Trustee fee increase?

[Libertybell]

I’m in Western PA. Chapter 13 filed June 2019. Our payment is taken biweekly from my husbands paychecks -$1357 each pay. Now when we first filed, $40 from each pay went to Trustee. I think it was just under 4% fee. It then went up to $55 a payment and now as of the most recent payment post, $107 to the trustee, which is over $200 a month, up from $88 a month. It shows on the website the Trustee fee is now 7.09%. When looking at the plan calculations, initially it said total amount to be paid to the Trustee over the life of the plan was approx $5500. Now it is almost $10k. Is this normal for the Trustee percentage to increase? How does that work for the 100% plan I am in, now that an additional 5k to the Trustee has been added? My plan is confirmed, so I need to worry about a payment increase in the future?

[shipo]

Wow, you're approaching the end of your first year, and the Trustee has dialed up his or her fee to near double; something smells fishy. Regardless, my understanding is, unless you and your husband suddenly start making more money, "more" as in greater than a 10% bump in a year, your monthly "contribution" to the Trustee will not change.

[justbroke]

The fee isn't increasing. The Trustee gets paid by how much they pay out, not how much the receive into your account. At the start of a Chapter 13, the Trustee hardly pays anything and usually won't pay any unsecured (or even priority unsecured) creditors until after confirmation.

So, what the Trustee is paid should be about 10% of what they sent out in checks.

I would not worry about how much the Trustee makes as it always comes from disposable monthly income (unless you're in a 100% plan). While the Trustee's percentage may be 7% (as it is in Florida), most jurisdictions allow the Trustee to take 10% based on potential variations/fluctuations of the rate during the period of the confirmed plan. At least that's how I have thought it to work.

[Libertybell]

Justbroke...Ok...they have been paying out the same amount since the beginning. Mortgage payment, two car payments (one paid off last month) and the remainder to mortgage arrears. Same amount for car and mortgage...arrears has increased by the amount of the paid off car payment for April. The ledger showing incoming payments and what is paid out each month shows once the payment comes in, the trustee takes their cut immediately. So I am wondering since the one car payment is gone, more is going towards the mortgage arrears...thereby more available to pay creditors? Thereby increase in trustee fee based on that amount? That would make sense, as I wouldn’t think they would take a percentage for paying fixed payments such as current house and car payments I am required to pay through the plan? And yes I’m in a 100% plan

[justbroke]

I'm not exactly sure how they do their math -- by "they" I mean the Chapter 13 Trustees. We just don't question or look at their accounting because they can pay things whenever they want (so it seems), and they earn a commission based on those payments. I do know that my Trustee earned varying amounts monthly, and it may not have matched what they were paying out on that date/month. In some cases, the Trustee may pay themselves on a different date than the one where the creditors are paid and that could cause differences in the amounts.

Here's why I say don't look at it and don't worry about it;

My Trustee was paid, over the last 6 months of my plan, as follows: $75.73, $87.75, $92.62, $92.62, $92.62...

Looking back that even varied from $15.34 to $188.97 at the peak!

In total my Trustee made just over $5,600 which just happens to be 7.8% which I think is about right. But they didn't take 7.8% "each" month, but it averaged to 7.79%.

[Libertybell]

Ah ok...gotcha. I’ll try not to worry about it a long as it all getting paid, I should trust their math 😉. They do know more about this than I do. I just found it odd about the change, but glad to know it is not out of the ordinary. Thanks!!