Buying a 2nd car?

[adm]

We have been recently discharged from BK (yay!) and at some point we'll need to finance a 2nd car. We already have a car loan and with some companies (I checked pre-filing) it seems like you can't have more than one car loan, which I understand from their perspective but makes no sense in a practical matter when there are 2 adults (& 2 kids) & a need for 2 cars!

(The 2nd car is a '99 with 200+K miles, so at some point it will need placing).

Or, how long after discharge does it take for your credit to repair? I mean I was just discharged last week so haven't done a thing. I recall reading about getting a secured card to help my credit rating (was going to check w/my credit union about that). Right now my debt (current/never late) includes mortgage, car payment and student loans. Maybe that's enough to re-establish credit?

Thanks for any advice!!!!

[LSUTiger32]

Yeah, I wouldn't do anything. Keep paying your mortgage, that's a biggie as well as your other positive tradelines. Get free copies of your credit reports at annualcreditreport.com and make sure everything is reporting as it should be.

Just to clarify, you have a second car right now and it's a 1999 model with 200,000 plus miles on it? So the car payment you are referencing is another car, right? Why not just save up and get you a slighty newer car with less miles? Just start paying yourself a car payment now (pretend you got a loan already) and you should be able to save enough to buy a decent car within a year. Just a thought, two car payments suck and one is bad enough!

[backtoschool]

You should get a couple of repair credit cards to rebuild your credit, and should take a look at copies of your credit report and dispute any trade lines that are reporting with balances or are not reporting as included in bankruptcy.

Capital One is a good starter card.

If you want several months post discharge, you will get better rates on your auto loan than if you apply immediately. I am ten months post discharge and got 24k at 4.42 percent from Capital One. But I had a perfect history of paying off car loans in full, and did not include any autos in my bk.

Although it is always an option to get a used car, if you want a new car, you will be able to get one at a price you can afford if you get a couple of starter cards to re-establish your credit, and if you concentrate on cleaning up your credit reports and making sure everything is reporting correctly.