Okay, will try to keep this short....
I lost my job a long while ago, house ended up in foreclosure, at the suggestion of my attourney because we obviously could not afford our car payment to Citi Financial (who would not work with us at all) and with the looming possibility of getting sued for the negative balance owed after they autioned off the hosue, we filed Chapter 13. This allowed us to keep the truck which was our only vehicle and was actually used as a truck, and not get sued for many thousands of dollars from the house. We have since received a 1099R which told us the mortgage company actually was able to sell the house at a profit so we are off the hook there.
Here we are a few years after the foreclosure and about 1.5 years after filing the 13....the payments got to be overwhelming, they were $750 a month and I am the only one with income in a family of four. We had to move for my job to another state..okay, no biggie, but after moving we had our attourney back home file for voluntary dismissal of our chapter 13 to get my payroll back right where we weren't always getting behind on everyday things. We did look at a plan modification initially, but there was no way I could show our bills going up as much as we wanted it reduced by giving up the truck. Our payment would have gone from $750 a month to $150 a month, and i could not show the difference or even close so we knew that would not work.
Also to add to it all where I live you are lucky if you can even get an apartment complex to accept you if you are in a chapter 13.....90% said no, go away, and we were left choosing one of two places....I think this should be illegal but it is not.....
So as of Aug 5th our chapter 13 was dismissed voluntarily without any fuss. My payroll is back. We obviously needed a vehicle so we went to a local buy here pay here and got a reasonable car we could make payments on but that will be paid off in under 2 years. They do report positive to the credit reporting agencies which was also a plus. The odd thing was when they pulled my credit it showed nothing....zero, no credit activity whatsoever, pulled it over and over, tried alias names, old addresses, etc.....not sure why, but I did have my first name only changed on my social a few months back while in the 13....could that be a loophole? Still confused about that....anyways...
Now the hard part....I have about a $2000 student loan I have never paid a dime on(that they never filed a claim for in the 13 btw) which they are now sending collection notices about. I am sure any day now Citi will be calling, writing to get the truck or maybe even just grab it up in the night because it was already 2 months behind when we filed the 13....which is why we got a car before it happened. The truck has an expensive set of wheels and tires I would like to be able to sell before it gets gone, but cant find anything to put back on it and prefer not to have the landlord fussing about my truck sitting on blocks in the parking lot until they come to get it. And then, when they come would they tear the entire underside out from under it and then charge me huge sums of money to repair it? I bet they would. As it is I will already likely owe $10k or more after they auction it. I am wondering how likely they are to try to garnish my wages for the balance, and how long before it happens if they do try.
Also, I believe I read the time limit before I can file a chapter 7 (if necessary) is only like 1 year after coming out of a chapter 13 dismissal (not discharge), maybe less.
What about the car we just financed? We should be able to keep it I think, our state (Indiana) has a $8,000 wildcard exeption and the purchase price was $6000 (not including taxes and interest of course). The only other thing I own worth mentioning is an old rusted out truck I paid all of $800 cash for just to get back and forth to work in. I don't see them wanting to do anything with that. Other than that there's maybe $1000 of furniture that is still owed money on but is years old and several states away from the local furniture company now so I don't see them coming after it either.
What should I do now? I have contacted a local attourney to just have a sit down talk about all this and figure out what our options are. I have a feeling from other people's experiences the actual wage garnishment thing doesn't happen as often as they collection companies like to make you think....but I am also thinking if I owe Citi Financial $10k+ they might just see that as worth it and go for it. If they do and I end up having to pay $150+ out of each paycheck that totally defeated the purpose of dismissing the chapter 13.
Kind of lost in my own mind here with all of the things going on.....the chapter 13 was a huge mistake, we should have done a chapter 7 back then, but I was trying to deal with my own conscience and "do the right thing"....big mistake....wont repeat.
Should I just call Citi now and tell them to come get the truck? Should I get my wheels off and tell them to bring a set with them when they come or should I just let it go back with them? I need to drop the insurance on it soon, get rid of that bill, but I know that would be bad if I do it before it gets repo'd.
