Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Bankruptcy and Vehicle Financing
This discussion has been closed.
Most popular vehicles
Popular New Cars
- New Acura MDX
- New Acura RDX
- New Audi Q5
- New BMW 3 Series
- New BMW X3
- New Buick Enclave
- New Cadillac Escalade
- New Chevrolet Equinox
- New Chrysler 300
- New Dodge Challenger
- New Ford Edge
- New Ford Escape
- New Ford Expedition
- New Ford Explorer
- New Ford F-150
- New Ford Focus
- New Ford Mustang
- New Honda Accord
- New Honda Civic
- New Honda CR-V
- New Honda Fit
- New Honda Odyssey
- New Honda Pilot
- New Hyundai Elantra
- New Hyundai Santa Fe
- New Hyundai Sonata
- New Hyundai Tucson
- New Jeep Compass
- New Jeep Grand Cherokee
- New Jeep Wrangler
- New Mazda 3
- New Mazda 6
- New Mazda CX-5
- New Nissan Altima
- New Nissan Maxima
- New Nissan Rogue
- New Porsche Cayenne
- New Ram 1500
- New Subaru Crosstrek
- New Subaru Forester
- New Subaru Impreza
- New Subaru Outback
- New Tesla Model S
- New Tesla Model X
- New Toyota 4Runner
- New Toyota Camry
- New Toyota Corolla
- New Toyota Highlander
- New Toyota Prius
- New Toyota RAV4
- New Toyota Sienna
- New Toyota Tacoma
- New Volkswagen Jetta
- New Volvo XC60
- New Volvo XC90
Popular Used Sedans
- Used BMW 5 Series
- Used Chevrolet Impala
- Used Chevrolet Malibu
- Used Chrysler 200
- Used Dodge Charger
- Used Ford Fusion
- Used Ford Taurus
- Used Honda Accord
- Used Honda Civic
- Used Hyundai Elantra
- Used Hyundai Sonata
- Used Tesla Model S
- Used Toyota Camry
- Used Toyota Corolla
- Used Volkswagen Jetta
Popular Used SUVs
- Used Acura MDX
- Used Acura RDX
- Used Ford Edge
- Used Ford Explorer
- Used Honda CR-V
- Used Honda Pilot
- Used Hyundai Santa Fe
- Used Jeep Compass
- Used Lincoln Navigator
- Used Mazda CX-5
- Used Nissan Rogue
- Used Subaru Crosstrek
- Used Subaru Forester
- Used Tesla Model X
- Used Volvo XC90
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
Have fun. I hope it really sucks.
Sounds like you need a lawyer who actually has a clue. This one's apparently blowing smoke up your a** so you'll use him (i.e., it'll be easy to fix your credit, it won't affect your wife, etc.).
Good job, Mazda...I believed you were for real at first.
Now...have anyu of you ever watched a late night infocommercial by these bankruptacy lawyers? Call 1-800 - BANKO and your troubles will be over, after all...it's not your fault!
Hat's off to you Mazda. Great joke. Had me going there for a while too. Nobody that stupid could keep a job though. I should have caught on earlier. My bad.
Joke over now.
HiC
Is there any embarrassment or stigma attached to this for you?
Oh, nevermind...your last post to hungrywhale already answered my question.
Discover Card make a "mistake" allright...They trusted you to pay your bills!
Not to get involve din this but you won't file again for even years. That's how it works.
Been there and done that on getting in over my head - paid off the bulk of it and make very steady reliable payments on the rest. Last I looked my Beacon score was 760 and absolutely everyone offers me the best rate they have. Paying 5.9% on an 00 Accord bought new in December of 99 - $309 a month with a $5,000 trade in down payment.
I agree with a great deal of what whale, cliffy, hicaira and others have been saying even if I'd take a different tone to it. Basically if you bite the bullet and steadily reduce the debt it will indeed suck for several years but you'll coe out smelling like a rose. What you are proposing will likely lead to a repetitive pattern that will haunt you for decades. I really urge you to reconsider.
