I co-signed for a car for my husband (soon to be x), in 2004 i live in il. However he defaulted on the loan, and now i have a auto loan charge off on my credit report for 2,502. My question is do you think it will be a good idea if i write a pfd letter and offer payment for them to take it off my credit report? if so how much should i offer? (i can not afford to pay the full amount). I all ready dispute with the cra and it came back. Thanks in advance for your replies
the loan was defaulted late 2004, i dont know what the sol is for il but i am sure i am still within it.
An auto loan is a written contract so the SOL in Illinois is 10 years according to bankrate.com. You are sure to get sued for the deficiency balance and it probably won't take all that long for it to happen. Best you start learning how to defend yourself in court now before it happens so when it does happen you are ready to respond to the summons in an intelligent manner and how to win if at all possible. Auto loan contracts are hard to beat so about the only way to get that done is to catch the 3rd party debt collector (attorney) in violations of law and nail him and the OC for it at the same time in federal court. That way you can end up making it far too expensive for them to continue to try to collect. You actually want to get them in federal court before they sue you in local court. Your chances of coming out on top are much better that way.
so what is the first move i should make? asking for a pfd for about half the amount would be a bad move?
Discuss it with your divorce attorney to stipulate in the divorce agreement that your ex should become the sole owner of the car and therefore make him solely responsible - and get a court order delivered to the lender to take your name completeley off the loan, as well as ordering the lender to remove any and all entries by them concerning you.
Don't be fooled into thinking that a divorce lawyer or a divorce court is going to help you with this problem. Creditors are not bound by divorce court and no decree from a divorce court can affect a creditor in any way. The divorce is between you and your husband and you two are the only ones affected. If the divorce court were to order your husband to pay up and he didn't do it you would still be liable to the lender. Your only remedy would be to sue your ex in a small claims or district court, get a judgment against him and then go after any money he might have in the bank or any other assets he might have. I think you can just about imagine how much good that is likely to do you. Don't be fooled by false and misleading information and dangerous advice. As creditwren told you, you will end up getting sued by the lender if your ex don't pay up if you signed on the note along with your ex. The divorce decree will prove useless when and if they sue you.
This is absolutely correct. The divorce may say that he's responsible, but you signed the contract and are therefore legally liable for the loan. No divorce decree or property settlement can change that relationship. All the divorce decree will do is allow you to go after your ex for the money, but it does NOT absolve you of any liability. And if he doesn't have the money to repay the loan company, I'm sure he doesn't have the money to pay you. And you will also be out the expense of the lawyer and court fees to get the judgment against him.
