentioned something about redoing my loan with my bank for the amount that the car is worth because the excess $2700 would be considered "unsecured debt". Is this true? Will I have to get a new loan on the car for the $6600 instead of keeping the current loan & it's terms?

Also, I plan on moving to Boston in August and really won't need the car so I am planning on selling it at the end of the summer. I didn't want to surrender the car in bk because I still need it and if my Boston plans were to fall thru, I would still need the car, so I wanted to get rid of it on my terms and not the bank's, ya know?

I wonder if after the BK goes thru, if I can talk to my bank about holding onto the car until I move and keep the loan terms the same. Do you think a bank would be willing to do that?

Thanks,
Clover

[keepmine]

Your lawyer is referring to a 722 redemption.
www.722redemption.com is one lender.

You want to try and do a ridethrough. Just keep paying and don't reaffirm. If you don't reaffirm, you can return the car post bk and have no liability for a deficiency balance.The majority of lenders want your money and a preforming loan on the books and not another repo to add to the pile.

[Clover329]

Thank you KeepMine. I am looking into this while waiting for a reply from my lawyer.

[AfraidOfBK]

SIMILAR SITUATION:
We have two cars, both finances....we actually refinance our van froma lease to a purchase so have only made one pmt so far.....We plan to remain current, cuz we NEED the car, but will they questions us based on a short pmt history? Van also has neg equity (maybe 2-3k) does this matter? If you chance renegotiating the loan terms, is there a possibility of losing the car??????

Next car, also turned in a lease but bought the same car used (a diffrent vehicle, but the same make/model)....First pmt is due in may which will be maybe two months before filing (our plan). With little pmt history will they try to take my cars?

ALSO payments for both cars total about $810. this is about (but less than) one third of monthly income....will they say i cant afford pmts and try to take car???

THANKS for any help, we have three kids and one on the way and living without two cars would be sheer madness!

[relief13035]

DON'T REAFFIRM!!!!

The biggest mistake we made in our BK process was trying to reaffirm (1) of our vehicles. Because of that, the judge got involved and our case is STILL not closed.

Just keep paying - don't reaffirm.

[AfraidOfBK]

so if you simply keep paying and do not reaffirm, will you get in trouble for not including them in your BK list? What to do when they find out youre filing BK, can they take the cars anyway????
HELP...I didn't know reaffirming was problematic

[StartingOver08]

You can NOT exclude the cars from your BK list.

so if you simply keep paying and do not reaffirm, will you get in trouble for not including them in your BK list? What to do when they find out youre filing BK, can they take the cars anyway????
HELP...I didn't know reaffirming was problematic

You have to list all of your debt, including the vehicles. In your petition there is a page(s) called your "Statement of Intentions" and this is where you will either surrender the vehicle, reaffirm or redeem.

There is case law where the OFFER to reaffirm is enough - where Relief has been having a problem is her district is backed up and she has been waiting a loooonnnnggg time to get the reaffirmation signed by the Judge (I think its the Judge) so her closing has been held up due to the paperwork.

There are so many threads on reaffirmation and your other options, just search for those. I personally reaffirmed one car and surrendered the other, but most will tell you here NOT to sign the reaffirmation so you have the option to turn in the vehicle later without affecting your credit if you can not afford the payments after your discharge.

[AfraidOfBK]

what if i want to keep both cars, but i have very little payment history with each creditor? Will they hold that against me? Is there a chance they would say, "Its not likely youll ever be able to affors these car payments, so im talking the cars?"

[StartingOver08]

One of the options is a 'ride through' - that is not a formal option, but it is one that many people on this board use. Keep your payments current all the way through, do not be late at all - or the car could get repossessed. Naturally, once you are discharged you must keep the payments current - paid by the due date too.

The 'ride through' option is very difficult with Ford because they are known to repo any vehicle without a signed reaffirmation filed with the court.

I don't know if the number of payments will affect your ability to reaffirm - that is a good question for your attorney.

[AfraidOfBK]

What paperwork does a ride through entail? OR is it simply not mentioned at all in process??

I have two vehicles, Honda & Mazda...one with Ban of The West, one with Wachovia Dealer services....I have no other accts with these banks and VERY LITTLE PMT HISTORY with them....will staying current be enough for me to keep em?

[StartingOver08]

The ride thru paperwork is painless - you select the 'reaffirmation' on your Statement of Intentions, when the bank/lender sends over the reaffirmation, you don't sign it. It doesn't get filed and you keep making payments.

Ford is the only one (I think its only Ford) that absolutly will repo if you do not sign one.
I will post the link a little later if I can find it.

Talk to your attorney. Put ride through in the search box here - a ton of info will show up!

Here is the link: http://www.************************/...-and-keep-pay/

Its a good article all about reaffirmations and ride throughs (keep and pay).

[relief13035]

Today is day 114 without a discharge.

The hold up is the reaffirmation on my vehicle. The lender agreed to the reaffirmation. Then came the problem with the judge. Personally, I think the judge determined the reaffirmation as an undue hardship, only because the car was a Mercedes. I can easily afford it, but maybe they think it's a luxury??? We did a withdrawal of the reaffirmation and now we are just continuing to make the payments and haven't had any problems.

In the meantime - we are living without a discharge. I call the court daily and they tell me "Oh, you are on the discharge list". That must be one long dang list, because I've "supposedly" been on it for weeks now. It's driving me nuts!!!

My husband wants to drive down to the court in Riverside, CA and see if we can get it pushed along. Our plans are to go on Friday if no discharge by then. I will keep everyone posted.

[StartingOver08]

Thank you Relief for jumping in!

[relief13035]

What paperwork does a ride through entail? OR is it simply not mentioned at all in process??

I have two vehicles, Honda & Mazda...one with Ban of The West, one with Wachovia Dealer services....I have no other accts with these banks and VERY LITTLE PMT HISTORY with them....will staying current be enough for me to keep em?

Our other vehicle is financed with Wachovia and they are allowing a ride-through. Actually they still allow us to pay our bill online. All of our other accounts cut off our online access.

[AfraidOfBK]

THANKS for the replies! Have you been with Wachovia long?

ALSO - all the other banks cut off online banking??? HOw do you get balances, make pmts??? Do you have to go into the bank for everything and write checks?

I do everything with billpay onlne, and did not realize a consequence of BK was losing those privelages....is this true?