American Honda Finance

[Adventura]

Filed Chap 7 two weeks ago. Wrote on my SOI that I was going to ride-through on car loan with AHF. Got a letter from them yesterday stating that they would no longer be sending me statements and that I have to pay by snail mail check. I understand from searching here that, due to the stay, they cannot send me requests for payment and that is why the letter arrived. However, payment was due yesterday, so I paid online as per usual. Went through as far as I can tell, although bank account has not been debited as yet.

Is there any point in calling them? I'd rather not reaffirm--and do they raise interest rates on loans if you do? But if I must, I must. I'd rather just keep paying the monthly loan as I had planned.

Any wisdom/advice on this is, as always, hugely appreciated.

[CreditCretin]

I am interested in hearing the answers on this as well. Our filing just went in a few weeks ago, and our Car loan company has shut me off from Online access as I expected then would from reading here. Our mortgage loan company (GMAC) has not shut my access off yet, but says my next payment is due 10/1/2010.

I haven't gotten letters (yet) from either of them.

We have a mortgate payment due soon, that I was going to make next week. Should I be calling GMAC to verify where it should go, or just send it via my personal bank's online bill pay as I have been doing for over a year...

[BCA2009]

I can tell you my experience so far, but that is no guarantee it will be the same for you.

I signed and sent my attorney a re-affirmation that Honda finance sent me. It was never filed. I don't know if my attorney dropped the ball or if Honda just failed to file it.

I'm in month 3 after discharge and have mailed in three payments and they have all cleared and I haven't heard a word from Honda.

But I have also made 48 on time payments with them and only have 12 more to go. There is about 5 grand of equity in the car. I don't know if this has anything to do with it or not.

But, bottom line is re-aff wasn't filed and I'm made 3 payments without any problems so far.

[SMinGA]

Call them to find out if the payment address is the same as before. Many have a different department handle while in bankruptcy.

[Meatstick]

We never reaffirmed with Honda, statements have halted but we have continued to make payments online via the American Honda Finance website.

[Adventura]

Well, we have only had the car for about 10 months--but duckie has already put about 25K miles on it. I have never been late on a payment, and we have little-to-no equity in the car according to the research I did for my Schedule D. It is hard to tell, since it is a 2010 Insight, and they are so new that putting a re-sale value on it was really tough. A best as I can tell though, Honda would be hard-pressed to sell it for what we owe.

[Adventura]

Thanks Meatstick--that is kinda what I was hoping for. I just checked on the site--I can still log in, and they seem to have accepted my payment. They list the account as current with the next due date being in August. Think I am going to let that dog lie, unless I hear further from them that is.

[jmanford]

I have 2 hondas with them and keep paying on the website. Seems to be working just fine.

[lrprn]

Adventura, you might have snuck this payment through, but until you see it clear your account, the payment has *NOT* been made. I'd be suspicious, especially since the creditor already told you to make all payments after filing via snail-mail checks.

Even if you do see this payment clear your account, please don't depend on continuing to pay this way. 99% of auto and cc creditors will block access to your online accounts within the first month after filing.

If you bank at a bank or credit union, you can easily set up to send online payments from there for your car. As someone already said, contact the auto lender to ensure you have the correct address for payments to be sent electronically or via snail mail.

You can also mail money orders if you aren't able to send online payments from your financial institution.

Of course, you can always send snail-mail paper checks as your lender requested too. Only problem with that is you don't have a third party who can guarantee that you actually sent the money in case there's ever a problem (lost check, late cashing, late posting to your account, etc).

[6thsense]

I've alway paid them electronically via their website or via bill pay thrumy bank. After discharge I still pay them the same way.

[mikeinsurpri]

I would be interested to know if you can still pay them via bill pay through the bank. I have all my accounts set up that way. Does anyone have any experience with that? Another Option, is that bill pay from my bank will send a check to the company if they do not have the means to accept electronic payments (i.e. local doctors office, etc).

[BCA2009]

I've no problems paying my Honda payemt or my home mortgage via Bank bill pay. Been 3 months since discharge. I also still have online access to Honda, but not Bank of America. It's wierd, BOA never stopped sending me a bill. and it didn't change at all. No comments about BK. No disclosure about not being an attempt to collect. But they did shut down my internet access. Actually, I can log in and see the payoff amount, but it woun't let me see any of the history or statements online. Go figure!

[Adventura]

Well, the payment I made after receiving the original letter has cleared the bank, and I can still access my online account. I guess the only difference going forward will be that we will no longer receive statements in the mail. I can live with that.

Now we wait to see what the mortgage holder does.....

[ohantonio]

Is the vehicle a lease?

[Adventura]

Nope. Purchase during the Cash for Clunkers program.