Pontotoc, TX Bankruptcy Law Firms & Lawyers

If you are current on your payments, you can generally reaffirm the debt and keep making the car payments. However, unless you have some equity in the vehicle, you might be better off surrendering it and paying cash for a clunker - then saving until you can pay cash for a better rig. It's best to make your "car payment" to your savings account.

To get the facts straight it sounds like your parents lent you money and you put this in a written agreement whereby you put the car as collateral, however, you never followed up with transferring registration to their name or taking any steps via DMV to show they have a lien on the vehicle? If that's correct, then youre parents have a lien on your car and your car will have less or no equity that needs protecting. The correct step would've been to take care of the transfer simultaneous to when you received the money as that would make it a valid transaction. At this point, it is a little late but I think it should be fine for you to fill out paperwork with DMV showing they have a lien on your vehicle. The Trustee may question the validity of this, wondering you're trying to hide assets, but if you can show that you've been making regular monthly payments to your parents as lien holders and you're treating them at arms length like any other creditor and are not 'preferring' them to any of your other creditors, then you're fine. The issue becomes if they feel like you are preferring family/friend creditors over other creditors or that you're transferring title to the car just to protect an asset and that there is no legit loan. As long as you can prove that there was a secured lien you're fine.