Please do keep us posted on what you do and what you are finding are the benefits and consequences even if it turns out differently than you expected. It would be a valuable educational experience for everyone.
I also have a few credit cards with my dad that are joint. He had to use them when his retna tore and he needed a surgery. He was out of work for 5 months. At that time he also tore a ligament in his knee. That also cost a lot to fix. Since he maxed out the cards and had no choice, he had to also file a bankruptcy a few months ago. SO guess what? they are trying to collect from me. So all and all it is not a good thing right now. I really do need some time without these bills so that I can get my life back on track. All jokes aside, I do understand why somepeople get mad at people that do not repay, but what a persons intentions are matters most. I do joke around but inside it hurts to see my perfect credit go down the drain. It will take time to reapir this but I will. Thanks
I do urge you if at all possible to keep on the payment bandwagon. Working from fear is an invitation for disaster. Do see if there's a consolidation option out there. Someone earlier mentioned an honest debt consolidation outfit. Check it out. Yes, there are sharks out there but there are decent folks trying to get help you get yourself back on your feet.
What you did for your father is commendible but you can see where it got everyone - he had to declare bankruptcy and because you attched your name to some of his debt they are coming after you. Try to stop the cycle. When some of the creditors (perhaps with the intervention of a debt consolidator) realize that their options are either working with you or blowing off the whole debt they may well change their tune. These guys love a regular payer.
I agree with you that there are some real sharks out there aiming at you - duck their aim and get real help. I can't speak for the lawyers you've consulted. There are certainly enough of them that will prey on folks in your situation so be very, very careful. Guess who is the first guy to get paid in full in this situation? Right on teh first guess! It's the lawyer. Be very careful. There is a way out of this. It will take a long time but you will come out of this with a better credit rating and what's more you'll be a better man for it (trust me on that one) with more respect both for others and yourself.
Best of luck and keep us posted.
BTW - no matter how tough it sounds, cut up and destroy any credit cards now! It's a tough road but the only road out! And when you are back on your feet - avoid Discover - highest rates I've seen.
Forget a new car. I don't know about carsdirect financing so I can't help there. The other guys actually had a good idea. Got $2K? Buy a $2K car. Yeah, it's not as much fun and such but an old Civic or such with 150,000 miles on it may well be as reliable as a new Kia and you will own it outright. You will never be caught in an upside down loan here! If your wife has separate money and can sweeten the pot a little so much the better but $2K can indeed buy you a doable car. Pay a mechanic to check it out and replace the timing belt unless you have a documented receipt showing it has been done recently. You'll find both the best and worst deals from someone just selling their car in the paper. My own observation is that used Nissans go for a bit less than the comparable Honda or Toyota and still do pretty well - bu that's just me.
BTW - if those cards with you jointly with your dad still exist kill them. Right now yo have to take care of yourself and indeed you have another person you owe things to in that wife of yours. Sounds like a good woman and she's with you on this. She comes before your dad as difficult as that may be to hear.
I probably won't be back in tonight but I'll check in here so try to be OK - OK? The advice the other guys were giving you was actually good advice. Don't shoot the messanger.
Also, don't you think a bankruptcy court is going to have a hard time approving your bankruptcy given you still have a job?
That said I will admit to my vehicle prejudice up front and tell you I'm not a big fan of Ford and would be wary of a Sable with that many miles. The only way you'll get $2,000 for it is trading it in but that doesn't make that a good idea. I still think a Toyota-Honda-Nissan with more miles is the better bet if you can indeed get the $2,000. Heck, almost anything that runs will get you maybe $1,500 so a private sale on the Sable might be doable. I'm kind of playing with this one so bear with me here. Even I will admit that the Sable is indeed a car with no negative equity right now - it's better than nothing. A great deal better than nothing. Tuck the $300 a month aside in a savings account and before any time at all you'll have over $1,000 and growing so that if the Sable hits a major repair (say a tranny rebuild which might set you back $1,800 - it what I paid to rebuild a Windstall tranny - it's probably the same tranny). But I'm off my point. At $300 a month in 6 months you would have enough to rebuild that transmission if you needed to and pay cash doing it - and again - no debt on the car! It ain't pretty but you'll get breathing room. Ya know the more I think about it the more that sounds like a decent idea to get you through. Trust me - I'm not noramally one to advise people to hang onto Ford products but this may well be an exception.
