Question on Secured Loan

[HopefulInOhio]

I am currently in the middle of a divorce some of you may remember, and the only thing my stbx and I have in the way of bills together is the mortgage and a personal signature loan. The signature loan I have been paying to keep it up - it's $191 a month. His name is on the loan as me being the cosigner.

He makes over double my salary and I am lucky to get 25 hours a week at work. I can no longer make this payment due to now having a large propane bill to pay. If it doesn't get paid, I get no more delivered.

I had asked him to pay the November payment and explained my expenses with the propane, plus home repairs I've had to pay....I simply told him I couldn't pay it.

I just received a notice it has of yet not been paid. It was due Nov 22.

Until things are settled in court, he pays me child support and the mortgage. Other than that I am paying all expenses on this house and I can no longer pay that $190 a month.

The balance on the loan is about $2600. For what I owe in propane alone is what I make in 2 weeks at work.

My question is - I am going to stop paying this loan because I just don't have the funds. This jerk is telling me "I" will be the one that suffers due to me paying it most of the time. When I call the bank, they only find it under his name, and like I said the co-signer is me. It doesn't even show up on my bank record as being active for me owing it.

How would "I" be the one in trouble when it's in his name? I know they come after the co-signer...but he will be came after first..right?

What is the first step a credit union will do in non payment of a loan?

This has made me so mad knowing he is not willing to help me out that I'm about half tempted to not pay it anymore at all. I really didn't want to go this route, because I wanted to keep up on the secured loan..I really did. Financially, I just can't. I have a 16 year old daughter plus myself and my budget is so stretched I can barely function. Plus, he has nothing to do with her and I'm so stressed out from work and college I can barely feel human anymore.

Once I moved in January and in hoping my hours would pick up at the beginning of the year, I was going to make a payment when I was able.

No judge has ordered either of us to pay it and if a judge can look at my salary and then realize I'm filing bankruptcy on $22,000 CC debt....then see his salary compared to mine....

Thoughts?

[SinkingFast]

Do you currently bank at the CU that holds the note?? As in, is your checking acct there as well?? If you have your checking acct there, MOVE to another bank. CU's are notoriously bad for taking funds from your checking to pay other loans you owe them, for car loans, CC's, etc.

Did you include your responsibility for this debt in your BK filing?? If not, have your BK attny go back and ammend to add this Creditor. Even tho your name is on the loan, you can discharge your responsibility for the debt in your BK.

I hear ya about propane. We were there last winter. Our fill right before Christmas was nearly $1K for right at 600 gallons. I HATE propane!! It's expensive!!

[HopefulInOhio]

Hi SF..thanks for responding.

Yes, I have my checking account there. I am now looking for other banks to trade my funds too, mainly because I want to be able to bank online and credit unions - well, at least this one - you can't. I have a student loan coming up in January and I want it deposited in a new account away from the credit union.

We go to court for our divorce on Jan 5, and then we see how to move forward on the bankruptcy. I know it's gonna happen and I have no choice, whether it's filed during the divorce or after. Whatever is in my best interest is what my attorney is planning on.

I didn't realize you could discharge this type of loan. I thought only credit cards or medical bills. This is a signature loan...I can put that down to be let go from my side? It's listed on my bills owed, but I thought it was considered secure and you could only discharge unsecured bills.

Regardless, my stbx is being a total *&%( about it. He feels that I will be the one that has money taken out for not paying the loan, not him, when the loan is in his name first. And, he banks there.

That's why I'm moving my bank..

And yep, propane is outrageous. You'd think with our daughter living here, he'd want to help me out and pay that - considering it's in his name too - but I guess not.

He's already had the utilities taken out of his name and gave me 3 hours to get them in mine or she and I would have no heat, electric, or water for the weekend because the day he did it was a Friday. I had been schedule to work, but got off early..I found a little chickenscratch note in my mailbox from the jerk the day the utilities were being shut off in his name..that was my heads up on getting things in my name..3 hours.

I tell you - if I make it thru this divorce, and then this bankruptcy...I'm sure I'll be bald. I feel like I'm gonna see the inside of a courtroom the rest of my life.

In all actuality, I'm so stressed and scared over my finances, I can barely remember a day where I could sit comfortable. My daughter and I hardly see each other anymore and our relationship is so strained.

I wish to God this was all over with. I really do.

[SinkingFast]

You called it a Signature Loan, but you think it's Secured??

It may well be Secured.

We took a "Signature Loan" years ago from our bank. It was a short term thing. We knew we had money coming, but the heat pump broke down. It cost more to fix it than a new one cost, so we decided to replace the heat pump. But, we did not, of course, have $2200 laying around for the replacement.

There was a bonus or a stock option or something coming in 4-5 months that would take care of it, but you do need heat in the mean time. So we took a 6 month "Signature Loan" from our bank and paid them off when the whatever funds came in.

Here we are, years later, cleaning up our Credit Reports from the BK, and we learn that loan was not a "Signature Loan". The bank wrote it up as secured by household furniture and appliances.

If you haven't pulled your Credit Reports yet, you might wanna go to http://www.annualcreditreport.com and see how the loan is listed there.

If the CU secured the loan with household goods, you might wanna ask your attny about how you'd proceed from there. Generally speaking, banks don't want used furniture in lieu of money. But ask your attny just to be sure.

[HopefulInOhio]

Will do - thanks!