Well, my attorney just contacted me saying the UST office is not willing to set up a (preemptive) meeting to discuss our CH 7 before they filed presumption of abuse. They said to our attorney "Frankly, these people went on vacation, went out to eat many times and the wife is attending college voluntarily, so we are firm on our position".
The attorney said in the 18 years he has been involved in BK cases he has never heard them talk like this. He also spoke with the other attorneys in his firm & his group of lawyer friends and all of them are saying that our district is getting really tough on cases and picking apart each and every detail.
We did take 2 trips (one in July, one in early Sept), each trip was less than 1K in spending and we paid for the expenses out of our bank account, not a CC that is included in the BK. However, we did use a CC for a cash advance to our checking, then used that to pay off a CC around the time of the trip so they are stating we used it for our trip. The cash advance was at a lower rate than the other card, so it was helpful to us and we paid the exact amt of the transfer to pay off the other card--ugh!
And yes, we do go out to eat about once a week, once in a while 2xs a week. This all ended when my DH lost his OT at work and made it impossible to pay our bills.
Lastly, yeah I am going to community college to become an RN and have 2 semesters left before I graduate. I didn't know that trying to better myself and eventually help our financial situation is something that would hurt me in BK.
My attorney is great, I have to say, he is trying to stay upbeat about the BK proceedings but he did say that we are on the road to having a CH 13 instead of the 7 we filed. He said because we have leftover income on schedule J (199/mth) that we need to meet to set up a CH 13 payback to see if the trustees are willing to approve that. If we pay 207.84/mth for 60 months that will cover 15% of our debt so I have no idea if that is something that the UST will even entertain. So I'm sure I'll be over on the 13 board asking lots of questions.
Short story is, I wish I had found this website back in Sept, instead of December--it may have made a world of difference, it may not have but planning ahead for BK could have saved us from the turmoil we've been through since mid-November and who knows how long before things are settled.
Karen
The attorney said in the 18 years he has been involved in BK cases he has never heard them talk like this. He also spoke with the other attorneys in his firm & his group of lawyer friends and all of them are saying that our district is getting really tough on cases and picking apart each and every detail.
We did take 2 trips (one in July, one in early Sept), each trip was less than 1K in spending and we paid for the expenses out of our bank account, not a CC that is included in the BK. However, we did use a CC for a cash advance to our checking, then used that to pay off a CC around the time of the trip so they are stating we used it for our trip. The cash advance was at a lower rate than the other card, so it was helpful to us and we paid the exact amt of the transfer to pay off the other card--ugh!
And yes, we do go out to eat about once a week, once in a while 2xs a week. This all ended when my DH lost his OT at work and made it impossible to pay our bills.
Lastly, yeah I am going to community college to become an RN and have 2 semesters left before I graduate. I didn't know that trying to better myself and eventually help our financial situation is something that would hurt me in BK.
My attorney is great, I have to say, he is trying to stay upbeat about the BK proceedings but he did say that we are on the road to having a CH 13 instead of the 7 we filed. He said because we have leftover income on schedule J (199/mth) that we need to meet to set up a CH 13 payback to see if the trustees are willing to approve that. If we pay 207.84/mth for 60 months that will cover 15% of our debt so I have no idea if that is something that the UST will even entertain. So I'm sure I'll be over on the 13 board asking lots of questions.
Short story is, I wish I had found this website back in Sept, instead of December--it may have made a world of difference, it may not have but planning ahead for BK could have saved us from the turmoil we've been through since mid-November and who knows how long before things are settled.
Karen
Bankruptcy Wizard
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