The bk pre-planning thread

[StEt0417]

Im new to this site. Trying to figure out all that is involved in BK. Im curious why stop putting checks in the bank account? Can they freeze your bank accounts? My husbands pay check gets direct deposited into our account. All money is used for paying bills, food, gas. At the end of the month we dont really have any play money. Should We stop direct dep. and only deposit what needs to be for bills?

[keepinitreal]

Im new to this site. Trying to figure out all that is involved in BK. Im curious why stop putting checks in the bank account? Can they freeze your bank accounts? My husbands pay check gets direct deposited into our account. All money is used for paying bills, food, gas. At the end of the month we dont really have any play money. Should We stop direct dep. and only deposit what needs to be for bills?

You should be ok as-is, unless you owe back payments to the bank you have money in. Also, if a creditor gets a judgment against you, then they can grab money from your bank accounts to re-pay themselves.

So, if you don't owe back payments to the bank you have money in, and you don't have any judgments against you, you can probably keep the auto-deposits at your current bank.

[pmac123]

1.Can you tell me how far back they look at bank statements? I'm not trying to hide anything but there are some deposits in there that my children may have given me so I could write a check for them. I really only have one month that is acurate.
2.Should I wait till after I file my tax return? I'm getting less back this year.
3. Discover has taken me to court and I have been ordered to pay, can I still add this account to my BK?
4. My income is 50% less than the applicable median family income for NH, so that means I qualify for BK right?
5. My car is a clunker, if I buy one now won't they question that?
6. Finally, Do I have to list ALL of my credit cards? Can I keep an old one with a small bal. just for credit score reasons?

[bk2009]

1 - it depends upon your court. Some have had a look back two years. Others, it's three months. Consult with a BK attorney for info on your local courts.
2 - it depends upon how much you normally get, I'd think. Also, can you just exempt the amount?
3- Yes. You will have to follow up with the court that they sued you in, submitting your BK info to get the judgement vacated.
4 - You should, yes.
5 - Are you going to get a loan? Are you able to get a loan with that judgement against you? Are you going to buy with cash a vehicle? What are you doing with your clunker? Generally, you don't want to see transfers, but as long as you'll be able to exempt the new car, I think you'd be okay. Again, consult with a BK attorney in your area to know for sure.
6 - all of your debt is included in your BK. You'll need to worry about rebuilding credit later. Even if you don't add them, many look for people filing bk and will close your account anyways (even if it has a zero balance).

[bjl61942]

Desperate for help! I am a new user to the forum and I posted this on the main forum but I think it should have been here. We need help regarding monies held for a grandson and what we do to protect as we will be filing next year and will retain a lawyer next week and stop paying our 90K in CC's & Line of Credit. Our grandson was severely injured in an auto accident when he was 12 and was awarded a 9K settlement from the ins co. It was held in trust by the Insurance co until he was 18. In Aug of this year he received the payout and he had Grandma put it in a savings account that we did not use. She then set up a method to electronically transfer to his account when he needed money but he had to ask. This was done as we are in AZ and he is in OR. Now filing CH 7 makes that asset at risk.. Can we transfer to his account and show Insurance Doc's and deposit /transfer timing with balances to keep it from being taken by creditors. It's NOT our money. My wife is in tears about this. WHen we submit our Statement of Finances can we submit a letter and documentation to the trustee to show what happened and will they accept it.

[bjl61942]

I need to sell my car as it has too much equity for my states Ch 7. Cna I take some of the proceeds and establish an IRA. Or Add to my wife's IRA. We have used all of mine and much of hers to live on and pay creditors for the past several years. We have not added for quite awhile as we have been upside down in debt. We currently only have 12K left in her IRA and we are 65 so not much chance of building it in the future

[prometheus73]

I'm not sure if this is the right thread, but I looked at the others and didn't see one that was closer to my question. Here goes

About six months ago my husband and I went to see an attorney regarding Ch 7. We turned over all our documents only to have him come back and say we were just barely $1,000 over the mean for our state and he couldn't help us. We owe over 100K, mostly credit card debt, which does not include a mortgage, our home is owned by family, we pay the taxes and insurance, and we wanted to re-affirm both car loans as they have never had a single late payment. He then charged us $1100 to tell us sorry. Shouldn't he have found a way to make that other $1000 go away? Can I see another lawyer? He also hasn't returned any of the paperwork we submitted to him. We're now being sued by multiple credit card companies and we just got our first wage garnishment paperwork. I don't know what to do anymore, should we try to file chapter 7 again?

[pavlikclan]

It seems to me if he couldn't get you into a chapter 7 he should have went forward with helping you file chapter 13. On top of that if he didn't do the work for you why did you end up paying him any money? 1100 is pretty much what you would pay for a chapter 7 in most cases (the attorney I spoke with yesterday quoted me 1,500). This seems fishy to me I think this guy ripped you off.

[trashy]

Looks like will be going chapter 7 soon and I need all the advice I can get. We have fought this too long and now are down to no savings and the house is pretty much leveraged out. All the debt is credit cards and one finance company (all unsecured). Is there anything I need to do now to get the most out of this situation? Not happy about going this route, but down now to survival. Stopped paying these debts this month. Hope to hold off filing for about 60 days. Is there anything I need to do to help survive this?

[butterfly_doll]

DO you all think it matters if I buy the bulk groceries online? As long as I can print out the receipt and prove this it is non perishable food? I see some great deals on Amazon for dried fruits and nuts... besides that doing bulk at Sam's club is out, cuz.... we kinda messed up with them 3 yrs ago so they're a creditor.

[SteveGreen]

I agree with some of the comments. But my question is do you mean $1000 over a month? That is a lot of cash. If you have $1000 disposable a month I doubt you would have been to see a bk attorney. Maybe you should go see another one. A chapter 13 is definitely on the table but maybe you need to sit down with a qualified attorney to look at exactly where that money is going.

[pippen2012]

What constitutes "Excessive Bankruptcy Preplanning".

Keepmine had written

Next, you need to know your states exemption. It may well be possible to take non exempt assets like cash and turn it into exempt assets like, ERISA qualified IRA's. Needed home or auto repairs or things like dental work, glasses/contact lens. Also, legal and filing fees are acceptable as well as the mother of all grocery shopping trips. Cram your kitchen and pantry with all manner on non perishable items. If you have freezer space, all meat and frozen items it'll hold.

Be aware at this time of year, filers can expect to surrender some chunk of an expected tax refund. You may want to delay your filing until you have spent the refund on neccessities.

What constitutes "Excessive Bankruptcy Preplanning". I just bought a reliable car (or so I thought) as well as tools of the trade and a large provisions shop with a ?1500 tax return as well as money from college loans9 which also paid for books rent and food.

Love this site,

Pippen

[Alt2Att]

Great advice. Too many people give no thought to pre-planning and end up losing things they don't want to lose or unable to buy things they need.

[chiwawa]

Does social security disability income count as income when using the mean-test?
Thank you

[lpc]

Hi its great thread and nice information