My auto loan company stopped sending me bills because of the bk?

[ScoobaSteve]

I filed for Chap 7 in February and was discharged just last week. I realized as I was making online payments for my other bills that I hadn't received my car payment bill. So I looked back and realized I haven't gotten a bill since April. I have still been making online payments though, I have never missed or been late with a car payment. I went to their website (Santander) to look at my account and it was locked. So I called them and was told that they received word of bk so they stopped sending me bill and locked my account. All the payments I have sent them have been applied normally though. Why would they do this? They said my lawyer would need to contact them for everything to resume normally. I only have my August and September payments left, then the car is paid off. It doesn't seem worth the trouble to have my lawyer contact them when the car will be paid off in 6 weeks. I just plan on calling Santander in September to get the final payoff amount and be done with it.

Just curious if this is normal and has happened to other people?

Also, do you think there will be any problem next month once I make the final payment. Will they not send me the title because of the bk, or because my lawyer never contacted them?

[stevie2012]

Same thing with me and SunTrust. I can't even use their automated system.

[frogger]

It is typical for the bills to stop. If they sent you a bill, it could be construed as an attempt to collect a debt while you are under bankruptcy. Just keep on paying. You should have no problem obtaining your title after payoff.

[TXskyblue]

BOA sends me a bill, but it is clearly marked "for information purposes only" and "this is not a bill" and "this is not an attempt to collect a debt".

[Pizza]

I think they stop sending bills because A) they don't have to, and B) you 'might' forget to pay if you don't receive a bill.

[sbatman]

Honda stopped sending us invoices, even though my non-BK partner was a joint owner. I guess Honda is no longer allowed to send invoices even if there is a non-BK co-owner. So we called them up, got all needed info and continued the payments until my dear Sweetie-Pie paid off the $13K remaining (yes, he is THAT good!) and we were sent the title and all was good in the world.

[mlevesque308]

ScoobaSteve: I have the same bank for my auto loan, and have had the same issue with them. Rather than pay on-line; I've saved an old bill and made copies and change the date to the necessary month I'm paying. I also mail it with a tracking # through post office. I was on auto-pay and they stopped, so rather than be in a bind, this is what I chose to do.

[kornellred]

All discharged auto loans are placed in a "no correspondence" file. Don't forget - even secured auto loans are discharged in bankruptcy. The debtor no longer has an obligation to pay the balance down. However, if the debtor does not pay, the creditor will take possession of the vehicle, unless there is no point in doing so because of the age or condition of said vehicle. In any case, the debtor will not obtain title to the vehicle unless the vehicle is 100 percent paid for. The debtor is still responsible for the vehicle even if the lien holder does not release the title.

[ccmisery]

Ford did the same thing with me, then the bills in the mail stopped and online access noted it was effected by a bankruptcy, I could not I see the payment due date but had to make payments via my bank not through Ford Credit's site. I was told after discharge everything would return to normal, I checked today and it is back to normal.

[rt31]

I am dealing with this with my mortgage and HSBC. They have been horrible to deal with. They cutoff my online access, refused to send reaffirmation paperwork. After we were discharged they sent our attorney an email stating that the loan modification we had requested could not be approved and wanted us to file reaffirmation papers. We never requested a loan mod and when we had requested the reaffirmation paperwork prior to discharge they refused. I was making payments via the phone and all of a sudden they wanted to charge us $30 for each payment. I now have to mail them a check each month and hope they get it and don't change addresses or something stupid like that. We have never been late or missed any payments. The people I have had to deal with on the phone have been horrid.

[ksgirl38]

This is normal. You should have previous bills. All you need to do is make sure a check is mailed to them with the account number clearly on it. You should know the amount of your payment and due date anyway. Once you are discharged you can call them and ask for the bankruptcy department and explain that you are now discharged and you would like to resume online access to your account. It may take a few day to a week for them to take care of this, but you then should be able to resume access online. Although in some cases you may need to set it up again. In some cases they may change your account number after a bankruptcy. Verizon does that. This is why it's usually best to pay as much as possible before your filing date, if you can.