Help Obtaining an Auto Loan after Chapter 7 discharge

[Anonymous]

Hi FicoForums,

I've been browsing these forums since I filed my bankruptcy back in April 2016.

I have been discharged as of 7/25/16 and want to know of any bankruptcy friendly finance companies or Credit Unions.

My bankruptcy was a Chapter 7 and my scores (according to Credit Karma) are sitting at TU: 512 and Eq: 535 and make 40k annually.

I have been to one dealer so far here in St. Louis, a Ford Dealership who told me I need between 1800-2000 down.

Currently I have about $500 saved and cannot seem to get approved.

I have also tried Prestige and the Capital One pre-qualifier. Both did not approve me, and they did not ask how much I had to put down so I doubt that was a factor with these two.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

I would call around and see if you can speak with a dealership that can do it without any money down. We just bought my husband's car in open BK with $0 down through a dealership. I had to do some calling around till I found one that was friendly and able to work with us. I've heard Navy Fed/PenFed seem to be hit and miss with auto loans for people right out of DC. I just got memership with NavyFed and they shut my account down for "fraud" since I sent them our drivers licenses and my husbands is from 2005 and doesn't need to be renewed yet so they said it was fraud since it wasn't our NEW DL Oregon issues.. so I'm getting that all sourted out. If you have a relationship with a local CU you can ask them if they might be able to lend to you. You can also try the auto loan section in credit karma, and lending tree for pre quals. Honestly though, dealerships want to sell you cars and they can make most anything happen....

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I would call around and see if you can speak with a dealership that can do it without any money down. We just bought my husband's car in open BK with $0 down through a dealership. I had to do some calling around till I found one that was friendly and able to work with us. I've heard Navy Fed/PenFed seem to be hit and miss with auto loans for people right out of DC. I just got memership with NavyFed and they shut my account down for "fraud" since I sent them our drivers licenses and my husbands is from 2005 and doesn't need to be renewed yet so they said it was fraud since it wasn't our NEW DL Oregon issues.. so I'm getting that all sourted out. If you have a relationship with a local CU you can ask them if they might be able to lend to you. You can also try the auto loan section in credit karma, and lending tree for pre quals. Honestly though, dealerships want to sell you cars and they can make most anything happen....

---

Thank you so much harleygirl1987 for the response! I know of a bankruptcy friendly dealer here in my city so I'm gonna give them a call and see what they can do. I was skeptical at first becuase I talked to them before and they stated they can get me approved during the bankruptcy. Gonna send a prayer up and cross my fingers.

As far as credit unions I called around and majority don't work with fresh bankruptcies and want to see 3 years payment history, sheesh. 

[Anonymous]

OP,

I'm glad you posted this because I was coming on to post the same.

I have mentioned in several other posts that I filed BK in May so my discharge is still a week or two away (I think). I am looking for the same as you, very low down payment. Many have said to call around and do leg work but my add-on question to yours would be....what am I Calling and saying? I found a local Mercedes dealership who said they are BK friendly. Called and didnt know what I was asking so she gave me the generic 15%+, depends on down payment, etc etc (also said they work with Santander who I burned in BK so that probably wont work). I'm not well versed in this so I kinda need help figuring out what I should be saying. I am looking at going to Carmax but I wanna shop around at regular dealerships and weigh out my options.

sorry if I seem to be needy folks...just trying to learn

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

OP,

I'm glad you posted this because I was coming on to post the same.

I have mentioned in several other posts that I filed BK in May so my discharge is still a week or two away (I think). I am looking for the same as you, very low down payment. Many have said to call around and do leg work but my add-on question to yours would be....what am I Calling and saying? I found a local Mercedes dealership who said they are BK friendly. Called and didnt know what I was asking so she gave me the generic 15%+, depends on down payment, etc etc (also said they work with Santander who I burned in BK so that probably wont work). I'm not well versed in this so I kinda need help figuring out what I should be saying. I am looking at going to Carmax but I wanna shop around at regular dealerships and weigh out my options.

sorry if I seem to be needy folks...just trying to learn

---

To be honest I'm wondering the same. Now I will say, I went to a Ford Dealership here who claims to be bankruptcy friendly and was very uprfront with them regarding downpayment and recent bankruptcy. They told me I could get approved its just that the down payment would need to be larger between $1800 and $2000 on a $14,000 car. The finiance guy also said with a higher down payment I could go for a higher priced car but not exceed $15,000 as far as price goes.

Definitely need to find a TRUE bankruptcy dealer who works with people regardless of down payment amount.

[Anonymous]

exactly! I've seen posts on here where people have gotten 0 down and a semi-decent interest rate. I just want to know what they said to get it lol.....I dont mind doing the legwork but I at least need to know what I should and should not be saying

[Anonymous]

Your welcome. Honestly call around. I went through a larger dealership in Oregon, Ron Tonkin (we got a Honda Element) and originally the asshat who contacted me told me 20% down, then another sales rep emailed me and said that they work with people who are open in BK and to call them. I called and spoke with him and the finance manager and they were both apoligetic for the 1st person's reply to my inquiry and I talked with them at length and the finance manager said that the APR would be 15-30% depending on our credit, and took our app over the phone and called me the next day as agreed saying that he got our APR at 15% and how he was shocked how good our credit was before BK. When we got to the dealership I was able to get him to lower the APR 1%  if we agreed to a 72month term, which was fine since I plan on refinancing in a few months anyway. For us being open in BK i really didn't think it was that bad of a deal. More middle of the road.

They were super easy to deal with and I think we spent maybe 2 whole hours at the dealership since I did all our deals over the phone. We spent most of the time talking about Game of Thrones lol. I also contacted CarMax and the finance manager there was super friendly, and actually followed up with me this weekend to see how our BK was going. They can't loan until after it's discharged, but they are nice to deal with.

Really, the whole money down thing I think is sometimes a requirement form the bank, but more a stipulation from the dealership. The finance manager we dealt with said that I can do 0 or whatever I wanted for a DP he didn't care and would just tell Prestige that's what was happening. lol.

[Anonymous]

Here's an update, reached out to Carmax and got two offers...problem is still the down payment amount. So I guess I just have to wait until I'm able to come up with a nice down payment amount. Hella discouraged makes me wonder why I even filled. SMH

[Anonymous]

I would call around to other dealerships and ask them about no money down. Maybe call dealerships in larger areas, we had to drive 3 hours to the dealership I found that was able to work with us.

[SSH0126]

How much of a deposit did Carmax want? 

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Here's an update, reached out to Carmax and got two offers...problem is still the down payment amount. So I guess I just have to wait until I'm able to come up with a nice down payment amount. Hella discouraged makes me wonder why I even filled. SMH

---