My very uneducated guess is your clunk is a front end problem or worn out shocks. If it makes its way through state inspections and you can live with it you MAY want to ride this out for a bit. Having the mechanic say they can't find it should mean that they've checked for the dangerous stuff.
Here's why I'm trying to steer you away from a new Kia or something like that. One - it puts you right back into borrowing money you can ill afford to borrow. Two - you IMMEDIATELY return to negative equity on the car. Before you've even driven a Kia with $2.000 down and the best possible deal off the lot it is already worth less than your payoff. Very dangerous.
Here's a suggestion. One of the best, most honest car guys in this place (I'll be nice and steer you away from the ones you've locked horns with, even though cliffy and isellhondas are really decent folk) is brentwoodvolvo. Despite the name he doesn't sell Volvos anymore but he gives very good advice and is one of the most knowledgable car guys I know. I'm not spilling any secrets when I give you his E-mail address because it's in his profile here. The address is directautogroup@aol.com. Tell him fezo sent you and do not - repeat - DO NOT cop an attitude with him and he will give yo far better actual car advice than I could ever hope to. Explain your situation just liek you did in your first couple of posts to me. Heck, cut and paste them if that helps. Ask nice and he'll tell you all he knows. Don't let him sell you a Vauxhall (sorry - private joke - he collects them).
I do commend you for being very upfront about why a Kia. There are those who praise them to the hilt when indeed they are a cheap starter car that needs that long warranty.
Keep going like you are now. Don't panic and you'll be OK. While I haven't been in EXACTLY your situation I still know the basic problem well. There is indeed light at the end of the tunnel, but you have to deal with the fact that it's a long tunnel.
Harry
My daughter was ill for seven years before she died, and I paid a lot of money out of pocket. I paid all my bills, however, by extending mortgages driving the same cars for years. The only vehicle I aquired during those seven years was an old Dodge van to put a wheel chair lift in for Carolyn, and her wheel chair. Carolyn's power wheel chair is still the most expensive vehicle I have ever purchased.
Now that she has been gone almost six years, my finances are looking up, and my FICO credit scores are even higher than Steve's.
Guess what? I paid for my own wedding, too. I have over $27k in student loans as of today (used to be a lot more, but I've been paying on it for 4 years). Yeah, it sucks, but I took out the $, so I'll pay it back. Looks like you're a chip off the old block, though. Dad's stiffing you so you don't mind stiffing Discover, huh?
Have fun getting another job if you get fired from this one with a BK on your credit. Employers have every right to run your credit before hiring you and can even make a good credit check part of your terms of employment. I had to have my credit checked before I got my job. I would not have gotten the job if I had a BK on my credit report. Don't believe me? Call a lawyer (a good one, not the one with the screamer ads in the yellow pages you've been using so far).
Better hope you don't get fired...
I'd like to be a fly on the wall when you're trying to get approved to buy a car or a house or an ATV, or anything else that requires a credit check, though. It would be nice to watch you squirm for a while.
Some serious recommendations:
1. Bankruptcy is teh wrong road. It is NOT the easy way out, but rather an absolute last ditch resort. They will likely not wipe your slate clean, especiallyt if you are working. You'll just get a court-imposed payment schedule, and no credit. Lenders might agree to give you money, but the court and current creditors will not let you have it. Everything the court will do you can do yourself without ruining your credit! Get another job, set up a payment schedule, and cut the credit cards. If creditors sue you for money, fine - they will work with you then.
2. Forget the new car. Even making repairs on the Sable is cheaper than a $350 car payment. Set a few bucks aside each month that would have been a car payment for repairs.
