My job involves a lot of driving and I needed a more dependable car with less mileage so I went car shopping. I figured no one would give me a loan but what the heck, gotta try, right? Well, I was able to get a loan and an affordable car payment. The interest rate isn't ideal but that's to be expected since I'm less than a year out of BK.
The pleasant surprise, I should say surprises, were that no one at the dealership treated me any different for having filed BK. I was up front with them about it from the time I walked in and the experience was no different than in the past when I had good credit.
The other really nice surprise was when I commented to the finance manager that I had such bad credit. He told me it really wasn't that bad because I hadn't let my credit "just lie there like a dead dog" since my BK. He could tell I've done things to rebuild my credit and told me it really was making a difference.
All I've done since my BK is get a credit card, use it and pay on time and get copies of my credit reports and make sure everything was accurate. During my BK I kept up to date on my existing car payments, which he said also helped.
So my advice for anyone going through or thinking of filing BK, if you're keeping your car or house keep as up to date on the payments as you can. For after BK, re-establish your credit ASAP and clean up your credit reports. It really does make a difference.
As for the car I got, it's nothing fancy. I was able to get a 2005 Saturn ION with under 20,000 miles on it. It doesn't have any extras; manual windows, manual locks, manual transmission, no CD player BUT it came with a 3 month warranty, low miles, looks brand new inside and out, has a decent radio and excellent gas mileage. I'm really pleased with it so far. An added benefit is that my teenage daughter's friends will NEVER drive it since none of them knows how or wants to learn to drive a stick.
The pleasant surprise, I should say surprises, were that no one at the dealership treated me any different for having filed BK. I was up front with them about it from the time I walked in and the experience was no different than in the past when I had good credit.
The other really nice surprise was when I commented to the finance manager that I had such bad credit. He told me it really wasn't that bad because I hadn't let my credit "just lie there like a dead dog" since my BK. He could tell I've done things to rebuild my credit and told me it really was making a difference.
All I've done since my BK is get a credit card, use it and pay on time and get copies of my credit reports and make sure everything was accurate. During my BK I kept up to date on my existing car payments, which he said also helped.
So my advice for anyone going through or thinking of filing BK, if you're keeping your car or house keep as up to date on the payments as you can. For after BK, re-establish your credit ASAP and clean up your credit reports. It really does make a difference.
As for the car I got, it's nothing fancy. I was able to get a 2005 Saturn ION with under 20,000 miles on it. It doesn't have any extras; manual windows, manual locks, manual transmission, no CD player BUT it came with a 3 month warranty, low miles, looks brand new inside and out, has a decent radio and excellent gas mileage. I'm really pleased with it so far. An added benefit is that my teenage daughter's friends will NEVER drive it since none of them knows how or wants to learn to drive a stick.
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