Is anyone making payments to their trustee via TFS online pay????

[sophieanne]

Good morning everyone. I am in Western Washington State. I saw today that my trustee is now offering online pay via a company called TFS. I'm just wondering if anyone has used this service.
There is a service charge but it would be so much easier than going to the bank, going to the post office than biting my finger nails to see if the payment posts when it's supposded to.
Thanks!

[switch625]

I am submitting my payments through TFS. It has been reliable so far, but allow 5 business days (or at least a week if you pay using TFS on a Thursday or Friday) between authorizing the payment on their site and confirmation by your trustee on NDC.org that they received the payment. NDC will state whether the payment is certified check or TFS.

[sophieanne]

Thanks swith..i appreciate your note.
My big concern is always verifying the service is legit
Have a good day!

[switch625]

In the info sheet I received from the Trustee's office, it mentioned the option of using electronic means for plan payments, but provided no further information. I called the Trustee's office and over the phone, they gave me the web address for TFS Billpay. Why this information could not be posted on the Trustee's website or in the info sheet, I will never figure out.

One thing I learned about the bankruptcy process is that it lacks a certain "debtor-friendliness", like not making this information readily available to debtors and treating with some weird sort of secrecy.

[spidge]

I think it was around the first of the year when our trustee added the option to their website, but I have not used it.

[sophieanne]

Thanks to both of you. I think I'll give it a try. Failing that back to the bank and post office.
I hope you're both having a good day!

[LadyInTheRed]

I just logged into NDC to make sure the trustee received my payment and saw a notation that my trustee is also accepting payments via TFS, even though it provided the wrong web address.

TFS claims its fees are less than the cost of a money order. But, I pay $1.25 for a postal money order and TFS will charge me $2.99. There is the postage and envelope, but I already have 9 pre-addressed envelopes with postage to mail my remaining payments. I guess I could tear the labels with the trustee's address off the envelopes and use them for something else. But, I so rarely mail anything these days. It could take 5 years or more to use the 9 envelopes. There is the convenience that I suppose is worth $1.74 a month, but I only have to go 2 blocks out of my way to walk past the post office on my way to work. I've never had any problem remembering to send my payments and 51 payments have all made it safely to the trustee.

I have always wished I could make my plan payments electronically. Now that I can, I'm torn about whether I want to.

[sophieanne]

I have always wished I could make my plan payments electronically. Now that I can, I'm torn about whether I want to.

HI Lady,

I understand exactly what you're saying. In your case you have a system, that if it's not broken..don't fix it

With your countdown to the end, I'm not sure I'ld mess with what's worked so well.

Wow..9 payments to go..you must be so happy!!!!!!!!

[switch625]

My most recent TFS payment posted on NDC on 7/25, a week after I used TFS to make the payment.

I am happy about this option, but I don't like how long it takes. Why couldn't I set up my bank's billpay to send the payment? I'ts coming directly from the bank, I need $$ to make that payment, so why would that be any less " certified" than a certified check? What I like about TFS is that avoids the embarrassment of doing this in person twice, at the bank and the post office. The teller must have seen the name of the Trustee on other people's checks and must've put 2 and 2 together by now. Plus, with one or two tellers serving customers, my request for a cert check holds up the line of people behind me and I don't like doing that. Just before I filed the petition, I moved my checking account to a major East Coast bank that has at least a dozen branches within a 20 minute drive from my house. My original plan was to hit a different branch each month, thus getting a different teller each time. That didn't solve the Post Office issue, where I have fewer to go and I prefer to send my payments Priority Mail with a tracking number and I've been finding some Postal clerks to be short on courtesy recently. So in my experience, cert checks to the Trustee are a PITA ....8 payments made, 52 to go.

[spidge]

I'm with Lady on this and it is a motivator to get it done by taking the time to go to the PO. The Post Office does not know why I am going in and obtaining the money orders as that is for me to fill out. Outside the inconvenience it is no big deal. I don't know them anyway and if I did I would not hesitate to help them understand that some people like corporations need a financial reset.
Celebrate the good stuff.

[jange]

In the info sheet I received from the Trustee's office, it mentioned the option of using electronic means for plan payments, but provided no further information. I called the Trustee's office and over the phone, they gave me the web address for TFS Billpay. Why this information could not be posted on the Trustee's website or in the info sheet, I will never figure out.

One thing I learned about the bankruptcy process is that it lacks a certain "debtor-friendliness", like not making this information readily available to debtors and treating with some weird sort of secrecy.

switch625, interesting, 4 1/2 years done and the trustee never told us about this. Our only communication is the annual statement, which I'm fine with. I am making payment 55 tomorrow, so while I do almost all of my banking on-line, at this point, I'll just keep sending the payments in. I already have my envelopes stamped and ready to go!

[jange]

The teller must have seen the name of the Trustee on other people's checks and must've put 2 and 2 together by now. Plus, with one or two tellers serving customers, my request for a cert check holds up the line of people behind me and I don't like doing that.

I get money orders at the post office, they don't care who they are for, plus it is cheaper.

[switch625]

TFS also has a number of payment frequency options, including biweekly, where you make an automatic partial payment of your monthly plan payment every two weeks. I will have to figure out if that interval is advantageous to me or not.

[LadyInTheRed]

Wow..9 payments to go..you must be so happy!!!!!!!!

I'm happy that I've gotten this far. I'm happy that on July 31st I'll be making the last payment on the 401K loan I took to pay off a $20K credit card balance months before BK even occurred to me. But not nearly as happy as I will be in 9 months!

My most recent TFS payment posted on NDC on 7/25, a week after I used TFS to make the payment.

The trustee very well may receive the payment before the day it is posted. Somebody still has to enter the payment in NDC. But, I wouldn't be surprised if TFS floats the cash for a day or two to earn a little interest on it.

That didn't solve the Post Office issue, where I have fewer to go and I prefer to send my payments Priority Mail with a tracking number and I've been finding some Postal clerks to be short on courtesy recently.

I realize this isn't an issue any more now that you can use TFS. But for the benefit of others who may read this, using a priority mail tracking number is not of much use except to prove the trustee received it if it gets lost within their office. I have had priority mail go missing and the tracking number did nothing to help the post office find it. It was never found. Fortunately, it wasn't my plan payment. Also, sending your plan payment by a method that requires somebody from the trustee's office to go to the counter at the post office to sign for it may slow down the posting of the payment. I have sent 51 payment by regular mail and have never had any problems. The clerks I interact with at the post office have no idea who I am sending my money order to because, unlike a cashier's check at the bank, they don't fill in the name of the payee. Even if they did know, who cares if a stranger knows you are in BK? I got over caring much what strangers think of me a long time ago. Sure, I want people to think well of me. But, if some ignorant stranger is going to judge me for filing BK, that's his problem.

[jange]

TFS also has a number of payment frequency options, including biweekly, where you make an automatic partial payment of your monthly plan payment every two weeks. I will have to figure out if that interval is advantageous to me or not.

Are you paying each time you do a transaction? If so, then paying every 2 weeks could get expensive. I am glad they finally started taking the electronic payments but at this point I will continue getting my 2 money orders. The post office takes debit cards, which makes it easy. I have always sent my payments using regular mail and except for holidays, they usually get posted in 5 days. So time wise it doesn't sound like TFS is quicker.