3. Look in the mirror, take a deep breath, lose the 'tude and tell yourself you are OK, and you can do this. YOU are your best way out - get on your horse, trust yourself, and solve the problem without giving in to the vultures!
4. Stop arguing with total strangers on the Internet and get some qualified help. All we are doing is frustrating each other, and we're probably all nicer people than this!
:^)
Al
Mazda,
After turning in the car, you have most likely passed the "point of no return" and are committed to the Chapter 7 bankruptcy. When the car's sold at auction, there will be a large deficiency, and the financing agency will come after you for it.
Be sure to list all of your debts when filing the petition. If you leave any off, you'll still owe them.
The first meeting of a creditors will most likely be a 5 minute formality. The trustee, not the judge, will ask you if your schedules are correct. In most cases, creditors won't show up.
The only time they appear is to try to get you to reaffirm your debt to keep the items owed (Sears was big on this) or to claim your debt is incurred because of fraud and shouldn't be discharged. Very rare, but do not charge anything in the 3 (I think) months before you file.
I make no moral judgments about you since I've made many even more serious mistakes in my life for which I hope my repentence to the Lord has secured for me His forgiveness.
The credit card companies don't help much by pushing credit at people and constantly upping credit limits w/o being asked. Once you get trapped, it's hard to get out but can be done.
The important thing for you, Mazda, IMHO is to learn from your poor choices so you won't repeat them in the future. Your Beacon will come back partially when the non-bankruptcy items clear in 7 years. Fully, when the Chapter 7 drops after 10 years.
Bankruptcy is based on the Biblical principal of forgiving debts every 7 years and is very fair to those who've had financial reverses. Yes, it can be abused, but is vital today for people who are hit with unemployment and enormous uninsured medical bills.
Be sure to get a good lawyer, not a bankruptcy mill.
Best wishes to you, my friend.
Your original cavalier attitude is what turned us off. you asked for help and then became combative when well meaning folks tried to help.
That said...Yep, that voluntary repo of the Mazda has probably pushed you to the point of no return. Baby the hell out of that Sable and it may run for awhile.
I do wish you well.
{ba da bing!]
/;^)
I don't know if I completely agree on the repo of the Mazda getting you past the point of no return but they might be right. In one way it doesn't matter - you have to get those debts paid off anyway. Yeah, yo may have srewed your dredit longer but the long term answer is still the same - get yourself out of the dumpster once once out stay out. If it takes you 10 years guess what? 35 ain't old. I'll grant you that when I was 25 I didn't think that way but trust me on this.
Please, please - force yourself to put that $300 a month into a savings account. You'll likely need some along the way and you DO NOT want to be borrowing to get it.
I'm just upset that Harry has a higher FICA score than I do......
Seriously, there are good folks here with sound advise.
I think what irritates me the most is that you never even tried CCCS or debt consolidation. You called your creditors, they wouldn't back down, so you're filing BK and that's that. Had you attempted to pull yourself out and just couldn't do it, that would be a whole different set of circumstances. Like I said, I don't begrudge anyone who HAS to file BK. For most people, it's not something they would do unless it was their absolute last option. You, OTOH, seem to relish filing and seem almost happy about it.
And you very well may have one heck of a hard time getting another job with a BK on your credit. I wasn't kidding about that.
Have a nice life.
Why didn't you even give CCCS or debt consolidation a chance?
Regarding your question, I hope you will use an attorney. You can go in pro se (by yourself) for just the filing fee, but you may not know how to proceed if problems like a creditor protest arise.
Your attorney will give you worksheets to fill in. For each creditor, you must supply the address and account number since the court will mail a "Notice of First Meeting of Creditors" to them. This should be available on your bills - give them the address where questions, not payments, should be sent.
Regarding the amount, try to estimate on the high side. You need not be exact. Your attorney will know how to handle "executory" items such as the repo where you presently do not know how much you will owe.
You may also reject leases or contracts for continuing services if you wish.