Where do I go from here?
I lost my job a long while ago, house ended up in foreclosure, at the suggestion of my attourney because we obviously could not afford our car payment to Citi Financial (who would not work with us at all) and with the looming possibility of getting sued for the negative balance owed after they autioned off the hosue, we filed Chapter 13. This allowed us to keep the truck which was our only vehicle and was actually used as a truck, and not get sued for many thousands of dollars from the house. We have since received a 1099R which told us the mortgage company actually was able to sell the house at a profit so we are off the hook there.
Here we are a few years after the foreclosure and about 1.5 years after filing the 13....the payments got to be overwhelming, they were $750 a month and I am the only one with income in a family of four. We had to move for my job to another state..okay, no biggie, but after moving we had our attourney back home file for voluntary dismissal of our chapter 13 to get my payroll back right where we weren't always getting behind on everyday things. We did look at a plan modification initially, but there was no way I could show our bills going up as much as we wanted it reduced by giving up the truck. Our payment would have gone from $750 a month to $150 a month, and i could not show the difference or even close so we knew that would not work.
Also to add to it all where I live you are lucky if you can even get an apartment complex to accept you if you are in a chapter 13.....90% said no, go away, and we were left choosing one of two places....I think this should be illegal but it is not.....
So as of Aug 5th our chapter 13 was dismissed voluntarily without any fuss. My payroll is back. We obviously needed a vehicle so we went to a local buy here pay here and got a reasonable car we could make payments on but that will be paid off in under 2 years. They do report positive to the credit reporting agencies which was also a plus. The odd thing was when they pulled my credit it showed nothing....zero, no credit activity whatsoever, pulled it over and over, tried alias names, old addresses, etc.....not sure why, but I did have my first name only changed on my social a few months back while in the 13....could that be a loophole? Still confused about that....anyways...
Now the hard part....I have about a $2000 student loan I have never paid a dime on(that they never filed a claim for in the 13 btw) which they are now sending collection notices about. I am sure any day now Citi will be calling, writing to get the truck or maybe even just grab it up in the night because it was already 2 months behind when we filed the 13....which is why we got a car before it happened. The truck has an expensive set of wheels and tires I would like to be able to sell before it gets gone, but cant find anything to put back on it and prefer not to have the landlord fussing about my truck sitting on blocks in the parking lot until they come to get it. And then, when they come would they tear the entire underside out from under it and then charge me huge sums of money to repair it? I bet they would. As it is I will already likely owe $10k or more after they auction it. I am wondering how likely they are to try to garnish my wages for the balance, and how long before it happens if they do try.
Also, I believe I read the time limit before I can file a chapter 7 (if necessary) is only like 1 year after coming out of a chapter 13 dismissal (not discharge), maybe less.
What about the car we just financed? We should be able to keep it I think, our state (Indiana) has a $8,000 wildcard exeption and the purchase price was $6000 (not including taxes and interest of course). The only other thing I own worth mentioning is an old rusted out truck I paid all of $800 cash for just to get back and forth to work in. I don't see them wanting to do anything with that. Other than that there's maybe $1000 of furniture that is still owed money on but is years old and several states away from the local furniture company now so I don't see them coming after it either.
What should I do now? I have contacted a local attourney to just have a sit down talk about all this and figure out what our options are. I have a feeling from other people's experiences the actual wage garnishment thing doesn't happen as often as they collection companies like to make you think....but I am also thinking if I owe Citi Financial $10k+ they might just see that as worth it and go for it. If they do and I end up having to pay $150+ out of each paycheck that totally defeated the purpose of dismissing the chapter 13.
Kind of lost in my own mind here with all of the things going on.....the chapter 13 was a huge mistake, we should have done a chapter 7 back then, but I was trying to deal with my own conscience and "do the right thing"....big mistake....wont repeat.
Should I just call Citi now and tell them to come get the truck? Should I get my wheels off and tell them to bring a set with them when they come or should I just let it go back with them? I need to drop the insurance on it soon, get rid of that bill, but I know that would be bad if I do it before it gets repo'd.
Where do I go from here?
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