And one more thing....

[sophie]

We lease our cars. My husband's is up this June. Can we lease another one if we keep the same payment or lower?

[bmcmull]

Sophie, I work in the auto finance industry and if you have a manufactures lease ie. FMC, GMAC , or MMCA there is an automatic approval system if you paid them on time and did not put them in the BK. Other banks ie. Wells Fargo, 5th 3rd , and US bank wont let you release unless 5 years have passed..... Some of the Banks like HSBC and Capitol one will let you do retail loans at reasonable rates aslong as you have somewhat re-established and have good job time. Hope this helps.

[sophie]

Thank you for that info. Just wondering if it's legal/ok to take out another lease when this one expires as far as the trustee/law goes.

[isitreal]

This question is really meant for your attorney. Ultimately, however, you have to submit the paperwork and get approval from the trustee in order to incur new debt.

[bmcmull]

Sophie also remember the big thing is to get the ok from the trustee, unfortunately you will have to go through your attorney to do this and I am sure he will charge you for it. As a sales manager I would not even pull someones credit unless they had the paperwork from the trustee. Even then they will give you the ok but it is far from over because there only a few banks that will take someone currently in a ch 13. Just because the trustee ok's your amount does not mean a bank will pick it up. Typically you will need good money down 10-20% and good stability. I think Americredit still does open ch 13's at about 80% of loan value... YUK !!!!!!! This is coming from someone who is a special finance manager (me) ........ Good luck

[sophie]

I wrote to my lawyer and he didn't mention anything about getting approval from the trustee. He told me just to go back to the dealer we got the leases from and get the new lease. Are you saying that's not correct?

[bmcmull]

Sophie, what I am saying is that being a Lease manager and a special finance manager I would not submit any deal to a bank with out first seeing the letter from the trustee saying you can take on a new debt. There is a lot of work to be done on these deals with the lenders and I would want all the paper work up front.
1. Proof of income and resisence
2. Down payment
3. Letter from trustee...
Are you in a 13 or 7 ? Did you take your lease cars into the BK ? If not you may be able to go through a automatic approval system. But I would make double sure that YOUR ATTORNEY IS GIVING YOU GOOD ADVISE. It would not be the first time that an attorney has given bad advise.....I turned in my lease car ( Volkswagen), but I also had a 2nd car, thank god because I can not get another car loan until my 13 is over.... This is from experience. My trustee would give the OK but I can not get a bank to approve it. Is your husband in the BK as well ?

Good luck !