Ally formerly GMAC reaffirmation

[jsofaz]

You're welcome, mommi2many. I know how hard it is to decide. I spent a lot of time on this forum trying to see if anyone here actually had a GMAC vehicle repossessed while current. I found posts that said they would. I found posts that said they wouldn't. I didn't find any posts that said they did. We don't want to lose our vehicle but decided to take the chance anyway. We just decided, like you, that it was too long of a commitment to make for such a big payment. I didn't want to be tied down to it if circumstances change. After all, things just keep getting worse and worse in today's economy.

[mommi2many]

jsofaz, you're right. Things do keep getting worse and worse in this economy. I think I must go with my gut instinct which is to not make myself liable for a car when I really don't have to and things are so uncertain in our world.

My husband has a car that we still owe on, but he is not upside down and we have decided we would reaffirm that one if need be. His is owned by Wells Fargo and so far we have heard nothing from them. We will make ourselves liable for the one car, but not both.

Some good points have been made in this thread. So, has anyone actually not reaffirmed with GMAC/Ally and had their car repo'd while making current payments?

[mommi2many]

So I finally spoke to Ally's bk dept. I asked if they would repo if I did not send back the reaff agreement. He said I should consult a lawyer. I told him a lawyer cannot tell me what your company may or may not do. He said he was not allowed to say anything in regards to that, but asked me if I read the clause in the paperwork about voluntary payments. I let him know that is exactly why I was calling so that I could make sense of it. Basically, I got no where.

fyi: the clause about voluntary payments is written in my first post of this thread.

I just thought I would give an update.

[McMark]

We got the same type package, with the same clause about voluntary payments. Our atty had advised us to just ride through, and I took the clause to mean we could just keep paying current and keep it insured and be OK. My wife however is nervous that without signing, they will repo it.

I'm crossing my fingers that they will not, as we don't want to go to a hearing for the reaffirmation. They said that costs extra.

[mommi2many]

McMark,

Thanks for sharing your story. I think I am going to take my chances at a ride thru too. I don't want to go through a reaffirmation hearing either. Like your wife, I am nervous too. I see you have your 341 a few days before me. Please come back and tell your 341 story. I'll come back and post about this reaff if I get any more news.

[telco95]

We were discharged on 10/25/10. I wanted to reaffirm, but never heard anything from the bank. I am also worried about being repoed, now that I have been discharged. We are current, so we shall see!

[mommi2many]

Telcoe,

Good luck and please keep us updated.

[jsofaz]

Just wanted to pop in and say that today is exactly 3 months since our Chapter 7 discharge. We did not reaffirm our GMAC vehicle. I send in that payment every month and we still have our vehicle. So far, so good.

[mommi2many]

jsofaz,

Thanks for popping in and telling us that good news. That's what we all want to hear. I will continue to update as I get further in this process and hopefully get to keep my car. Please do the same.

[mrslick]

hi all, i converted my case to chapter 7 last month due to a big decrease in income. my case is like this, i'm 3 months behind on my mortgage and i just got my loan mod docs. my mod is very similar to others except on the 7th year the rate will be 4% and will remain at that for the rest of the term. the only problem is, the bank is requiring me to get court approval before the mod is clomplete. my attorney talked to the trustee today and she said that that would not be a smart move to have the court approval and my attorney agreed with her. i'm not upside down on my house, i still have about $50k in equity even in this housing crisis. my first question is, does court approval means that i have reaffirm the mortgage? second, my attorney seems to be concern about his liability if he represent me if indeed the court approval the bank wants is reaffirmation, i thought attorney suppose to do what's best for the client? my Wife and I both want to keep the house. third, did anyone of you needed court approval to get the loan modify? Please help, my 341 meeting is this monday. Plus i like the idea of reaffirm the house, so that we will at least have something good on our credit. even if in the future something happen where we can afford the low mortgage payment, we can sell the house and payoff the mortgage. is it upto us to push the reaffirmation if the trustee and my attorney don't want to do it?

[Mensa1]

So Ally sends a reaffirmation packet today. On my SOI I checked reaffirm, but I have really been praying for a ride through since that is in my best interest. As soon as I filed, Ally revoked my online privileges, but in my packet today they say my online privileges are reinstated because I chose to reaffirm.

I filed pro se so I am trying to understand this reaff agreement thoroughly and I am asking for everyone's 2 cents. Here is the paragraph I am trying to understand:

If your case discharges without the reaffirmation agreement being valid and/or approved, your reactivated billing statements will be suspended, at which point you may be eligible to receive Informational Statements to assist you with voluntary payments should you desire to retain possession of the subject vehicle.

What if I don't return this reaff? Do you think I could actually do a ride through? That's what I think I'm reading or at least hope I am.

2 cents please.

m2m:

The statement merely calls any statement "informational" which keeps them in compliance with Bk law... otherwise if the statement is not for info purposes only then it could be construed that by sending the statement that they are attempting to collect a debt... that which has been discharged by Bk.

What I read in the statement is that they are going to allow you to ride thru, period. You are making the right decision to not reaffirm the debt, IMO. With a 60 month loan the value of the vehicle is no doubt considerably less than the amount owed now. As you stated, if at any time things change and you decide not to keep the vehicle, there is no penalty.

