Making secured creditor payment after filing

[Dannyc1005]

My chapter 13 was filed on 6/30. 341 hearing is 8/29. My mortgage and cars were planned to be outside of the payment arrangement. I was not expecting to loose online access and unable to make phone payments. I’ve talked to my mortgage company, and have to send a disclosure letter from the atty, to talk any further, however I did send a money order with the payment stub, waiting to see it post. Capital One’s site tells me my account is being handled by American InfoSource, with an 800 num, I’ve called the num, and call disconnects after entering the selections.
Should I go ahead and buy a money order, to get that money out of my chk acct? And wait to hear from someone about a mailing address?
How do I make payments in this time? Or what is the safest option.
Have no problem with WellsFargo, they allow phone payments, just not online payments…

[Carmella]

My pet peeve. We should be told ahead of time that online payments will STOP. I was in utter shock as well. Luckily, I could make my mortgage payments over the phone through the bank's BK department. My car was thru a local bank which had a branch at the grocery store so I went there. My other car was thru Ally and I found a third party on the Ally website that took payments for a small fee and it went straight to Ally. You might look on your car loans website and try to find any alternative ways to pay. It wasn't easy to find on Ally it had an icon of keys or something you doesn't make you think "payment."

After the branch of the bank closed and I could no longer easily make the car payment at the grocery store was to use online payment from my checking account. I had no idea prior how to do this. Check your online bank account and see if there's a way to pay bills. You can enter the pertinent information for your car loans and then make a payment electronically. I have no extra charge for that feature. I still use it for my life insurance policy that has no online access for payment. when you use the bank's online bill paying you do have to give it a few days especially if it's Thurs or Friday.

During the course of my BK the bank started to allow me access to pay the mortage an HELOC online. I called the BK department and they said that wasn't so, but it was and it worked so I used it. Then Ally started to allow online payments there was a disclaimer beforehand that it wasn't collecting debt and this service could end at any time.

To summarize

Check Online Banking from your Checking Account see if you can set up bill payment, external transfers, etc. I recommend using this for all payments that you can. It's quicker and easier than snail mail, but takes a little longer than paying straight on the website which they cut access!

Check the Car Loan Website to see if there's any alternative way to pay. It might take searching to find it.

[flashoflight]

Hopefully you were using your bank's billpay to send the money to your mortgage lender and auto lender. If you didn't, grab the last statement and use it to create the billpay. Then pay it.With American Infosource, you will probably need to get someone to answer the phone to give you enough information to setup the billpay. Pick different options and then get whoever answers to send you to the right place.

Why pay with a money order? It's not required after filing. The bank can't refuse the payment because it's a personal check or billpay check and then ask for relief from stay to foreclose or repo. The billpay will give you plenty of proof that the lender has been paid. The only entity you need to pay with a money order, cashier's check, or the trustee's preferred billpay service is the trustee.

Keep in mind that it will take longer for the lender to process your payment. They have to send the payment to a special bankruptcy department, unlock your account, process the payment, and then lock it down again.

[Dannyc1005]

Hopefully you were using your bank's billpay to send the money to your mortgage lender and auto lender. If you didn't, grab the last statement and use it to create the billpay. Then pay it.With American Infosource, you will probably need to get someone to answer the phone to give you enough information to setup the billpay. Pick different options and then get whoever answers to send you to the right place.

Why pay with a money order? It's not required after filing. The bank can't refuse the payment because it's a personal check or billpay check and then ask for relief from stay to foreclose or repo. The billpay will give you plenty of proof that the lender has been paid. The only entity you need to pay with a money order, cashier's check, or the trustee's preferred billpay service is the trustee.

Keep in mind that it will take longer for the lender to process your payment. They have to send the payment to a special bankruptcy department, unlock your account, process the payment, and then lock it down again.

Thanks for the info, I tried my banks bill pay and they said the payment was rejected and the banks fraud dept flagged it. And shut down my bill pay until I could go in and verify.
With the money order I just panicked and wanted to send a payment, I since ordered checks and will do the at from now on. I’m very worried about the trail the money order has to go through before it gets posted.
I notified my atty about the Cap One/AIS , situation they notified the opposing counsel that filed a notice of appearance, to see if I could get some info.
I really hate keeping money in my checking account and waiting days or weeks before a check clears and risk overdraft.

