Question about Ford Motor Credit & Lack of Reaffirmation Agreement

[casablanca]

I posted here about this situation a couple of weeks ago, but now I need some more information. Recap: We filed BK7 in August, discharged 12/1. At our 341 meeting we signed a Reaffirmation Agreement with Ford Motor Credit & our attorney forwarded it to Ford for filing with the court. It somehow got lost in Ford-land and was never filed. Our attorney didn't catch it, I didn't even know it had to be filed with the court until it was too late. The Judge in our district has written an opinion that she will not, under any circumstances, reopen a case to file a reaffirmation, so we're SOL.

According to Ford's local attorney FMC has agreed to allow us to "pay and drive" but will not put anything in writing to that effect. Our attorney says "as long as they accept your payment" they cannot repossess the vehicle. My payment was due last Friday, I mailed it a week prior to the payment due date since we still can't make an online payment. It has never taken more than 3 days from mailing to posting to our account online. As of today the payment is still not posted, nor cleared through our bank, and now we are technically late.

My question (finally) is: If anyone has had a non-reaffirmed loan with FMC did they continue to accept the payments after your discharge, or did they reject them prior to repossessing the vehicle? I'm just trying to figure out if we have a problem or not. Our attorney has contacted the Ford attorney again, but no response yet, and I'm sitting on pins and needles worrying about this whole situation.

Thank you for any input.

[Charlie777]

Since they may have messed up the reaffirmation they 've been fairly decent about this. I do understand they usually (depending on the state and BK court) allow drivethroughs without reaffirmation, based on their agreement saying filing bankruptcy itself is a default.

It's possible mail is delayed due to weather or other causes. You may, via your attorney, get one more pass, but mailing "a week early" provides no proof you mailed it, or that they received it. That's a big exposure because they WILL exercise their right to repossess if you miss a payment. Think about using a billpay service, or setting up automatic bank drafts for your payments. I know you wouldn't have filed if you had extra funds lying around, but consider paying right after the statement cuts instead of before the payment is due.

[DebtEnder]

There are many horror stories of Ford repo after BK without a re-affirm. one recently where a poster insisted his attorney file a re-affirm and the attorney refused. However in your case you were not allowed to file a re-affirm. You did try however the CREDITOR failed to do it. In such case so long as you can keep copies of paid checks to ford if they ever do try to come after it you can nail them hard. It was no error of yours that Ford failed to protect their interest.

As far a future payments online bill pays are great. Saved me well over 200 bucks this past year do to oopps it got lost somewhere mess-ups...

[Charlie777]

Since they may have messed up the reaffirmation they 've been fairly decent about this. I do understand they usually (depending on the state and BK court) allow drivethroughs without reaffirmation, based on their agreement saying filing bankruptcy itself is a default.

It's possible mail is delayed due to weather or other causes. You may, via your attorney, get one more pass, but mailing "a week early" provides no proof you mailed it, or that they received it. That's a big exposure because they WILL exercise their right to repossess if you miss a payment. Think about using a billpay service, or setting up automatic bank drafts for your payments. I know you wouldn't have filed if you had extra funds lying around, but consider paying right after the statement cuts instead of before the payment is due.

I meant to say "I do understand they usually (depending on the state and BK court) DON'T allow drivethroughs without reaffirmation"

[DebtEnder]

Ford however is rather foolish. I think the cutoff was something like 4750. Anything less then that they won't mess with.

[Charlie777]

You're right about the practicalities, but I understand from my BK Lawyer and watching forums that Ford (and Chrysler) are particularly tough on "drivethroughs" (make payments but don't reaffirm).

Casablanca has a payment they have neither accepted nor rejected, since Ford's local attorney has been involved there hopefully won't be a problem this time, but once this goes into normal processing, if another payment is missed there may be a problem.

[casablanca]

Thank you for all of the replies - I did call my bank today to set up the bill pay service, setting up payments for the week before their due date, just so I can sleep at night. I've always made these payments by autopay until now. I also talked to Ford directly and confirmed that they have received the payment, it just isn't posted yet for some reason. If this were not a 0% loan that I am actually right side up in I would have told Ford to take the vehicle and place it in a rather uncomfortable place after this ridiculous BS. Sorry, just felt like b*****ng.

[BROKEDED]

Keep in mind that there can be delays between when you want the check to be mailed and when it actually is mailed. If FMC allows you to pay by phone, THAT is the most assured way to make sure it is paid on time even if you have to pay a service fee. Just make sure you get a confirmation number if you do that and keep a log safe somewhere with the time, date, confirmation # and the rep's name that took your payment.