Buy car from wife to lower payment - post 341

[baddecision]

My wife has a BK attorney, but he never returns our calls or our emails so I thought I would give you all a try... (I guess the $2,800 that we paid him didn't include any answers to our questions.)

My wife just had her 341 meeting so the discharge is hopefully not too far away. The only car that we have is in her name, as is the loan. We want to keep the car and have less than $2,400 in equity in the vehicle. The problem is we need to lower the payment by stretching out the loan a few more years. Her lender would not talk to her even though she has never missed a payment and is not behind on the loan. I was approved for a loan and want to buy it from my wife, but I am not sure if that will be acceptable to the trustee. The one option is to wait until the discharge comes through, however, $475 a month is a little hard to pay. After looking at the price of used cars, I decided that we should keep a car that we know is issue free instead of saving $1,000 to buy one that may not be. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[dingdong]

I don' think you can sell any part of a BK estate until you are discharged, but I could be wrong.

What about giving up the car you have little equity in and buy a used car with the loan you were approved for? Doesn't seem like you would be giving up much equity as the car will probably depreciate.

Look for something like a Toyota, Honda or Subaru that hold their value.

I am sure you could get a decent car for half that car payment, stop paying the car loan and save the 950 worth of two months of car payments as a downpayment and drive the car you have now until it is repoed?

[baddecision]

That's what I thought, too.

I was considering just letting it go, however, I found that most semi-reliable used cars with less than 75,000 miles are around $10,000-12,000. We currently have a Honda Pilot (gotta love Honda) and after making two more payments the payoff will be around $13,000. I guess the big question is whether I want to take a chance and save $2,000-3,000 or stick with the vehicle that I know. As soon as I can buy it the payment will drop by $210/month.

Decisions, decisions...

[dingdong]

Have you tried searching for similar cars and checked what the prices are? In this economy , with no one buying autos, you may get a better deal from a private party who is desperate to sell.

With so many people filing BK and losing their cars, there has got to be a flood in the market for used autos.

Check the prices for a couple weeks and see how things go, your wife most likely cant sell it until after discharge anyway, so you have some time, maybe during that time you will find a great deal on another car.

[TEW]

That's what I thought, too.

I was considering just letting it go, however, I found that most semi-reliable used cars with less than 75,000 miles are around $10,000-12,000. We currently have a Honda Pilot (gotta love Honda) and after making two more payments the payoff will be around $13,000. I guess the big question is whether I want to take a chance and save $2,000-3,000 or stick with the vehicle that I know. As soon as I can buy it the payment will drop by $210/month.

Decisions, decisions...

if you are more then 10 days past your 341 go for it. the trustee shows no interest in the car