Filed Ch 7....my car?

[drowningNIL]

I have a car financed through GMAC. In almost two years I have never been late or missed a payment. I want to keep my car.

I filed CH 7 earlier this month. Today I received a letter in the mail saying GMAC is now Ally. OK....and with this news comes a crappy notice "Notice of report of negative credit information. We have told credit bureaus about a late payment, missed payment, or other default on your account. This information may be reflected in your credit reports".

How? GMAC has been cashing my checks for almost 2 years. I am 100% current on this loan. I don't know what they are talking about and now I am concerned that they will take my car. ??? Anybody ever deal with Ally? Or know what they could be talking about?

I just tried to call their fantastic 24 hour automated number and got automatically told they cannot help me and put me through to a nonexistent customer service rep where I got hung up on as the offices are now closed.

This letter is dated 5 days past my filing date so it makes me think obviously this has something to do with my Ch 7.

Is there something I need to do re my filing to ensure I get to keep this vehicle? I am calling the lawyer tomorrow to make SURE he knows I want this car. And to let him know about this very unexpected bit of craziness.

Thanks for any advice.

[ironpirate]

My car is financed with GMAC and I'm surrendering it but I did receive the same notice you did. Your BK paper work has a statement of intentions regarding your property. It would have to be mark surrender. They will not just come pick your car up especially after filing. I was 2 months behind before I filed and they still haven't ask for it back yet and I'm surrendering it. They will probably send you a reaffirmation agreement soon.

[drowningNIL]

My car is financed with GMAC and I'm surrendering it but I did receive the same notice you did. Your BK paper work has a statement of intentions regarding your property. It would have to be mark surrender. They will not just come pick your car up especially after filing. I was 2 months behind before I filed and they still haven't ask for it back yet and I'm surrendering it. They will probably send you a reaffirmation agreement soon.

Thanks for the reply, ironpirate. I have honestly never been late EVER so this has me confused and worried. Not a nice introduction to Ally that's for sure.

So this Ally will send me something about reaffirming the car? Or does the lawyer do that? I kind of thought it would all just be taken care of one step at a time and this letter threw me LOL.

sorry about your own situation. ETA I just saw from your siganture you had your 341 meeting today! Congrats - I hope all goes well for you.

[help1234]

I received the same letter after filing and did finally get thru to customer service. They stated it was just routine to send it out in bk cases even if you were never late. I too plan on keeping the car and asked about reaffirming. Was told our attorney had to request reaffirmation (which of course he would not), but as long as we kept making the payments, they would not repo... she actually laughed and said they have plenty of people NOT making payments that need to be repoed, so why bother with the ones current!!! We have been discharged about 3 weeks now and have not heard a word from them.

[drowningNIL]

Thanks, Help. You guys are making me feel better about this. Seems to be sort of standard BK letter then. The message just seems inappropriate.

I hate when this junk comes in the mail and I have to stew and worry overnight on it. I appreciate the replies.

[ironpirate]

They probably just flagged your account for BK on their system and this is just a standard letter they send out. They usually will send your attorney the reaffirmation agreement and your attorney will send it to you to sign and you send it back to the finance company. Thats what happened with my other car but that was with Toyota.

[IBroke]

I received the same letter after filing and did finally get thru to customer service. They stated it was just routine to send it out in bk cases even if you were never late.

The funny thing is that they send this standard letter out with the wording "We have told credit bureaus about a late payment, missed payment, or other default on your account." to BK-filers - but the wording doesn't apply to them. First, if the filer was late before filing, they can report it without any notice and second, if the filer is late AFTER filing, they are not allowed to report derogatory information besides "IIB" in the first place - so what's the point of this stupid and confusing notification?

[jsofaz]

Hi Drowning, You would have gotten the letter even if it were still GMAC. I received the same letter. I didn't appreciate it either. Anyway, as help1234 pointed out, your attorney will have to request reaffirmation for them to send one to you. They will send it to your attorney who will forward it on to you. My car loan is with GMAC (didn't know they are Ally now. I don't get bills.) I did not reaffirm but am continuing to make payments. We have been waiting to see if they repo because a lot of people have said GMAC does not do ride throughs. So help1234's post is encouraging. :-) Anyway, I am 2 months past discharge and still have my vehicle. Payments are current and all is good.

Also, just in case you didn't already know, now that you have filed bk you will no longer have online access to your account. You will not get any statements either. If you want to keep your vehicle, make sure you continue to make your payments through all of this. Apparently, some people think if they don't get a statement they don't have to pay? Not if you want to keep it. If you reaffirm, you will start getting statements again after you discharge. I did not reaffirm so I do not get statements. But they still cash my check each month. :-)

[stormy]

My car is also financed through GMAC/Ally; I got the same form letter as the rest of you. I had on-line auto payments set up which were immediately canceled once I filed BK so then they started sending me paper statements and I made arrangements through my credit union for auto-pay.

I did call them when I received the first paper statement to make sure that they didn't take out the auto-pay that had been set up for the month of August seeing as I don't have the money to be making 2 car payments. I was told by a customer service rep that my auto-pay was canceled and I needed to either send a check or make other payment arrangements; he also stated that my on-line access to my account would be restored after my bankruptcy was discharged.

I did reaffirm my loan with them; they sent all the papers to my lawyer and at my 341 meeting I signed them in front of the Trustee. He asked me if I understood what I was signing and asked me if I wanted to keep my car to which I answered "yes".

[stormy]

Just to add to my last post: This is the number I was given to contact GMAC/Ally's bankruptcy department directly instead of going through regular customer service.

651-367-2102