Credit Union Reaffirmation Question...

[sharksfan]

We received a letter from our credit union stating in a nut shell that 'you cause us a loss, kiss our services good bye'. I bypassed my attorney (hadn't returned my calls at all this week) and called up the CU collections rep that signed the letter. There are two loans that we want to reaffirm. To my surprise, she had no issues sending us reaffimation paperwork on these two items (RV loan and a small loan that my father-in-law is a cosigner on). Today I log in to take a look at my accounts and notice that a $115 reaffirmation fee was added to both loan balances! This really has rubbed me the wrong way...

1) The collections rep never disclosed this fee, nor can I find any refrence to this fee in any of my paper work or any fee disclosures.

2) We haven't signed anything! The purpose of my call was to find out if reaffirmation was a possibility.

Is it worth fighting these fees given that we REALLY want to reaffirm these items? $115 on the small loan equals the amount of principle we've paid in the last 6 months (total payment of $39)...

[PaKettle]

Personally, I would call them up and say what you said here: that they have a lot of nerve charging you without your express written consent and without having disclosed the fee to you prior to charging you. You may want to mention that you might consider filing a complaint with the FTC as well, if they give you any grief. That is, if you don't mind getting on their bad side, which you will, probably, if you complain.

[danaf]

This is the first time I've ever heard of a reaffirmation fee but maybe it's standard practice? Way to kick someone when they are already down.

[sharksfan]

Personally, I would call them up and say what you said here: that they have a lot of nerve charging you without your express written consent and without having disclosed the fee to you prior to charging you. You may want to mention that you might consider filing a complaint with the FTC as well, if they give you any grief. That is, if you don't mind getting on their bad side, which you will, probably, if you complain.

I'm going to give my attorney a call Monday morning to let him know. The collections rep said that any reaffirmation agreement MUST go through my attorney anyways so all might not be lost. Part of me feels that I should have let him handle this from the get go. On the other hand I was losing sleep over the small loan and the possibility of the CU going after my father-in-law. Keeping the RV is icing on the cake.

[danaf]

Please let us know what you find out because I have a car to reaffirm and unfortunately it's with a credit union. And I am going pro-se so it would be helpful to know what to expect.

[sharksfan]

Please let us know what you find out because I have a car to reaffirm and unfortunately it's with a credit union. And I am going pro-se so it would be helpful to know what to expect.

Will do!

[PaKettle]

Please let us know what you find out because I have a car to reaffirm and unfortunately it's with a credit union. And I am going pro-se so it would be helpful to know what to expect.

I don't remember if you participated in any of the recent threads on reaffirmation of cars, but if you did not, make sure you read them.

Generally it is not recommended to reaffirm a car loan, but rather just keep paying it. As it was explained to me by my attorney, by not reaffirming I can "walk away" from it at any time without any negative consequences to my credit and no garnishments or etc... I certainly doubt I do that, but it's nice to know I can if something should force me to.

[2confused]

But isn't the point of reaffirming to help begin to help reestablish a good credit rating?

[sharksfan]

But isn't the point of reaffirming to help begin to help reestablish a good credit rating?

That was my thinking. This small loan has been paid on the books since 1/2002. It is a private 'student help loan'. We were only responsible for interest until last year when the loan entered repayment. We'd like to keep this showing in good standing. The RV we've had since August at a whopping $100/ mo (small travel trailer) It is gravy that we can keep it.

I would imagine that those 2 items plus our two (recent) auto loans will seriously aid in credit rebuilding... though I'm entertaining the possiblity of just riding these through.

Anyone know how Ford Credit and Chase Auto Finance are when it comes to ride-throughs? I'm in the Southern District of NY if it matters (I believe the 2nd Circuit Court).

[lrprn]

But isn't the point of reaffirming to help begin to help reestablish a good credit rating?

Unless it is specifically stated in the signed reaffirmation agreement submitted to the court, creditors are not required to report your payments after bankruptcy. Unfortunately some deliberately choose not to even when debtors sign reaffirmation agreements.

No creditor is ever required to report on-time payments to any of the credit report agencies whether you are in bk or not. It's a purely voluntary system.

[SUB]

No creditor is ever required to report on-time payments to any of the credit report agencies whether you are in bk or not. It's a purely voluntary system.

Really!

So they're doing us a favor admitting we were on time......

[lrprn]

Really! So they're doing us a favor admitting we were on time......

Yep...and since far too many employers and insurers use your credit scores to make decisions about your ability to do a job or whether you deserve insurance or not, there is WAY too much use of credit scores for purposes which have nothing to do with how you handle credit.

Not only are credit scores often inaccurate, they are an unproven and unreliable measure of a person's quality and reliability as a human being. Many on this board are proof that wonderful people can have terrible things happen to them that they did not and could not control and are then also punished even further through their low credit scores for years. I hope more states ban the use of credit scores as a part of employment review and to see if you qualify for insurance.