Tell me I'm ok

[yuckhatethis]

So I really wasn't very worried until I started seeing some reoccuring themes on these posts and now I'm a little freaked out. Here's my situation:

Filing Ch.7; above median income (not a whole lot above though), but pass means because amount left over to pay is less that 25% of unsecured debt (which is about 120,000 in cc debt).

Am reaffirming house and one car, other car is paid for and is within exemption amount. We are a no asset case.

Seems fairly simple on paper, but my real concern is balance transfers- We've been playing the shell game for over a year now and had not missed a payment until after we filed (stopped paying about a week before we filed). We used our credit cards right up until about 2 weeks before we filed, but only for necessary expenses. Every month we either used convenience checks to pay credit card bills or BT'ed into our checking account to pay another cc bill. Didn't really plan on filing bankruptcy, because I was delusional in thinking that I'd miraculously be able to get ahead at some point... Anyway, how concerned should I be about all the credit card activity right before I filed?

We had our 341 on 12/19, so I'm fairly close to the end (fingers crossed) and I had posted earlier about my pacer status-the only thing I see are two flags that just say I filed electronically and that I filed certificate of completion for the financial management course. At my 341, the trustee questioned how I was able to keep making $900 minimum payments to my credit cards and I was honest and told him how we'd be living. He asked to see 6 months of bank statements and credit card statements, which I was able to get almost all of and it was obvious by looking at them exactly how we'd been getting by. It doesn't really show any of this on pacer, unless I'm looking in the wrong place? My attorney says things seem to be going well and he hasn't asked for anything else, and of course the same thing I hear every time I call "no news is good news".

I'm a control freak and not knowing exactly where I stand is eating me up. I never realized just how long 60 days is.

And one last question (for those still reading this novel), I had two cc's with BofA to the tune of a combined $65,000 that I'm of course hoping to discharge. I also have my house (reaffirming) financed through them and have my only checking account and a savings account with them. Should I anticipate any issues with this situation?

Thanks in advance for any comments and answers-you guys are all awesome!

[ansky0007]

Unfortunately it all depends on your trustee... Our 341 was on the 23rd and there is also nothing on pacer but they did request more bank statements and other info 2 weeks ago through my lawer. I checked on all other 341 cases the trustee saw on the same day and almost all have things noted so my guess is they are digging deeper into our history. Only thing we can do is wait and see if the trustee again asks for more info or wait till they decide what they are going to do. Hang in there...

[yuckhatethis]

Unfortunately it all depends on your trustee... Our 341 was on the 23rd and there is also nothing on pacer but they did request more bank statements and other info 2 weeks ago through my lawer. I checked on all other 341 cases the trustee saw on the same day and almost all have things noted so my guess is they are digging deeper into our history. Only thing we can do is wait and see if the trustee again asks for more info or wait till they decide what they are going to do. Hang in there...

Where on pacer would I see any notations? Would they be flags or listed somewhere else? The trustee hasn't asked for anything else except for what he requested during the 341 meeting, so I'm hoping that he's happy with what he got.

[katie]

yuckihatethis, Our sitiuation sounds pretty similar to yours. Our mortgage, HELOC, 2 checking, and a savings account are at Bank of America as well. We also have a cc with them owing $34,000 (at least this cc has not been used since July last year) and a motorhome financed which we will surrender. We will continue to make payments on our house and HELOC of course, since we are keeping our house, but am worried about the credit card and motorhome that will be included and hopefully discharged with our Chapter 7, if that is the way we will file. Can they make us sign with another lender? We refinanced about five years ago when rates were low and we had EXCELLENT credit (looking back it was too good).

I am going to take some of the others advice on here and am switching the direct deposit of my check to another local bank whom we also have a checking account with. We don't have any debts to them.

[2Bshinyandnew]

So I really wasn't very worried until I started seeing some reoccuring themes on these posts and now I'm a little freaked out. Here's my situation:

Filing Ch.7; above median income (not a whole lot above though), but pass means because amount left over to pay is less that 25% of unsecured debt (which is about 120,000 in cc debt).

Am reaffirming house and one car, other car is paid for and is within exemption amount. We are a no asset case.

Seems fairly simple on paper, but my real concern is balance transfers- We've been playing the shell game for over a year now and had not missed a payment until after we filed (stopped paying about a week before we filed). We used our credit cards right up until about 2 weeks before we filed, but only for necessary expenses. Every month we either used convenience checks to pay credit card bills or BT'ed into our checking account to pay another cc bill. Didn't really plan on filing bankruptcy, because I was delusional in thinking that I'd miraculously be able to get ahead at some point... Anyway, how concerned should I be about all the credit card activity right before I filed?