[eap82]

Dannyc1005 I use a credit union for my car loan. They cut off online bill pay and I was able to speak to the bankruptcy dept. They allowed me to get a letter written from my attorney to restore online access. My other option was to go into the branch. I wonder if you can get someone on the phone finally if they will do something similar? Ask them exactly what they want the letter to say, my bank gave me verbatim what to put in the letter. I understand you wanting to get the money out of your checking account, I too hate having pending transactions and checks to my checking account.

[flashoflight]

Thanks for the info, I tried my banks bill pay and they said the payment was rejected and the banks fraud dept flagged it. And shut down my bill pay until I could go in and verify.
With the money order I just panicked and wanted to send a payment, I since ordered checks and will do the at from now on. I’m very worried about the trail the money order has to go through before it gets posted.
I notified my atty about the Cap One/AIS , situation they notified the opposing counsel that filed a notice of appearance, to see if I could get some info.
I really hate keeping money in my checking account and waiting days or weeks before a check clears and risk overdraft.

Is the bank with billpay the same as your lender? I don't think it can be the same institution.

[Clay3007]

I too was worried about over drafting until we started using cash for everything. Set a strict budget for awhile and stick to it until you see how everything flows. My bank stopped accepting payments for our 2nd mortgage in the the middle of the plan and we had to start mailing the checks right to the bk dept. i also freaked out

[Dannyc1005]

Is the bank with billpay the same as your lender? I don't think it can be the same institution.

No different bank, I’m still waiting to see when the get the attorney approval, so I can talk to them, hopefully I can do bill pay, the mortgage company is listed on the list of payee’s. I’m going to call Tuesday

[Dannyc1005]

My mortgage payment I made with the money order in the mail posted today, 11 days after putting it in the mail and 31 days late. Are late fees and late payments forgiven in this period? I understand the consequences of missed payments, but late I don’t know about.

[justbroke]

The mortgage company should date your payment received on the date they retrieved it from the mail. Since you are likely more than 15 days late, there will be late fees. I don't believe these late fees are forgiven.

[Carmella]

My mortgage payment I made with the money order in the mail posted today, 11 days after putting it in the mail and 31 days late. Are late fees and late payments forgiven in this period? I understand the consequences of missed payments, but late I don’t know about.

I don't know if it was just my bank, but they told me I would not get fees.

Hopefully, you can get the attorney approval, etc and have another way to pay that's not by mail. I don't like mailing bills since I had problems with my car payment (prior to the BK) getting there late when I gave it ample time. I hope you get to pay either online or over the phone.

[Dannyc1005]

Update… my mortgage bank got the atty approval letter, and was able to talk to me on the phone. They recommended my banks bill pay, but to do the first one with a customer service rep on the phone or at least let them know I’m making the payment, to avoid it getting flagged. Or mail a check with 7-12 days waiting. I guess what May have made it get flagged was I setup the app on another phone and then immediately setup and sent the bill pay, never used it before and then all of a sudden tried sending a high amount.

also got a number for AIS from the documents on pacer, for the cap one account, they were able to take a phone payment and said I can use that number in the future, they had my chk account info on file from cap one, and I just had to verify my last 4 of the account num.

[justbroke]

The problem with mortgages in Chapter 13s is that inevitably there will be issues when your case is discharged. Some mortgage lenders/servicers are able to reconcile their accounting, but you must remember that the systems are developed to automatically do certain things, such as a.) add a late fee, and b.) any underpayment adding to a suspense account until there's enough to pay everything past due. That in "b" snowballs in some cases where you're always behind and end up with late fees for every single month.

I know I'm being a little dramatic, but this is one of the known issues with Chapter 13s and mortgages. Especially those mortgages paid outside the plan and if there are any technical late payments.

[Dannyc1005]

The problem with mortgages in Chapter 13s is that inevitably there will be issues when your case is discharged. Some mortgage lenders/servicers are able to reconcile their accounting, but you must remember that the systems are developed to automatically do certain things, such as a.) add a late fee, and b.) any underpayment adding to a suspense account until there's enough to pay everything past due. That in "b" snowballs in some cases where you're always behind and end up with late fees for every single month.

I know I'm being a little dramatic, but this is one of the known issues with Chapter 13s and mortgages. Especially those mortgages paid outside the plan and if there are any technical late payments.

Thanks, I’m definitely going to keep up with the statement activity and keep up with any late fees if charged and add them to the payment, main issue was i thought I was ok to make the payment on 7/15 which was due on 7/1, (15 day grace period) and have no issues, but it took till 8/2 after having to send a money order through the mail. Hopefully the bill pay works this time on the 11th, and when the 2 or 3 days a month my no-weekly pay period date moves up, I will be back on track soon.