Getting an auto loan after declaring bankruptcy can be a difficult task, but that doesn't mean you should hide from it. You are trying to start over and make a new life, and so it's important that you charge forward and make that new life work. If you need a new vehicle this can just be an opportunity for you to work on building up a positive payment history on your credit report, in order to try and rebuild your credit history.

Of course, you need to make sure before you even decide to move forward, that you have a budget made out and that you know exactly what you can afford for a monthly payment. Making any late payments, or missing any, is simply not something you can afford to do now. You need to make sure that you have no negative marks on your credit from now on if you're going to take advantage of this new opportunity.

With that in mind, how do we go about getting an auto loan after declaring bankruptcy? You try to make your application look as appealing as possible to the lender in all other areas, to try and offset that big black mark on your credit report. So, first of all, you need to have a good income that says that you can afford your monthly payment. You also need to get a copy of your report and make sure that all of your past debts have been marked as included in bankruptcy, so that it doesn't look to lenders like you not only have that black mark, but are also still in debt.

If it's possible for you wait a while before pursuing financing, consider building up some positive credit history before moving forward. You can do this by getting a secured credit card, using it lightly, and paying it off each month. This will give you something to show your lenders and say, hey, look, I’ve been making payments elsewhere in my new life. Doing this for at least six months, but preferably more like nine to twelve, will help you build up a bit of history.

When you do go to apply somewhere, be upfront about your history, but don't focus on it. They're going to find out that you have a bankruptcy anyway, so you might as well be upfront about it, and have a one to two sentence explanation prepared for how you came to be in that situation because lenders will care to know. Keep the story fairly short, but truthful, such as divorce, medical bills, or whatever the case may be. Then focus on all the work you've been doing to rebuild your credit and how seriously you take your finances in your new life.

Getting a car loan after bankruptcy can be hard, but as you can see looking at the process here, is not impossible. You just have to take things one step at a time, and always keep your credit in mind.