I filed bankruptcy over 6 years ago. I never was given an option to reaffirm. The Chase company is not reporting my payments to anyone. It says the loan was discharged in the bankruptcy, it was not. I have not been late or defaulted on any payment to them. I have tried over and over to get this corrected and no one can give me the place to go to get this started. Can someone help please Thanks in advance PS I do not know what a reaffirm will do for me???
I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding of "debt reaffirmation" in BK is that it has to be an agreement that's filed with the BK court at the time of bankruptcy. You basically need the court's approval to reaffirm anything in BK. It sounds like you didn't do this with Chase. What kind of loan is this, and why have you been making payments if you never reaffirmed the debt? Have you disputed it through the CRAs yet?
To reaffirm a debt in BK 7 means that you sign and file with the bankruptcy court a legally enforceable document, which states that you promise to repay all or a portion of the debt that may otherwise have been discharged in your bankruptcy case. This is usually filed w/in 60 days after your 341 meeting. Reaffirmation agreements are strictly voluntary; they are not required by the Bankruptcy Code or other state or federal law. If you reaffirm a debt and fail to make the payments required in the reaffirmation agreement, the creditor can take action against you to recover any property that was given as security for the loan and you may remain personally liable for any remaining debt. This is often why it is better not to reaffirm a debt that will be discharged in your bankruptcy. You can voluntarily repay any debt instead of signing a reaffirmation, which is commonly called â??stay & payâ? with a mortgage or â??pay & driveâ? with a vehicle. With this option the OC is not under any obligation to report payments, and can still foreclose or reposes their property at any time even if you current with all payments. BUT because this debt was discharged with the BK you would NOT be personally liable for any remaining debt. Because you are no longer liable for the debt most creditors stop reporting payments. I would call ask Chase if they could start reporting, I hear from a lot of BK folks that most creditors donâ??t have an issue with this. Good luck with everything.
The reaffirmation might have not been sent due to how the lawyer filed your BK. I recently (last year) went through a Chapter 7, reaffirmed our car loan, but did not want to reaffirm the mortgage. I suppose that the only real problem with a mortgage being not re-affirmed would be if you are seen at some point in the near future as a credit risk (if you start to have new negatives coming out) they could begin foreclosure even with you being in good standing with them if they have decided that the house will now sell for above the mortgage balance. You are unable to take and re-affirm this now 6 years later, as re-affirmation is part of the BK filing (My BK didn't discharge until after a hearing where the judge inquired about my car re-affirm). The thing you could possibly do now in order to have a mortgage showing up on your credit would either be the other poster's suggestion to ask Chase to begin reporting it, or you could check into a re-finance which (based on your current mortgage interest rate - it might save you big $$) I'm not sure how far along in your mortgage you are, but assuming that you had the house at least a few years before the BK, and have been paying 6 years since then you could possibly target a re-finance for 20 years (you'll get a lower rate) or even 15 years. If you consider looking into refinance, please be sure what interest you are currently paying, and compare that fully. Also, if you have paid 10 years of a 30 year mortgage, be cautious about the "lower monthly payments" they might quote for you on a new 30 year mortgage - your goal should be to get the following: 1: A lower interest rate than what's on your current mortgage, by at least .75% 2: A lower monthly payment (if you don't have cash, there may be some costs of re-finance that will be rolled into the new mortgage - watch that these don't jack the price too much) 3: Near to the same pay-off date that you originally had (EX: If you have 18 1/2 to 21 1/2 years left on your mortgage - shoot for a 20 or even 15 year mortgage - as long as you can afford it)
