Retain and pay, has anyone ever been repoed?

[telco95]

I just don't want to go through the whole process of getting repoed and trying to get financed for another vehicle. We are an asset case (wife has OLD 2nd house), had our 341 in Aug. I have kids and it would be hard for me to be without a vehicle. The bank that financed me was a sub prime lender, don't know if that makes a diff.
Also, as far as having insurance on a vehicle, does anybody know if I have to send in proof of insurance everytime my insurance renews(6months)?

[maddog2112]

I was a ch13 converted to ch7 and had 10k equity in a vehicle thru drive financial, which turned into santander. Both sub prime. I never reaffirmed or was even asked to. Held onto the vehicle for 2.5 years thru the 13 and 8 months after the 7 was discharged. I had autopay thru my bank, so was never late. No one ever questioned any of it and there was never any threat of repo. I have since traded in the vehicle. hope this helps.

[backtoschool]

I just don't want to go through the whole process of getting repoed and trying to get financed for another vehicle. We are an asset case (wife has OLD 2nd house), had our 341 in Aug. I have kids and it would be hard for me to be without a vehicle. The bank that financed me was a sub prime lender, don't know if that makes a diff.
Also, as far as having insurance on a vehicle, does anybody know if I have to send in proof of insurance everytime my insurance renews(6months)?

In all honesty, I think it is rare that auto finance companies repo cars that are current in payment. I think you will most likely be fine. But you seem to be risk adverse, so if you have a decent interest rate on the car (which if it is a subprime lender you probably don't) you might consider reaffirming just for your peace of mind. I think if your loan is a subprime one, reaffirmation is probably a bad idea, since six month post bk you will most likely qualify for a better rate. You could reaffirm and refinance or reaffirm and trade the car in in six months or so as another option. Reaffirmation will lock you into a bad interest rate, so if you can handle the uncertainty, you are probably going to be better off not reaffirming the car in my opinion, if your district allows that. It's all about individual circumstances, and yours lean towards not reaffirming.

[wnguyen]

I have never heard of a house being taken so long as payments were kept up. However I have heard Chrysler and Ford motor credit have been known to repo if case is closed and reaffirm was never done. So ymmv. I rode thru a car loan from Carmax for awhile and then offered a lump sum for about 1200 less then owed a few months after my case closed. Admittedly my offer was only 1100 bucks.

Thanks for pointing this out, DebtEnder. At least I'm not alone in saying so. I'm glad I didn't finance with Ford last year.

[SunkShip]

My lawyer called Ford Motor Credit and they told him they WILL repo without a signed reaffirmation even if we are current on payments. I do not know if they really would, or have, but that is what they told lawyer last month.

[ccsjoe]

My attorney actually had two clients this year that got repo'd by FMC, both hoping to retain and pay against my attorney's recomendation on dealing with FMC. I have FMC, loan is 28K, blue book is 25K, so yeah, they will repo. FMC also told me plainly that they will repo without a reaff.

[mrskal]

So, do most think that Ford will be fine if you reaffirm? Are they going to ask how I plan on making payments? I am not working now, but will be in about a month, so it will not be a problem to make the payments. I have been late in the past, will they question me on that?

[telco95]

I have bad credit, my credit was good last year, but I stopped paying CC bills and just filed ch 7 in July. I posted before on this forum about getting a vehicle repoed right before we filed because we told the bank we were going to file( less than a month late on payment with a few unpaid late charges, but they repoed because we notified them of the BK). I purchased used vehicle in June with $2k down. My current intrest rate is high, but I need a vehicle and don't have another downpayment.

[blockhead]

In the Statement of Intention my attorney checked OTHER and stated "Retain and pay pursuant to contract" for a car. This is in Massachusetts.
There is a state law that stops a creditor repossessing unless there is monetary default and then they have to provide a 'cure' amount and wait 90 days - something like that. So check state law on auto repossession.

[tobee43]

tcreegan"Retain and Pay" is no longer an option in a Ch 7 BK....you only have Redeem, Surrender, Reaffirm

actually tom, here in florida we have "other" as well.....so the list is ...redeem, surrender, reaffirm or other__________. it may be different in different areas.

as backtoschool and joe points out a house and car are very different...there are enough used repo'ed cars in this world to fill china and the usa most likely 3 times over...they don't want your car and are most likely so happy you are paying on time...you should be fine.

but just one question...did you have an atty or were you pro se...because this situation, if you had retained and paid an atty should have been clearly addressed so you had a full understanding of the pro and cons...

[AlmostAmos]

I had two car loans - one with a small credit union and one with FORD CREDIT (ugh!). When I filed CH7, my intention was to reaffirm both loans as I purchased both cars 6 months before filing so I had my transportation lined up for the next few years. When dust settled, my schedule J came out SLIGHTLY negative. My attorney refused to sign the reaffirmations saying that he could not do so in good faith. He then sent a letter to my CU, Ford, the BK Judge and the attorney for Ford. He told me that in our district, the Judge WILL NOT ALLOW repo's on loans that are kept current after BK. They told me to keep the loans current and I won't have anything to worry about. So, we'll see how this plays out with Ford. My CU has been VERY friendly thus far - Ford told my wife that they would repo if they didn't have a signed reaffirmation agreement filed. But, this was BEFORE the attorney refused to sign. He says I performed on my intention as I intended to sign it. I can't help that my attorney (and the judge) wouldn't sign/approve.

There you have it, my $.02 - FWIW.

-AA

[backtoschool]

actually tom, here in florida we have "other" as well.....so the list is ...redeem, surrender, reaffirm or other__________. it may be different in different areas.

as backtoschool and joe points out a house and car are very different...there are enough used repo'ed cars in this world to fill china and the usa most likely 3 times over...they don't want your car and are most likely so happy you are paying on time...you should be fine.

but just one question...did you have an atty or were you pro se...because this situation, if you had retained and paid an atty should have been clearly addressed so you had a full understanding of the pro and cons...

Some finance companies repo non reaffirmed vehicles just as a matter of procedure. Ford Motor Credit and Chrysler Motor credit have been known to do this.

Often finance companies do not want the risk of somebody driving around in a car that they have no legal liability for. There is no incentive to take care of the car, etc.... Many credit unions will repo the car as well. But most banks and other finance companies will not. As with anything ymmv.

[stueban]

My lawyer called Ford Motor Credit and they told him they WILL repo without a signed reaffirmation even if we are current on payments. I do not know if they really would, or have, but that is what they told lawyer last month.

Toyota said the same for us. So if we wanted to keep the cars, we had to reaffirm.

[justbroke]

I don't know if it had been mentioned, but Retain and Pay does work for Real Property. What happened to the Bankruptcy Code (Title 11) during the BAPCPA amendments of 2005, is that they added language that personal property had to select either redeem, reaffirm, or surrender as an option. Many courts have addressed this and the language doesn't apply to real property.

[telco95]

Yes, we have an attorney. She really didn't fully explain these options, other than if we wanted to keep house and vehicle. After reading these forums, right after our 341, we asked her to contact the banks for house and vehicle asking them to send us reaffirmation paper work to sign. 2 months have passed, haven't heard anything from either bank.