Trustee Fee and Early Payoff

[Quicke23]

I'm in the 27th month of about a 40 month 100% plan-I was fortunate that not 100% of the claims came in. According to my records and NDC, I have paid approximately $66,000 and the trustee fee has totaled $3,000. I calculated my remainder (by adding up the outstanding balances of each creditor) and came up with approximately $33,xxx. I called the trustee's office to request a full payoff amount (which they said I could do, since I was in a 100% plan) and he informed me the payoff was $37,xxx. He explained that the difference from my total and the payoff was because of the trustee fee (10%). Am I lucky that I have only paid $3k in trustee fees so far for the $66k or is the trustee fee that random? Is he giving me a payoff with the maximum % and I will be refunded any difference? I plan on paying this off hopefully next month with a lump sum. Thanks in advance for any ideas here and Happy Holidays! I'll definitely let you all know how it all pans out in the end.

[sophieanne]

Did you add in the trustee's fee when you calculated what you believe the final payment should be. If you showed 33,000 owing and the trustee's fee is 10@, i believe the payment should be 33,000 +3300. The trustee always gets their fee on any plan payment you pay. If the amount was over quoted when you spoke to the trustee's office, the extra amount would be refunded. When I overpaid (just a bit)..I got it back. Good luck and WTG!!!!!

[justbroke]

The Trustee always collects their fee. While the real fee is usually lower than 10%, the Districts seem to allow the Trustees to charge 10% even when that District (area) is only 7% (yes, I'm talking about you Florida).

As sophieanne wrote, you have to trust what the trustee tells you. If the Trustee didn't collect his/her "entire" fee on the first $66K, then they may discover that when they reconcile the account. Just be patient.

[Quicke23]

Thanks for the replies! I got a payoff amount of $38k today and will be going to the bank Saturday morning to get a cashier's check cut to send in! Weird in California, the trustee's payment address is a PO Box in TN. Now to think of a safe way to mail $38k to a PO Box!

[Quicke23]

Did you add in the trustee's fee when you calculated what you believe the final payment should be. If you showed 33,000 owing and the trustee's fee is 10@, i believe the payment should be 33,000 +3300. The trustee always gets their fee on any plan payment you pay. If the amount was over quoted when you spoke to the trustee's office, the extra amount would be refunded. When I overpaid (just a bit)..I got it back. Good luck and WTG!!!!!

This was spot on. My motion to discharge paperwork shows there is a $2k refund to the debtor. Did you have to wait the 30 days (when discharged) to get your refund check or was it refunded right away?

[sophieanne]

Hi, we had to wait until the trustee did his disbursements for the month, as we were now one of the ones to be paid for the month. In our case, he always did them at the end of the month, so that is when our refund check was sent to us.
Congratulations for reaching the end

[Quicke23]

Thank you! Great- final disbursement was done 2/17/17, so it should be in the mailbox any day now!