Behind on Payment, Worried About Repo

My question involves an auto loan or repossession in the State of: Arizona

Long story short, I am about 6 months behind in car payments with Chrysler Financial due to unemployment. I am now able to pay the payment every other week until caught up but do not have any savings left to make up all the payments right now. Shows as a charge off as of 2/26/09, I still have the car, received a letter from a skip trace company asking me to contact them. I owe about what it's worth, at least I did before additional charges have been applied which I don't know what those are. Should I....

a. Try to keep the car, contact Chrysler Financial and see if they will let me make up the payments or is it too late? I am worried if I start making payments that they will repo anyway. Do I have to try and negoitate with the skip trace company instead? I'm terrified to call them.

b. Should I try to trade it in and get another car if I am able to get financing? I have no idea exactly what I owe and I'm scared to take it to a dealership for fear they will keep it.

c. Should I try to sell it on my own? I don't know what Chrysler will accept and I don't have a lot of extra money to make up a difference.

Just not sure where to go from here. I need a car for work so I can keep my job and want to somehow settle this issue with the loan.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Losing sleep in AZ!!

If you want to try to keep the car, quite obviously you have to try to work that out with the lender. If you've been hiding to the point that a skip tracer was hired to locate you, and are delinquent to the point that they've written off the debt, odds are they're not going to reinstate the loan. But the only way to know is to ask.

In order to either sell or trade in the vehicle, you'll have to pay off the balance due to you can get clear title. Without knowing how much you owe, it's impossible to guess whether it's a realistic option for you. Find out the pay-off amount, and see if you'll be able to cover the difference after sale or trade-in.

If the debt was charged off in February, you are either a year behind, or the tradeline is being misreported. Charge off happens after you are six months delinquent.