How do I look?

[Ruinouswax]

First of all, I just wanted to thank everyone for all the great info on here, I've been reading a lot and feel a lot better about some things.

I retained an attorney back in June and officially filed 7/17 and while I haven't received the letter yet, I checked tracer (thanks again to the info provided here) and saw that I have a 341 date of 9/11 and what looks like a final date of 11/10.

My attorney said that everything looked to be a no-brainer for me but I wanted to ask those who've been in the hot seat as to how my situation stacks up.

I'm filing ch 7 on ~$28K, all cc debt. I knew I was in trouble last year and back in October I went with the local NFCC office suggested to me by a couple of creditors and enrolled in a debt management plan. It was incredibly tight, the $700/month payment took up all of one of my paychecks and once I paid the car payment of $355 with the other, I was pretty much wiped out. This whole time I had been living with my aunt, she owns a duplex and let me stay in part of it and I tried to help out with what I could as far as groceries and we did alright with her retirement and the money she made at a part time job on the side.

Back in April she was let go from her side job and learned that her once great medicare supplement program provided by her employer had been downgraded to almost nothing, meaning all her medical costs almost tripled. She informed me that if I was unable to start paying half of the utilties/mortgage (quite fair), we'd both be homeless by the end of the summer. She's almost 70 and has family in georgia she can stay with, I'd be living out of my civic most likely.

So that led me to filing. Even after filing I won't have much of anything left over but we should be able to stay in the house and I will hopefully be able to pay for my prescription medication each month instead of trying to spread it out (not so good for a diabetic, I suppose).

Anyway, I have no assets, I actually laughed a little when the lawyer told me I could have up to $5,000 worth of goods. I want to reaffirm on my car because it's reliable and I got it at a good rate. Is there anything I'm not thinking of that can raise any red flags or get me in trouble with the trustee? My lawyer said that since I had been in the DMP for several months and all my cards have been closed since then, there's little chance of any of my creditors giving me trouble.

I'm naturally dreading the 341 but the stories from here have soothed my mind a great deal. It's still one of those things where I won't feel good about it until it's done and the 60 days are over with.

Oh, and a word of advice to anyone who is on a debt management plan, CHECK YOUR BALANCES! I never checked mine and when I started looking over the balances of where I started and where I should've been when I dropped out of the program according to the agency, I found that a few of my creditors had never accepted the terms of the program and that my balances went up on a couple of my cards by almost $1700 due to enormous late/over limit fees. So I paid the agency around $4500 and my overall debt only went down about $1600.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Like your lawyer said, I think you are a 'shoe in'. Don't worry so much. Your case sounds like it couldn't be simpler. 'Hub

[music12]

i am with 'hub. sounds like you have absolutely nothing to worry about. your situation is precisely what bk was created for. so take those $700 and pay your aunt's rent.

scary with those debt management companies; some of them have ended up going bankrupt themselves!

it occurs to me, btw, that your debt management company actually stole money from you. you could ask your attorney about including a claim against them for, i guess, $4500 minus $1600 in your papers as an asset. i am guessing your trustee will abandon this claim to you (it's too small an amount for the headache a trustee would have to go through to pursue it), and then you would be able to go to small claims court to recover the money, possibly triple it. because in all honesty, they have played a part in forcing you into bk. and they should not get away with it just because you filed bk.

[AngelinaCatHub]

i am with 'hub. sounds like you have absolutely nothing to worry about. your situation is precisely what bk was created for. so take those $700 and pay your aunt's rent.

scary with those debt management companies; some of them have ended up going bankrupt themselves!

it occurs to me, btw, that your debt management company actually stole money from you. you could ask your attorney about including a claim against them for, i guess, $4500 minus $1600 in your papers as an asset. i am guessing your trustee will abandon this claim to you (it's too small an amount for the headache a trustee would have to go through to pursue it), and then you would be able to go to small claims court to recover the money, possibly triple it. because in all honesty, they have played a part in forcing you into bk. and they should not get away with it just because you filed bk.

