buying/financing a car before filing for chapter 7

[caseypoi]

i was recently involved in a car accident (while on my motorcycle) and the bike was completely totaled. my bike was still being paid off, but was heavily upside down-luckily though, i got gap insurance on my bike so it'll (hopefully) pay for the rest of the loan amount.

however, now i don't have a car. i was looking at craigslist cars but i'm really broke and the cars within my budget (<$2000, and only because i'll be getting about a $2000 settlement) were horrible on there. but then i thought about just buying a new/used car with financing and everything, since i was going to file for BK anyway. i don't know if this is 'right' or legal or whatever, or if i even can since my credit is completely shot.

is there a grace period i should wait on between buying and filing? should i finance a used/new car? is there a way that after filing BK they'll take this financed car back if i do get it? if you guys could help that'd be great. thanks.

[LSUTiger32]

Buy the horrible $2,000 car.

[caseypoi]

heh, i'm leaning on that. but i wanted to know my options... honestly would buying a new car, then filing for BK look 'bad' to the trustee person or whatever? i'd think so, but then i've been reading that some people/lawyers encourage doing it for some reason.

[BenzUp]

Hi Casey,

I was advised by my attorney to buy a car prior to filing. I did. I got 4.9% on the loan. I did this because the new car payments are 1/4 of the car I ended-up giving back through voluntary repossesion. The trustee never questioned it.

[weRN2deep]

My car blew up and I found out it'd be $2K to fix. Called the atty and asked he said, "I'm not supposed to tell you to take on more debt, but yeah, if the car is dying you need to get yourself solid wheels before you can't easily do so". I bought a used car in November financed thru Cap One (and I already had stinky credit since I stopped paying CCs in June) they gave 11%. We filed January, nobody has said peep.