Creditors Meeting

[bminet]

Wanted to post some good news for those who have a fear, like I did. My Creditor meeting was yesterday and was a complete breeze. The whole thing lasted under 10 minutes, seemed like 5 minutes and only asked routine questions. All I had to do was answer yes or no and that was it. I went to my mandatory financial seminar later in the day and that was pretty boring for 2 1/2 hours, but again, a breeze. There was one couple ahead of me that was behind on their first and second payment and had some issues with not having correct or missing paperwork. They actually took about 15 minutes, but even though they had serious issues, they were not hounded, looked down upon or was given a mean deameanor by the Trustee. For anyone who has a fear of this meeting, DONT. If you have all your paperwork turned in and yuo have made your first payment, dont sweat it because it's not worth it. Nobody's creditor showed up that day either. This has been the best choice I made and I am glad I did. I can now answer my phone everytime it rings wihout the fear of a collection agent out for blood. In only 2 months I have all my utility bills caught up and instead of paying for everything all out of one check everything is halved up and can be payed on the due dates. No more constant late fees. We have not been able to save anything yet, but I predict it will not be long and we will begin reaching each payday with some left over. I have not had that feeling or ability in the last several years. I know not everyone may express my biased joy over Ch. 13, but it surely beats the hell out of where I was 3 months ago.

[sophieanne]

Hi bminet,

I had to write and tell you how much I agree with you. I'm a couple months ahead of you (I filed in July and confimred in September) for a 5 year chapter 13 plan. To me it's a breah of fresh air....a true opportunity to clean up some bad choices that we made (extreme overuse of credit cards) and actually start living again without cards and without the fear of collection people calling. We're in a 100% payback plan and I actually am thankful everyday that we're being given this opporunity to clean things up and start fresh.

Look forward to hearing more from you over the next while.

[bminet]

Thanks. We are also in a 100% payback. Even with the 100% my payment is still less than I was paying out every month. When you figure in all the late fee's and the interest I was paying every month it was killing me. Not just the credit card, but late fees because I was late on everything. It has been a giant relief and we too are thankful to have this opportunity. Good luck to you into the future.

[electricdoc]

I hope I can post something similar soon! Our 341 is next month.

[ccmisery]

Are you in a 3 or 5 year Chapter 13? How much money do you have left over, when they say "disposable" I pretty much understand there is little left over for groceries and gas for the car, credit card interest is the only reason I was unable to pay off my debts and then a job loss which put me into this hardship.

[bminet]

ccmisery - I'm in a 5 year. it all depends on how you do your budget. I was very proactive with my budget. I'm not rich from this by any means, but from my outlook, for the last year and half I was overdrafting my bank account a week after payday and was always broke 3 days before payday. It became the norm...now since everything is budgeted and my chapter 13 payments grouped I am actually able to save because I no longer have late fees or overdrafts. Just a constant combination of those were nearly $300 per month. It was pathetic.