Buying Auto before discharge...

We were planning on reaffirming our auto loan and we just received our reaffirmation paperwork and about had a heartattack...

The raffirmation terms are for a '03 PT Cruiser; $20,345.94 reaffirmation debt for 60 months @ 15.19%, plus $178.00 attorney fees, $333.54 monthly payment (this car isn't even worth half this according to KBB and NADA)

I knew we were upside down on the loan, but it wasn't until I saw it laid out in black and white just how bad it really is. I think we would be idiots if we reaffirmed this. Would anyone else agree?

We are behind two months payments, and we were going to bring the loan current on August 29.

I guess my main request for advice/question forum would be:

If we went ahead and chose not to reaffirm, banked those two payments towards a future purchase, and let the car go back, would this have an effect on our filing paperwork at this point? Would we have to redo our paperwork? Would there be a difference if we waited until after our 341 meeting to choose not to reaffirm?

Thanks for any advice you can give, I appreciate it...

There are all kinds of reasons why a reaffirmation might not go through: even though you indicated your intent to reaffirm on your schedules, it won't affect your 341 and you don't have to amend anything. All you have to do is not sign the agreement.

Even if you already signed it, you can change your mind at any point before your discharge or 60 days from when the agreement is filed with the court (whichever is later). You won't get any money back that you've paid, though, so I wouldn't recommend catching up on your payments unless you're sure you want to keep the car.

As a practical matter, it sounds like reaffirmation isn't in your best interest. If you do decide to surrender the car, be sure you have a viable plan for procuring a replacement.

There are all kinds of reasons why a reaffirmation might not go through: even though you indicated your intent to reaffirm on your schedules, it won't affect your 341 and you don't have to amend anything. All you have to do is not sign the agreement.

Even if you already signed it, you can change your mind at any point before your discharge or 60 days from when the agreement is filed with the court (whichever is later). You won't get any money back that you've paid, though, so I wouldn't recommend catching up on your payments unless you're sure you want to keep the car.

As a practical matter, it sounds like reaffirmation isn't in your best interest. If you do decide to surrender the car, be sure you have a viable plan for procuring a replacement.

I agree 100%. There was no charge for me to reaffirm. All I had to do is continue to pay. I am not upside-down , but if you are, let it go. Buy a Junker until you can get on your feet. Then when things get better as they will as you have learned from your mistakes, then get a good USED car as when you buy a new car, it looses value 30% when you drive away. I wish you folks well but your car and mortgage is not fair to you. Give it back. Only my opinion. ‘Hub

Food for thought, the reaffirmation aggreements are computer generated and sent out in mass. If you look on on of the pages, you will see who the "Bankruptcy Agent" is, and usually a phone number along with it. Take a stab and call them up, see if they will take low value in blue book and 6%(the idea on the interest rate and price is it allows them to counter higher and hopefully settle below 14% or and closer to retail). The worse they can say is no, but you will may be surprised that you walk away with a decent deal.

Good Luck