We were discharged in June, (5 months now), did not reaffirm 2 car notes, (Chase and Nissan), and there has been no issue. (Had indicated that we were going to reaffirm but simply changed our minds and didn't sign the reaffirmation agreements, against the advice of our Atty... (he stated that they would repo for sure; NOT). Nissan, after discharge, sent a letter with an authorization for me to sign and return if I wanted to receive "informational invoices only". They have resumed sending the monthly invoice just as before. Chase has sent no such authorization and sends no invoice, but the pymt is made like clock work. If they ever want the vehicles, they know right where they are located and I will be happy to open the garage door for them. It is merely a hunk of metal, and there are other hunks of metal out there to be had. We would adjust if that occurred, but the upside is we aren't responsible for those 2 auto notes, both of which are slightly upside down. My concern was with reaffirm, say you got hit by an unisured motorist, car is totalled. Insurance isn't going to pay off the note in full, so you have no car and a balance to pay. Sure, you could carry that gap coverage for full payoff, but I don't. So just another reason why not to reaffirm any debt when filing a Bk. Just my opinion, and lots of Attys disagree with this thinking, but it is the debtor that has to be at peace with the risk of losing the vehicle to the midnight hook, if not reaffirmed. I am good with it.

[mommi2many]

m2m:

If they ever want the vehicles, they know right where they are located and I will be happy to open the garage door for them. It is merely a hunk of metal, and there are other hunks of metal out there to be had. We would adjust if that occurred, but the upside is we aren't responsible for those 2 auto notes, both of which are slightly upside down. My concern was with reaffirm, say you got hit by an unisured motorist, car is totalled. Insurance isn't going to pay off the note in full, so you have no car and a balance to pay. Sure, you could carry that gap coverage for full payoff, but I don't. So just another reason why not to reaffirm any debt when filing a Bk. Just my opinion, and lots of Attys disagree with this thinking, but it is the debtor that has to be at peace with the risk of losing the vehicle to the midnight hook, if not reaffirmed. I am good with it.

Mensa,

Excellent point and well taken by me! I think you are right on the money with this. I have already decided to go with my first mind and that is to not reaffirm. I have no crystal ball and feel like I am being given a chance to have a real fresh start and I have got to take it. It is just a hunk of metal and I am ok if they decide to take it.

Now, as for my husband, his car is owned by Wells Fargo and he is leaning towards reaffirming. He is not upside down, actually has a little equity, but still has 48 months left. I, personally, don't want to reaffirm this one either. He's not a dare devil like me, I guess. So, we are still figuring that out. Wells Fargo finally sent a reaff agreement this past week and I just haven't got around to calling them and asking what their policy is on a possible ride thru. When I know more, I will post about that.

Thanks for all of the great advice!

[BKDebby]

I love my hunk of metal I bought in June, so I'm going to reaffirm.....IF Toyota gets on the ball with the paperwork. My 341 was 11/10 and my attorney has contacted them 3 times now and no paperwork yet.

I wonder what happens if Toyota won't send it? I have always been current, and even pay a little ahead of time. Maybe they don't like I got the 0% APR financing and are balking because of that.

BTW, I purchased the gap insurance on my car insurance policy. It only adds $5.00 every 6 months. It's worth it to me.

[mikeinsurpri]

Excellent information in this post. We just filed on Nov. 2 and have two car loans, one with Hyundai Motor Finance and one with Ally formally GMAC. Our SOI was to retain and pay but I was nervous so I called GMAC and they will be mailing the reafirm paperwork to our attorney. We have about 3 or 4 years left on the GMAC but it is at 0% interest. So we are leaning on signing the reafirm paperwork cause we know we won't see 0% for may years. The Hyundai has 7 months left, and we should be able to pay it off before the 7 months if they were going to demand a payment.
I think someone made a good point, we've heard that GMAC will repo if current and not reafirm paperwork signed, but has this really happened to anyone?
Also I heard that sometimes judges vacate the hearing so it shows you have made an attempt to reafirm but there is no judgment saying you did. Kind of like a way the judge protects the debtor.
If anyone has any comments or corrections to what I've posted please let me know.

[jsofaz]

That's interesting that your SOI was to retain and pay yet when you called GMAC they told you they would mail the reaffirm paperwork to your attorney. Did they tell you that your attorney had to amend your petition before they could send the reaffirmation? We had every intention to reaffirm but never received the paperwork. When I called GMAC, they told me that since the petition was marked retain and pay they could not send out a reaffirmation. My attorney would have to amend the petition before they could do that. I discussed this with my husband and my attorney. That's when we decided to not bother and just take our chances.

Just to update everyone, our auto loan is with GMAC. I know it's Ally now but only because of this forum. They have never sent me anything about that. I still send my payments to GMAC because if I did not read this forum I wouldn't know it had changed. I thought about calling them but I figure what if we fell under the radar somehow. I don't want to bring myself to their attention. Anyway, we still have 3 years left on our loan so we do owe a lot. Our Chapter 7 discharge was July 27. It is now November 13. I make my payments on time each month. We still have our vehicle. I'll keep you guys posted.