A secured loan is one where you have pledged something as collateral on the loan. The most common secured loans are car loans and mortgages. What you want to do with the property securing the loan will affect how you treat the debt.

If you want to keep the secured property and the debt is property-secured, you can always keep paying on the loan per its contract terms. The creditor gets exactly what they contracted for and they will turn over the title when it is paid. In a Chapter 7, you can also do a “redemption.” This basically means you will pay the creditor a lump sum equivalent to the fair market value of the secured property. This works well if you have a source of funding (most commonly a relative willing to lend you money or from exempt assets). If you don’t have access to the cash, you can do a Chapter 13 and pay the fair market value over 3-5 years.

If you don’t want the secured property (investment property you no longer want or a car you don’t want to pay for), you can surrender it to the lender and get a discharge of the debt. Creditor can take the secured property and sell it help recoup their losses, but cannot collect the deficiency from you.

Lastly, some creditors will claim to have a secured debt where none exists. The biggest offenders are Dell Credit, Kirby and Best Buy. For these creditors, we will force them to prove up their security interest (which they never can) before treating the debt as secured. In most of these cases, you can keep the property while the debt is discharged in the bankruptcy.

For other K bankruptcy terms:
Keys – New York Bankruptcy Lawyer, Jay S. Fleischman
Knowledge – Northern California Bankruptcy Lawyer, Cathy Moran
Knowledge – Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska Bankruptcy Attorney, Ryan D. Caldwell
Kids – Colorado Springs Bankruptcy Lawyer Bob Doig
Keeping your business – Dorota Trzeciecka Bankruptcy Blog
401k – Marin County Bankruptcy Attorney, Catherine Eranthe
Keep your retirement accounts – Taylor, Michigan Bankruptcy Attorney, Christopher McAvoy
Knowledge – Metro Richmond Consumer and Bankruptcy Attorney, Mitchell Goldstein
Know-Cleveland Area Bankruptcy Lawyer, Bill Balena
Dangers of Borrowing Against 401K-Los Angeles Bankruptcy Attorney, Mark J. Markus
Keeping Debt Collectors at Bay-Wisconsin Bankruptcy Lawyer, Bret Nason
Limits of Bankruptcy-Livonia Michigan Bankruptcy Lawyer, Peter Behrmann
Knight in Shining Armor-Philadelphia Suburban Bankruptcy Lawyer, Chris Carr
Kaput-Lakewood, CA Bankruptcy Lawyer, Christine Wilton
Reasons to keep your 401k-Pittsburgh Bankruptcy Attorney Shawn N. Wright