Payments done.
So, our final payment was made 4 days ago. Originally DH and I filed Chapter 13 because we were receiving furloughs from the state and our lender refused to refinance our 2nd loan. We bought our home with one of those predator lending places and we had two loans, one at 80 percent and one at 20 percent. We were staying above water with my husband working one overtime per month then the furloughs hit and we had to make some hard decisions. We refinanced the first but the lender for the 2nd refused. (that's their prerogative). We didn't have much credit card debt but we did have an RV, auto loans, student loans, and miscellaneous stuff.
I fought DH tooth and nail because I did not want the stigma of BK on my record. However he made me face reality that if I wanted to keep my house, we would have to do chap 13 and strip the 2nd. So, we did and it was not as bad as I thought it would be. The reason for that is I received a number of raises during the time in BK. They were all disclosed to the trustee on our paperwork at the beginning. I had just promoted and I was going to be receiving a 5 percent raise every year for the next three years.
Since we didn't use our credit cards much, I didn't miss them. I did miss camping in our RV. We would go out in it at least once a month but it was considered a luxury item so we had to send it back. We did regular camping and backpacking but DH has been in too many car accidents and needs a bed to sleep in so that didn't last long. We looked at the bk payment as another bill and just continued to live life. We did struggle in the first year a wee bit. DH likes to spend money and I had to remind him that he was on a budget.
I was told that my student loan would not be included in the plan but the trustee did pay a small amount of $100 to them every month. I also was paying the regular amount so my student loan is almost paid off. Two things helped us the most in this plan but only one will be of use to anyone reading this. The first thing....The three days a month furloughs went away when the governor left office so that money was returned to the budget and yes, we told our lawyer and the trustee was told also. Although I'm sure she knew as I'm sure there were other state of california employees who filed Chap 13. The second thing...we had two car loans which we were allowed to continued to pay outside the plan. When each car loan was paid off, the trustee had the loan amount minus $200 placed into the plan. So, for instance, our jeep had a $600 payment. When it was paid off, $400 went back into our plan and we got to keep $200 a month.
I had a credit counseling session with Experian last week. My score with them is 737 and it shows the BK is scheduled to drop off my report in 2018. I have to say my jaw dropped when he told me about my credit score.
So, here we are today, waiting to be discharged, cars all paid, house with $35,000 equity, student loan more manageable, way less bills. If I had a chance to go back in time and had to decide if I was going to file, would I do it again? Yepper.
I fought DH tooth and nail because I did not want the stigma of BK on my record. However he made me face reality that if I wanted to keep my house, we would have to do chap 13 and strip the 2nd. So, we did and it was not as bad as I thought it would be. The reason for that is I received a number of raises during the time in BK. They were all disclosed to the trustee on our paperwork at the beginning. I had just promoted and I was going to be receiving a 5 percent raise every year for the next three years.
Since we didn't use our credit cards much, I didn't miss them. I did miss camping in our RV. We would go out in it at least once a month but it was considered a luxury item so we had to send it back. We did regular camping and backpacking but DH has been in too many car accidents and needs a bed to sleep in so that didn't last long. We looked at the bk payment as another bill and just continued to live life. We did struggle in the first year a wee bit. DH likes to spend money and I had to remind him that he was on a budget.
I was told that my student loan would not be included in the plan but the trustee did pay a small amount of $100 to them every month. I also was paying the regular amount so my student loan is almost paid off. Two things helped us the most in this plan but only one will be of use to anyone reading this. The first thing....The three days a month furloughs went away when the governor left office so that money was returned to the budget and yes, we told our lawyer and the trustee was told also. Although I'm sure she knew as I'm sure there were other state of california employees who filed Chap 13. The second thing...we had two car loans which we were allowed to continued to pay outside the plan. When each car loan was paid off, the trustee had the loan amount minus $200 placed into the plan. So, for instance, our jeep had a $600 payment. When it was paid off, $400 went back into our plan and we got to keep $200 a month.
I had a credit counseling session with Experian last week. My score with them is 737 and it shows the BK is scheduled to drop off my report in 2018. I have to say my jaw dropped when he told me about my credit score.
So, here we are today, waiting to be discharged, cars all paid, house with $35,000 equity, student loan more manageable, way less bills. If I had a chance to go back in time and had to decide if I was going to file, would I do it again? Yepper.
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