Sorry...Another ? about surrending car

[bknflorida]

Sorry for another question about car reaffirmation but I was told by Toyota that I have 10 days to bring my account current or surrender my car (I'm one pymt in arrears). I can't decide what to do because I do plan to reaffirm my daughter's car because she is moving next week to begin college early and has to have transportation for her job. She will be taking over her car payments as soon as she can but I'll be making them for her in the meantime. My car payments are much higher and for a longer period & it would be a huge relief to get rid of that monthly payment.

However, between my daughter leaving for college and my job I need transportation. College is 7 hours away and I plan to go see her as often as I can so I would need a reliable car to do that. I can't decide what to do. Try to buy a cheap car to get to work (less than 3 miles away) & just rent a car when I want to go see her (my son would rent with his cc) or keep my reliable car and be stuck with the current payment for the next 3 years?

[StartingOver08]

Your best option is to by a cheap car to use for work and rent a car to see your daughter. Use this as an opportunity to own a car without car payments.

I had the same choice - I surrendered my "nice" car and its high payment. It feels good to not worry about payments now (I have a very small payment now for only 16 months max - as I can pay it off early without penalty).

[bknflorida]

THANK YOU! That's my gut instict too is to just give it up & hope that I can find something after my bk is discharged. How did you get your new vehicle, buy it outright or find someone who financed you?

[TJR70]

I've read and been told that you can get a bankruptcy car loan while you are filing for bankruptcy. I myself would prefer to go without a payment. LoanZone = Prestige financial my lawyer told me about them.

[StartingOver08]

Well, I know a car dealer that buys at the various fl auctions all the time. I asked him for a good looking vehicle, preferably a SUV, that runs well as I am in the RE business and still have to show property in a decent vehicle. He bought a Mercury Mountaineer (not bad, its has all the upgrades) and sold it to me for $6400. I only had $3000 to put down. So the rest is financed at $264/mth for 16 mths. It is not an ideal interest rate for me, but I did not want an inquiry on my credit report and I wanted no pre-payment penalty. I was completely honest with my situation and offered to show him my CR so he could verify, but he did not want to see them. For me this works because I can really get this paid off in less than 12 months - possibly even within the next 6 months. The SUV runs great. Looks good. Holds lots of people when necessary (7 seater). The milage is not too bad, 19 to 20 mpg around town.

I am using the time after my discharge a couple of weeks ago to clean up all the mistakes the CRA's have on my report. Also all the inq from 2 yrs ago will be off by May 2009. My score already increased 150 pts after discharge - now its time to get it higher before I consider doing anything with credit. I plan to live mainly a cash lifestyle, but you have to have decent credit for insurance and other uses too.

[bknflorida]

I plan to not get any credit besides a car (if I can) and also live the cash existance for a long time after I get through this! Getting rid of the high car payment on my current car will help me be able to do that much more easily. Thanks for all the info!