reaffirming process

[ANEWLIFE]

hello everyone. this may be a real dumb question but im just so clueless about everything.

im planning to reaffirm my auto loan. how does that happen?
do i have to go to a court to do that or can it be done by papers?

I will appreciate all your help and good luck to all of you.

[magyar123]

Why reaffirm it??? Just make your regular scheduled payments on time.

[Minnymouth]

magyar123,
The "ride thru" on mortgages and auto loans are basically a thing of the past under the New Laws.

Most banks, mortgages, auto creditors now demand a "reaffirm" or "surrender" during the bankruptcy process.

Most reaffirms are signed at the 341 meeting or before the discharge and must be completed before the discharge takes place.

If you are pro se this is done in front of a judge who makes sure you understand what your doing. If you have an attorney, then your attorney can handle the paperwork involved.

[needafreshstart]

Minnymouth, do you know this from experience. I have an auto loan that I will not be reaffirming I plan to just keep making my payments. My attorney actually says he does not believe in doing any reaffirmations, he told me if you keep making payments you'll be fine. I wouldn't be totally upset if I lose it.

[Minnymouth]

Reaffirms must now be signed by your attorney also (if you have one), that's why your attorney is laying low about reaffirming.

Other members here can help you with this question also. The bank can demand surrendering the auto if you fail to reaffirm, whether you make your payments or not. Some creditors will still accept your payments with no reaffirm till you miss one then demand you surrender the auto. Depends on your creditor really.

If you want the auto, plan on keeping it, then reaffirm.... if not you take the chance of loosing it later down the road or immediately if they decide to come and get it.

Your attorney is thinking of Old Law ad the "ride thru" that mortgages and auto places allowed if you kept paying on the item, most no longer do this. Plus you take the chance of loosing it anyways if you fail to pay for it in the future...

[HHM]

Although Minny is technically correct about the letter of the law, the prevailing practice seems to be that ride-trough's are alive and well.

As of right now, there appears to be little benefit to the debtor of doing a ride-through. The creditor still reports the debt as IIB on your credit report, and the creditor does not report payment history, so from a credit reporting standpoint, there is no benefit. Cars are depreciating assets, so there really is no value to protect in the vehicle by reaffirming.

[ohwell]

I have a hearing to reaff my car next week, my last day for objections was yesterday, no discharge yet. I have an atty, this hearing was set by the creditor. we are negative on our schedule J, so its standard I was told for this hearing. We are contacting our atty if we can get out of this now, since our deadline has passed, but don't want to rock the boat re: our discharge.

Ugh. We have a loan via Ford, and they have informed me if we aren't granted the reaffirm, they will take the car, I haven't contacted the atty representing Ford about this, part of me is now hoping the judge won't grant it. We had to do a declaration of how we need this car (only car, great rate 3.9%, we have a baby, hubby's commute is far), so we shall see. Its a pain in the butt to have this hanging over our heads..

[HHM]

The big draw back is...(I forgot to mention), that if the car company plays hard ball and actually threatens to repo the car if they don't get a reaffirmation.

Also, you could go to the hearing and simply tell the judge, we withdraw our reaffirmation. You run the risk, that Ford could "really" want the car back.