Bankruptcy protects your vehicle and helps you deal with your vehicle’s debt in many ways. Here are 13 of them. 1. Is your vehicle free and clear of any debt? That means it could be exposed to seizure by creditors for payment of their debts. Protect your free and clear vehicle(s) by ... Read More »
Protection from Creditors through the Automatic Stay
The moment you file bankruptcy you and your property are protected from almost all collection attempts by your creditors. The part of federal bankruptcy law called the “automatic stay” protects you from your creditors during a bankruptcy case. The Law on Automatic Stay The ... Read More »
Chapter 13’s Tools for Your Vehicle Loan
Chapter 13 gives you a number of tools to help you deal with your vehicle loan. Chapter 7 vs. Chapter 13 in General Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy” and Chapter 13 “adjustment of debts” give you two very different ways of attacking your debts. This includes your vehicle loan. ... Read More »
Chapter 7 if You’re Behind on Your Home or Vehicle
Chapter 7 may or may not give you enough help if you are behind on your home mortgage and/or vehicle loan. Last week we got into two possible complications for Chapter 7 cases: if you have relatively high income, or if you have non-exempt assets—those that are not protected from ... Read More »
Chapter 7 vs. Chapter 13 and Your Vehicle Loan
A Chapter 7 case makes sense if you want to keep your vehicle and don’t need much help doing so. Chapter 13 provides much more help. In deciding between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, for your vehicle loan is concerned, think about the two sentences above. First, you don’t need ... Read More »
Use Chapter 13 if You’re Behind on Your Vehicle Loan
Chapter 13 gives you lots of time to catch up on your vehicle loan. Or you might not even need to catch up on it at all. Chapter 7 sometimes gives you just enough of a break and enough time to catch up on your vehicle loan if you’re behind. But usually it only buys you a couple months. ... Read More »
Lowering Your Vehicle Loan Payments through Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
“Cramdown” of your vehicle loan can solve the problems of a reaffirmation agreement by lowering payments and protecting you much better. Our last blog post a couple days ago was about keeping your vehicle by “reaffirming” the vehicle loan under a Chapter 7 ... Read More »
Reaffirming Your Vehicle Loan through Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
Earlier this month we wrote about the three kinds of debts—secured, priority, and general unsecured. Today we get into secured debts, ones in which something you own secures the debt for the creditor. We start with vehicle loans. Specifically, in a Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy” ... Read More »
A Fresh Start on Your Vehicle Loan through Chapter 13 “Cramdown”
If your vehicle is worth less than you owe, Chapter 13 “cramdown” can reduce your monthly vehicle payment and the total you pay on the loan. You could get a fresh start on your vehicle loan by: Paying a smaller monthly payment immediately Reducing the interest rate Not needing to ... Read More »
A Fresh Start on Your Vehicle Loan through Chapter 7 “Redemption”
You may be able to keep your vehicle for less money by “redeeming” it—paying its present fair market value instead of the full debt. If you owe much more on your vehicle than it is worth and absolutely must keep this vehicle, you may greatly benefit from a fresh start on ... Read More »
