Ch. 7 Auto Loan Question

[buddha]

Well since this subject seems to be an unsettled one I wanted to update what has occurred since I asked this question.

Firstly, to kornellred and jackbondlove, all I can say is much of the information you both provided was very inaccurate.

Secondly, to justbroke, you were definitely on the right path.

I was contacted by the insurance company and offered a settlement check. The insurance company asked me for the title of the vehicle in exchange for the check. I then had to tell them that Chase had the title because of the (discharged) loan. At that point I had the option to simply say "forget the check, give chase the totaled car." However, the amount the insurance company was (to my surprise) double that which I owed to Chase. So, I decided to have the insurance company pay chase the remaining balance on the vehicle and then they issued me a check for the remaining payout of the vehicle.

Bottom line is, if you are doing a ride through on your vehicle after a chapter 7, you hold most of the power. There really is no point in re-affirming a car loan in 99 percent of situations. I could have stopped paying whenever I wanted and could never have been made liable for the debt. The worst they could have done was repossess the vehicle and cut their losses. If I did not have comprehensive insurance coverage (hence not be offered any money) or if I was offered money that was less than I owed on the vehicle, I could have walked away with no problems. The only reason I paid Chase was that I benefited from it.

So to answer justbroke's questions are that although Chase was not listed on the check, they would not give me a check without the title (or a payoff from the title holder).

[justbroke]

Yes, this is slightly different than I suspected. From what I know about totaled vehicles, the insurer sometimes offers to sell the vehicle back as salvage and take it from the gross insurance proceeds. In your case, they wanted the vehicle and the title so that they could get a salvage title -- or otherwise sell it as junk.

Since you didn't actually have the title, that makes perfect sense to me. I'm glad that it worked out in your favor!

[OhioFiler]

I would think you could have negotiated the settlement net of the salvage value of the vehicle with the insurance company and received a larger check from the insurance company. What they paid to Chase was much more than the salvage value of the vehicle.