My car lease is expiring and I need to find a lender who will work with me to buy it.

[PurplePanda]

My auto lease expires at the end of March. It is my intent to purchase the vehicle at the end of the lease term and my attorney is aware of this. He said that he will file the necessary documents to request permission to purchase the vehicle. I filed about five months ago and my plan was confirmed this week.

I am learning that it is difficult, if not impossible, to get financing during an active Chapter 13, especially considering that I was just confirmed. And, it sounds like it there are some dealers who will work with us, but that would mean getting a different vehicle and having to give up the vehicle I am currently leasing, which I absolutely do not want to do. My car is four years old, has only 27K miles, it's in near new condition and the current KBB value is higher than the sticker price when I leased it. If I turn it in when my lease expires, I would be handing over almost $20K in equity.

Will having a cosigner make it easier to find a lender who will work with me? Also, I have a family member who would be willing to purchase the car for me in their own name. But, I don't see how that would work unless the court allowed me to enter into a purchase agreement with my family member via a promissory note or other legally binding agreement. Has anyone ever heard of the court allowing that?

Thank you!

[justbroke]

You can try to see if 727 Redemption will do it. They are part of US Bank and deal specifically with bankruptcy. While they do both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 redemptions and replacements, they seem more heavily on the Chapter 7 redemption side. The positive news is that they deal specifically with bankruptcy and vehicles.

Of course a third-party co-signer could make any deal better for traditional lenders. I would not want to see $20K equity go poof! I think that the $20K equity would make the company, 722 Redemption, more likely to approve you for credit. They don't approve everyone. A lot is based on the overall deal .

[Surviving]

I dealt with this same issue recently. If you have anything in a 401(k) the trustee/court could possibly grant permission for you to take out a 401(k) loan with which to purchase the car and buyout the lease. The interest rate is much better this way too, as you're repaying yourself. Just an idea - might want to ask your attorney about the possibilities.