We had our 341 on 12/19, so I'm fairly close to the end (fingers crossed) and I had posted earlier about my pacer status-the only thing I see are two flags that just say I filed electronically and that I filed certificate of completion for the financial management course. At my 341, the trustee questioned how I was able to keep making $900 minimum payments to my credit cards and I was honest and told him how we'd be living. He asked to see 6 months of bank statements and credit card statements, which I was able to get almost all of and it was obvious by looking at them exactly how we'd been getting by. It doesn't really show any of this on pacer, unless I'm looking in the wrong place? My attorney says things seem to be going well and he hasn't asked for anything else, and of course the same thing I hear every time I call "no news is good news".

I'm a control freak and not knowing exactly where I stand is eating me up. I never realized just how long 60 days is.

And one last question (for those still reading this novel), I had two cc's with BofA to the tune of a combined $65,000 that I'm of course hoping to discharge. I also have my house (reaffirming) financed through them and have my only checking account and a savings account with them. Should I anticipate any issues with this situation?

Thanks in advance for any comments and answers-you guys are all awesome!

If you already had your 341 and no presumption of abuse was raised by the Trustee at this point, then all you really need to "worry" about is the creditors themselves filing adversary proceeding. The creditor that did this would have to prove you intended to defraud them and made the charges without intent to pay. This is definitely difficult to prove. If your balance transfers and cash advances fell within the 90/70 rule, you would already have been advised of that.

I'm reading more and more here on the boards and other BK sites that trustees and judges are "getting" that BT that do not result in an overall increase in the filer's unsecured debt are not really cash advances. By showing the Trustee your bank statements with the Cash advance going in and the payment going out, you seem to have satisfied the trustee.

How can we know in advance which creditors may fie an adversary proceeding in situations like yours? I have NO idea.

My ex husband had his 341 on 12/29/08. One of his creditors, BOA which was a line of credit (not a credit card) he took took out in March of 08 for about $10K. He never made a single payment on it. So far, not a peep from BOA on this, but they have the 60 days (or is it 30?) to file an adversary proceeding.

So he just has to sit and wait.

As far as our creditors attempting to prove fraud...In my own personal experience, back in 2004 , I had a couple of credit card balances totaling about $12K with various 0% terms and offers. I juggled these around and managed to use this money interest free without making a single payment out of earned income for about 3 years. I paid it off when I got an inheritance I had been waiting for. Simply juggling balances and payments like this do not in and of itself show that I intended to defraud my creditors. I paid them, although my plan could have failed, it didn't. I took a big chance though, but felt I had to at that time and would do it again of in the same situation.

I would change our checking and savings, although you are protected by the automatic stay, if BOA does file an adversary proceeding, just to be safe...

Also, if a creditor has any thoughts on filing an adversary proceeding, they may contact your attorney first to try and offer a "settlement" which is sort of a way for them to feel out if you would cave if they did file an adversary proceeding.

If your attorney feels good about how things are progressing, your Trustee has already declared no asset/no presumption of abuse, I would say (try) to relax. It's out of your hands now anyway and nothing you do at this point will change what will be. If a creditor does file an adversary proceeding it will most likely be on charges made the month before filing, line-by-line specific charges, and will not affect the rest of your petition. So, worst case is that whatever you charged the month before you filed is non dischargeable, it's still only a fraction of the debt you are discharging.

I hope that helps

[yuckhatethis]

Very helpful post-thanks!

So here's another (hopefully small) wrench-our BofA mortgage is automatically deducted from our BofA checking-what would happen if we tried to close that account and open another one somewhere else? Can I open another checking account somewhere else? Also, what can BofA do if I don't switch? If I get the cc debt discharged, they can't just monkey around with my other accounts can they?

[Help!]

Interesting thing happened to us with B of A. Shortly after we filed, they "accidentally" debited our checking account twice for the automatic minimum payment on one our loans ($749 x 2). The case trustee went after them during our BK and recovered both payments, but it still left our account short and made life pretty miserable for us that month. If I were you, I'd cancel all automatic payments. It just gives creditors one more way to "accidentally" stick it to you.

On being above median, my gut feeling is that if you were to encounter a presumed abuse argument it would have happened by now. Creditor objections are rare, but we were pretty worried about B of A since we played the shell game also - took out loans to consolidate credit cards twice (total of about $80K). We heard not a peep, so try not to stress unless there's something there to stress over.