Please use a good attorney for your own protection. Might cost you $1K (court fees alone are $200). Weird, huh, you need a grand to go broke?
So, onward through life for you, and may your next steps be in the right direction.
Why won't you answer my question about CCCS?
I made an appointment with CCCS in early 1996, around the same time that I picked up a part-time job delivering pizzas. It was probably the pizza job that saved me more than CCCS, but they at least got my terms more reasonable and liveable.
I was about $26,000 in credit card debt at the time. A lot of these were still on teaser rates, and some of them were up around the 17-19% range. They got me on a payment plan that would get it totally knocked out in 5 years. Some of the creditors wiped out the interest charge completely, while others reduced it. Only a few stuck me with the standard rate, and I made sure those got paid off the quickest. I forget exactly what my minimum monthly payment was...somewhere in the low $500 range, which ain't bad if you're forecasting paying off $26000 in 60 months! I'd estimate the average interest rate on that ended up being about 8%.
Anyway, it was a long process, and a lot of work, but I ended up getting it all paid off in about half the time. My last payment was November 1998. If I'd stuck to just the minimum, I would've been paying on that sucker until around April 2001!
In the long run, I don't think it really hurt my credit rating either. While I was on CCCS, I couldn't apply for a new credit card, couldn't refinance my mortgage with a reputable lender, and I'm sure a new car loan would've been downright evil. But within a half-year of paying my final CCCS payment, I was able to refinance my condo to a competitive rate. Within a year, I was able to get 0.9% on a new car.
You started this whole thing, not me. Remember that.
Why wouldn't you even look into CCCS? Andre just posted a story of how it works, and it sounds like it was good for him.
What about a part-time job? Oh, that's right. You aren't interested in actually paying off your debts. If you were, you would already have a PT job (doing something like Andre did delivering pizzas on nights and weekends) and you would already have contacted CCCS to consolidate or maybe even reduce your debts.
You didn't try very hard to pay your debts. Sounds like you made a couple phone calls and then decided to go BK. No PT job, no CCCS. Like someone said above, people like you are the reason they are overhauling BK laws. It's too easy to file and people like you who don't really HAVE to file, but choose to, are making it harder on those who have no other choice.
ANYTHING that helps you pay off the debt in the good old fashioned way is in the long run better for all concerned. Of course in Andre's case it landed him in an Intrepid but this should not be held against the man....
What he apparently doesn't get is that not only is he responsible for these debts (nobody made him buy most of that stuff), that he'll be screwing himself and his wife along the way. Mark my words, Mazda, your wife will most certainly be affected by this, probably as much as you are. You will likely have trouble getting another job, whether you leave or get fired, because of your poor credit. Unless you change your ways, you will go right back down the same path and BK won't be an option. Buying a car right after BK would constitute going back down the same road, BTW.
I'm sure your Big and Famous lawyer has explained all this to you, though.
My atty required the address and acct info to insure against later creditor protests based on failure to receive the court's notice. Best idea would be to bring this with you to the consultation.
CCCS can help if you're not too far down the road. Some creditors won't cooperate, however, and will upset the apple cart in some cases by filing suits and obtaining garnishments.
It's the debtor's responsibility to discuss their situation honestly with the attorney. Then, it's the lawyer's responsibility to explain the appropriate chapters in the code and help the client take the right course of action.
If you own a home with equity beyond your state's exemption (if any), Chapter 13 is another option. In this version, you pay all or a percentage of your debts through monthly installments through the trustee. Kinda like CCCS but creditors are prohibited from taking legal action. If the creditors have a mortgage or car title, you must make full payments if you want to keep the items.
Chapter 13's still a bad hit on your credit report but I think it drops off at 7 years.
If bankruptcy's your choice, it doesn't carry the stigma it did years ago. You will still have access to credit in some areas but at higher rates.
Make sure the atty really spends time with you in the free consultation, not just gives you some forms to fill out. Understanding the implications of your case is very important to doing it right.