Small Claims sounds like a good idea. Here in FL you can now go up to 10K in Small Claims Court. It used to be 5k. However, on what basis could he claim? He needs to read the fine print. I would have thought the business would have had a way to stop the late charges, etc.

Also, you can only recover actual damages or property (repleven) (sp) plus your Court costs. You can't get punitive or tertiary damages. 'Hub

[music12]

Small Claims sounds like a good idea. Here in FL you can now go up to 10K in Small Claims Court. It used to be 5k. However, on what basis could he claim? He needs to read the fine print. I would have thought the business would have had a way to stop the late charges, etc.

Also, you can only recover actual damages or property (repleven) (sp) plus your Court costs. You can't get punitive or tertiary damages. 'Hub

i don't think any fine print can entitle anybody to steal money. had the OP known that they would pocket $3000 just for fun, he would never have gone with them. so at best they deceived him, at worst they stole from him.

in many states you can get double or triple damages for "unfair and deceptive practices" by a business. it's designed to give an incentive to the businesses to stop cheating.

oh, the OP could also report this to the state attorney general.

[AngelinaCatHub]

i don't think any fine print can entitle anybody to steal money. had the OP known that they would pocket $3000 just for fun, he would never have gone with them. so at best they deceived him, at worst they stole from him.

in many states you can get double or triple damages for "unfair and deceptive practices" by a business. it's designed to give an incentive to the businesses to stop cheating.

oh, the OP could also report this to the state attorney general.

I believe you are right. I know the FL Usury laws and yes it could be likely he has a case. Now under FL law you have to give them notice and they have an opportunity to give it back. Good thought. 'Hub

[AngelinaCatHub]

687.04 Penalty for usury; not to apply in certain situations.--Any person, or any agent, officer, or other representative of any person, willfully violating the provisions of s. 687.03 shall forfeit the entire interest so charged, or contracted to be charged or reserved, and only the actual principal sum of such usurious contract can be enforced in any court in this state, either at law or in equity; and when said usurious interest is taken or reserved, or has been paid, then and in that event the person who has taken or reserved, or has been paid, either directly or indirectly, such usurious interest shall forfeit to the party from whom such usurious interest has been reserved, taken, or exacted in any way double the amount of interest so reserved, taken, or exacted. However, the penalties provided for by this section shall not apply:

(1) To a bona fide endorsee or transferee of negotiable paper purchased before maturity, unless the usurious character should appear upon its face, or unless the said endorsee or transferee shall have had actual notice of the same before the purchase of such paper, but in such event double the amount of such usurious interest may be recovered after payment, by action against the party originally exacting the same, in any court of competent jurisdiction in this state, together with an attorney's fee, as provided in s. 687.06; or

(2) If, prior to the institution of an action by the borrower or the filing of a defense under this chapter by the borrower or receipt of written notice by the lender from the borrower that usury has been charged or collected, the lender notifies the borrower of the usurious overcharge and refunds the amount of any overcharge taken, plus interest on the overcharge taken at the maximum lawful rate in effect at the time the usurious interest was taken, to the borrower and makes whatever adjustments in the appropriate contract or account as are necessary to ensure that the borrower will not be required to pay further interest in excess of the amount permitted by s. 687.03.

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?mode=View%20Statutes&SubMenu=1&App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=penalty+for+usury&URL=CH0687/Sec04.HTM

A bit tough to get through the legalese, but basically you can get three times the amount taken from you $3K goes to $9k. 'Hub

[Ruinouswax]

Thanks for all the help and support. When I saw this, I looked over the statements and they were indeed getting the payments and most of my creditors did accept the dmp and stopped charging me all the fees but a couple of them didn't and while they were getting a payment, it was just below the monthly minimum and so they were piling fee upon fee onto me. By the time I discovered it, I was ready to file. Of course after I filed, they were the first ones to call me and tell me that if I wanted to avoid bk, they'd be willing to settle for a much lower rate.

[shabam]

Don't want to jinx you but your case seems to be a walk in the park. Some of us owe hundreds of thousands. In comparison, you owe peanuts.