reaff agreement -vehicle

What is the name of your state? Florida

I have been offered a reaffirmation agreement for my vehicle & wanted some advice.

I have been told that if the agreement is not approved by the court, the creditor will report as "included in bankruptcy" even if I make all payments on time & even when I pay off the vehicle. They told me that once it was paid off I could then dispute the reporting if I want it to reflect as paid. But it will not reflect anything other then included in the bankruptcy in the meantime.

Is this correct? Do I not get any "credit" for paying this vehicle on time until is in fact paid off?

I filed chapter 7 & am still awaiting discharge. thanks!

That's kind of what we're dealing with now, except we didn't sign a reaffirmation on our car because our lawyer didn't get it or he lost it or something. On our credit report where our car is listed, it just hasn't been updated since last March (we filed in April). We've been making the payments on time and everything but the creditor (Chrysler) said that they can't update it because of the laws around BK. They also told us that if we decided to return the car at this point that they wouldn't put anything on our credit either.

We're trying to rebuild our credit, obviously, and that's one of the reasons that we wanted to keep the car. Now we wish that our lawyer had done a better job following up and made sure that we got a reaffirmation to sign.

I'm not a lawyer but that's just our personal experience with our finance company.

We filed chp 7 and we're also in Florida in 1991 and had a vehicle that we wanted to reaffirm. After giving it to the courts, the judge denied it and his reasoning was this:

With the reaffirmation agreement: if we defaulted the bank could take the vehicle PLUS sue us for the balance.
Without the reaffirmation: if we defaulted the bank could take the vehicle but NOT sue us for the balance.

Therefore he was protecting us which made sense. We then after the chp 7 was finalized got with the bank and agreed to pay the loan as due and keep the vehicle. They reported it on our credit as a regular account...paid as agreed. They did not report it as included in bankruptcy. It was like we never included it in our bankruptcy paperwork.

As for our chp 7 we did it by using a legal clinic who typed up our paperwork and filed it. We just went in front of the judge ourselves for the hearings. I couldn't see coughing up money for a lawyer when I could use that money to pay my bills. I had no money anyways! I think it cost us 200 total to file and finalize our bankruptcy.

As for reestablishing credit...I got a secured credit card thru Capital One and went from there...now we have 2 new cars, a house and a few credit cards but we learned our lesson. We don't purchase anything on our credit cards that we can't pay off that month.

As for returning the car...I'd be alittle leary of that! They can report it as a voluntary repo. Just get everything in writing!

BTW: Our car was financed thru Bank of America so they may have different rules then other banks.

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice.

I actually was not even planning on returning the vehicle, that was never an option for me. I just want the credit for paying the vehicle. I have already talk to the finance company & they refuse to report it as anything other then included in bankruptcy.. of course they say that but recently I obtained a current copy of my credit report & it did not say anything under the vehicle, where as everything that I did clear with the chapter 7-said included on them..

So I guess I will just have to wait & see what happens.

I understand the reaffirmation will probably be denied & that is fine.. my concern was just how it was going to be reported while I continue payments.