Hi everyone, I have not been on here for awhile. I filed on 7/31/10, and had my 341 meeting on 9/2. Since then it has been a waiting game. It was not clear to me that I would not be discharged until I had my "reaffirmation hearing," which was not scheduled until yesterday due to the courts being backed up. Five months after filing!
Frankly, I didn't understand much about reaffirmation at all. I bought a used car a little over a month before filing because my previous car was old, in bad shape, and paid for, and the car payment meant the difference between a 7 or a 13 for me. So, pay $250 towards a car a month for 5 years, or pay a trustee $250 a month for my debts for 5 years (plus a lot of additional attorney fees). So, in all of this I assumed I HAD to do the reaffirmation, and my attorney never said otherwise, nor did she talk about trying to negotiate the terms of the agreement, it was written for the same terms as the original loan.
What became clear to me at the hearing yesterday, as I listened to the multiple cases before me, is that the judge does not want to approve these agreements, and essentially said over and over "Not having a reaffirmation agreement means you have flexibility. If something happens where you can't make the payments, they will just take the car. Under a reaffirmation agreement, they will take the car and sue you for the difference in value of loan to value, plus repo charges, etc." She only seemed to approve those who had less than a year's payments left, or who owed much less than the car was worth. And, being that my loan is so new, and my balance is about 11K and car is worth 10K, my agreement was not approved. What she told me and all others who were not approved was, "Your finance company does not want your car, they want your money. If you make the payments, you keep the car. If you learn differently, write me a little and we'll get you back on the docket."
So I called the finance company today and they said indeed I could just keep making payments. They did add that it will show up as a debt discharged in bankruptcy until the car is paid in full, and only then will it show as positive credit on my report.
So...wondering if anyone is knowledgeable about this? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Is it correct that this debt not show up as paid as agreed until it is paid in full?
Other than that, I will be officially discharged 1/24/11.
Frankly, I didn't understand much about reaffirmation at all. I bought a used car a little over a month before filing because my previous car was old, in bad shape, and paid for, and the car payment meant the difference between a 7 or a 13 for me. So, pay $250 towards a car a month for 5 years, or pay a trustee $250 a month for my debts for 5 years (plus a lot of additional attorney fees). So, in all of this I assumed I HAD to do the reaffirmation, and my attorney never said otherwise, nor did she talk about trying to negotiate the terms of the agreement, it was written for the same terms as the original loan.
What became clear to me at the hearing yesterday, as I listened to the multiple cases before me, is that the judge does not want to approve these agreements, and essentially said over and over "Not having a reaffirmation agreement means you have flexibility. If something happens where you can't make the payments, they will just take the car. Under a reaffirmation agreement, they will take the car and sue you for the difference in value of loan to value, plus repo charges, etc." She only seemed to approve those who had less than a year's payments left, or who owed much less than the car was worth. And, being that my loan is so new, and my balance is about 11K and car is worth 10K, my agreement was not approved. What she told me and all others who were not approved was, "Your finance company does not want your car, they want your money. If you make the payments, you keep the car. If you learn differently, write me a little and we'll get you back on the docket."
So I called the finance company today and they said indeed I could just keep making payments. They did add that it will show up as a debt discharged in bankruptcy until the car is paid in full, and only then will it show as positive credit on my report.
So...wondering if anyone is knowledgeable about this? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Is it correct that this debt not show up as paid as agreed until it is paid in full?
Other than that, I will be officially discharged 1/24/11.
Report of No Distribution!! 12/14/10
Received UST Presumption of Abuse!! 12/15/10
UST states Dismissal is Inappropriate! DISHARGED!! 2/22/11
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