Discharge and Fresh Start Out of the Gate!

[nomadicjeff]

My fellow Ch7 peeps,

My discharge arrived on Monday, 12/2! KIA is on notice that I want to return their 'Soul' and Capital One came through with $30k at 8.07%! Going shopping for wheels and driving into a new life! Thanks to everyone here for their input as the info here has been MORE useful than anything my lawyer gave me!

Best of luck to all of you in 2014! Regardless of where you are in the process, you CAN begin again!

[BG34]

My fellow Ch7 peeps,

My discharge arrived on Monday, 12/2! KIA is on notice that I want to return their 'Soul' and Capital One came through with $30k at 8.07%! Going shopping for wheels and driving into a new life! Thanks to everyone here for their input as the info here has been MORE useful than anything my lawyer gave me!

Best of luck to all of you in 2014! Regardless of where you are in the process, you CAN begin again!

How soon after your discharge did you apply for the Capitol One for the car?

[nomadicjeff]

A whopping THREE days!

[brokehmowner]

A whopping THREE days!

Did they send you an offer, or you just applied? Not in the market for a car but I've been getting so many offers because of the bk and wondered how that works

[BG34]

A whopping THREE days!

Congrats!!! Ok good.. I'm in the middle of Chp7 myself, did hearing on 11/19 and they are coming for the vechile that i'm surrendering next week but my case is not expected to discharge till 1/21/14. I will need a vechile to get to work and get kids to school. So this helps to know that i don't necessarily have to wait 6months to a year to get a ride.. Thanks

[nomadicjeff]

I applied with wife, who also discharged jointly, online and by choice/reference to success stories found here on the forums. Glad I did it as I have a huge list of options open now!

[Blossoms]

That's a really good rate, for being fresh out of bankruptcy! When my husband and I bought a (used) minivan after our 2003 bankruptcy, we got stuck with a 23 percent rate! And that was 8 months after discharge, too! We were able to refinance with another lender after 6 months, but we were still at 14 percent. We ended up trading in that van, after it was paid off, as it had high miles, and a lot of mechanical problems by that point, and got an 11 percent rate on another van, through Ally. So I'm always astounded when people manage to get single digit interest rates on vehicles fresh out of bankruptcy.

Congrats!

[nomadicjeff]

Actually, I have an update. Since CapOne "letter/check" wasn't going to arrive until next week and KIA is picking up their car tomorrow, we went to Honda Dealership to see if they could compete with 8.07%/72mos. Boy did they ever! 4.99%/72mos and I put $1k down to keep the payment in the desired range. Now driving a year-end deal (steal) in a Civic Coupe! All black, like the ink in my checkbook from now on! Cheers!

[Blossoms]

Holy cow, that's fantastic!!! My husband and I are going to have to buy another vehicle after our current bk, as we are surrendering our current vehicle. I think I would cry with joy if we were to get such a low rate on a car, lol! If you don't mind me asking, do you and your wife have a fairly high income? Just wondering if that helped with that great rate?

[nomadicjeff]

The trick was to file BEFORE we went late on anything. Our credit scores took a small dive from the mid-700's to low 700's. We make mid-60k at this time (wife was unemployed a long while beforehand which helped with means test).

[Blossoms]

Oh, now that makes more sense. Mine and my husband's credit has been trashed for quite a while, unfortunately. I've been out of work off and on for 5 years now, and several jobs I've had have been low paying temp jobs. Not by choice, job market is just bad here. My husband was laid off too, in 2006 and 2009/10. Then last year, his paychecks got garnished for three separate debts, all in a row, and I ran out of unemployment pay. On top of all that, our minivan got repoed. So we have a bunch of judgments on our credit reports, and a repo.

Our bk lawyer pulled credit reports for us, before we filed in October, and our FICO scores were low 500s. I think we're going to have a very tough uphill battle getting approved for another auto loan at at a decent rate. Sigh...

[nioka]

The trick was to file BEFORE we went late on anything. Our credit scores took a small dive from the mid-700's to low 700's. We make mid-60k at this time (wife was unemployed a long while beforehand which helped with means test).

Nice deal on that Honda!

I am in the pre-planning stages of filing Chapter 7. I am curious that you were current with your bills.

Attorneys I have talked to seem anxious to get stated on my filing and I thought that may have been because they want the business. After reading your post I wonder if they really were acting in my best interest.

Could you elaborate on your pre-BK, BK, and post BK. Thanks

(This is important to me because I have called a few apartment complexes with a management team. I told them I would be filing BK and asked if that would play a role in my being approved. Each one that I called told me that look at credit scores and not BK. If keeping my credit score up means keeping bills current until I file then that certainly seems the way to go).

[keepmine]

One thing to keep in mind about auto financing. Most lenders use something called an enhanced auto score. It's derived from the FICO formula but, huge weight is given to your history with auto loans.
IOW, while you may be late or default with other creditors, if you have a history of keeping your auto loan in good shape, odds are you'll keep doing that no matter what.

[nioka]

Keepmine,

Thanks, that is good to know.

I wonder how far back they go.

I had always paid on time and paid off ahead of schedule. In 2005 after I retired I bought a new vehicle and paid cash.

That 2005 is now pushing 150k miles. I have maintained it properly but I know it will need to be replaced in coming years.