Advice Needed - Keep or Refi a car loan that is no longer reporting post-BK7

[slate]

Hoping the experts can help me make the best move here.

 

I bought a car and financed it. At the time, it was a reasonable (but not amazing loan) at around 5% APR. Then about a year later, I went bankrupt (chapter 7.) 

 

The attorney told me basically that as long as I kept paying the loan, I would not have any issues with it. (The intention was always to keep the car and loan.)

 

Shortly after my BK was filed, the bank with the auto loan put me in this weird status so I cannot autopay, I have to pay manually every time. It also will not tell me my current balance, payment amount, due date, nothing - but it will allow me to just continue paying the same amount I have always paid. Finally, if I call in I have to be transferred to their 'bankruptcy' dept which means waiting on hold 40 mins or longer to talk to someone and what they can do or tell me is incredibly limited. I told the attorney, they said this is normal, just keep paying, and a few months later the BK discharged.

 

Well... fast forward a year and the loan is still stuck in this state. The bank claims they sent my attorney several attempts to get me to re-affirm the loan before my BK was discharged. (The attorney denies ever getting anything.) They claim that without this, there is nothing they can do.

 

Note: the loan shows on my credit reports as always paid on time, from the month of my first payment to the month I filed for BK. So it's like 11 months of paid on time indicators - then nothing. Also, it shows the balance as several thousand dollars more than it truly currently is, because again it's essentially frozen at the last data point they had before I filed for BK. I mention this because on my current credit reports, one of the things they call out as having a significant negative impact on my scores, is my installment loan balance/s being too high / too close to the original balance/s.

 

I have considered a few options - a couple of credit unions have indicated they believe I would likely be approved for a car loan, and I could effectively refinance this. (Yes I explained the whole thing and they are ok with the fact that I went bankrupt and this loan is stuck in some weird state now with not being re-affirmed.) Also, they would be doing 1.9-3% interest so this would actually save me some money as they payments would be a bit lower.

 

However, I want to try to buy a house in the next year or so - do you guys think this strategy (refinance the auto loan) would result in a net positive impact to my credit score in 1 year? Initially I think there would be a hit due to the inquiries and opening a new account, but after a year of good payment history do you think my score would have benefited more than it initially suffered by doing this? (In case it matters or affects strategy, I should note that I have a ton of equity in the car at this point. Due to the pandemic I have barely used it; I owe less than 50% of the car's book value at this point.)

 

Another option I considered is, what if I did a dispute with the credit bureaus and said hey you are showing the balance of this loan as 27k, here is a 10-day payoff statement from the lender showing 15k... so you need to fix the loan balance. Would they do it? Or would they be more likely to delete the account from my credit entirely (unclear if that would overall help or hurt me) or could there be some other negative consequence?

 

A few other side notes - shortly after BK I pulled my credit (the real deal, from myfico) and they were all around low 600s. I applied for a credit card and got instantly approved. Over the next few months I applied for a few more and got 2/4 of them. I finally realized I had a path into navy fed, got in and tried to get the navy fed cash rewards card, but got turned down - so I opted for the secured one. ~3 months later the navy fed secured card doubled my limit (without requiring more security.) Then as each card hit 6 months, literally ever one increased my limit, and the navy fed one converted to the cash rewards card that I had tried to get in the first place! I haven't paid to re-up my myfico triple scores yet but I believe they are all currently mid to high 600s. (I do check EXP constantly as it's free; that score is about 650 currently.)

 

Thanks for reading!!

 

 

[MarvBear]

Welcome to CreditBoards.

[MarvBear]

I would strongly recommend you get a payoff from the lender in question on their letterhead to make it official if you can.

[slate]

20 minutes ago, MarvBear said:

I would strongly recommend you get a payoff from the lender in question on their letterhead to make it official if you can.

 

@MarvBear Do you mean the 10-day payoff quote? (Which shows how much it would be to pay the loan off within the next 10 days, including pending interest.) I think they will definitely give me that, I got one from them before (because it was literally the only way I could get the current balance or close to it, in writing) when I first told them I was considering refinancing it.

 

But so assuming I can get a new one (99% sure I can) - what do I do with it? Use it to dispute the account with each CB? And if so, what am I trying to tell them to do - just update the balance? (Is there anything else I can accomplish / for example would they be forced to show my payment history if I sent them proof of all my payments since they stopped reporting? The account currently shows as closed.

[hdporter]

44 minutes ago, slate said:

Well... fast forward a year and the loan is still stuck in this state. The bank claims they sent my attorney several attempts to get me to re-affirm the loan before my BK was discharged. (The attorney denies ever getting anything.) They claim that without this, there is nothing they can do.

 

So, why not pick up on this and do whatever they say to make this happen?  Pick up the letter and sign in person (or self-courier it to your attorney, if they need to be involved.

 

I wouldn't want to engage in any refinance transaction while the loan was in this limbo.  The last thing you want to happen is to frustrate your new lender because you can't clear the existing lien.

 

Marv's advice to get a payoff letter is a reasonable measure, and I largely defer to his opinion.  However, I worry that even with a payoff letter in hand, the simply presenting them a check for the outstanding balance isn't necessarily going to lead to the lien being immediately clear.

 

Reaffirm the debt and square things with your current lender.  Then, if motivated, refi.

[MarvBear]

Use the 10 day payoff quote to your new bank to help you get the loan, if that's the path you wish to follow.  When you filed BK and did not reaffirm the loan, you effectively limited the bank's ability to report.  The BK made them stay any further collection efforts, which also could include furnishing information to a credit reporting agency.  I don't think you will be successful in trying to repair that tradeline.

 

People with mortgage experience can advise you whether your refinance attempt will result in a benefit when it comes time to buy your house.

[hdporter]

2 hours ago, MarvBear said:

When you filed BK and did not reaffirm the loan, you effectively limited the bank's ability to report.  The BK made them stay any further collection efforts, which also could include furnishing information to a credit reporting agency.  I don't think you will be successful in trying to repair that tradeline.

 

A simple Google says MB is dead on here (of course).  Please disregard my ill-conceived post.

[slate]

Yeah to be clear @hdporter there is no such thing as simply re-affirming a debt. Once the BK has discharged that is not an option. Sorry if I did not make that clear.