Reaffirming Best Buy card ...one question!

[youngnbroke]

We filed Chapter 7 almost 3 weeks ago. With the advice from our lawyer, we have continued to make monthly payments on our Best Buy account. But today, I went to make the payment, and it says that my account has been "re-evaluted" and i should contact customer service. Does anyone know if this account should just not be paid until they send reaffirmation paper work? I haven't been late with any payments on this account, and i'm a little surprised they won't let me continue! 341 is on October 1st...

[tobee43]

i don't understand? are you saying that an atty advised you to pay a cc payment while in bankruptcy??

[ccsjoe]

If you're talking about a Best Buy account I'm presuming it's a store card account. Your account has been closed due to filing BK is the most likely explanation. Most credit accounts do not survive a bk, regardless of payment status. Your attorney most likely now be contacted by Bass and Assoc. wanting you to reaff the credit account or surrender the purchases. I'm surprised your attorney did not advise you as to the lack of likelihood of survivability of the credit accounts. This is quite common. Why do you want to reaff this particular account out of curiosity?

[tobee43]

yes joe...apparently, it's that terrible "clause" for bk in those best buy accounts...however one would think NO atty would advise their clients to do preferential payments which are such a no-no.

[ccsjoe]

Depends tobee. I initially told my attorney about my desire to reaff one of our cc's in hopes of keeping it throughout the bk. He told us we could if we wanted to, however 1. it would probably be closed by grantor anyhow, and 2. the trustee could deem it preferential payments, although that would not affect us directly. We listened to his advice and decided to scrap the idea. But he would have rolled with our decision, it was non-material to the overall case.

[tobee43]

well joe, i'm glad you did...we had one that we were paying a big one we had it over 25 years...i insisted on paying on it...actually against my atty's advise.

so we are paying like madmen because we think if we get it to a zero balance they may let us keep it....or at least reaffirm. as the months go by (remember we held up our filing date), one day in the mail i get a letter saying blah blah...and we have now cut your 50k line not only to 0..zero...but we decided we are closing your accout forever!!! that WAS the last time they got a payment from us. And....we hadn't even filed or even MISSED a payment yet!

we were advised to even name the account we had with zero balance on our bk...i said NO way...maybe one or two of them may let us keep them...after all i have been with them over 20 years...after the bk....they ALL dropped us anyway.

[IBroke]

I was VERY careful in planning the CC-accounts to keep two of them out of the entire BK-petition. When talking about CCs, the bigger the account is, the harder it gets to keep it out. Staying under the radar of $600/180 days even by just making the minimum payments often rules out the option of not including them. Fortunately, my accounts only have a limit of $300 each. I paid them off in full 2 weeks ago but the great thing is that the total of payments within the last 180 days on each account is below $600 so the trustee is going to have a hard time claiming "preferential payment" - if he ever gets the information that these accounts exist in the first place. The unsecured card is probably going to "die" - but certainly without an "IIB"-notation. The second account is the exciting one because it is secured. I give this account a 50% chance of survival. I also have two online-store accounts with a very high credit-limit but I haven't used them in years. They are only reported to TransUnion and are virtually useless. They might survive as well - who knows. I doubt they check their customers' files (and BK filings) on a regular basis.

[tobee43]

ibroke....i didn't mention but a few accounts...actually we had at least 20 accounts in perfect status....none made it...everyone of them cut us after the bk...nowadays it seems like everyone of them check...

the example of that was even before we got into this mess...tons of the banks were cutting lines and closing people's accounts. there was no one i knew that wasn't affected by it...including atty's, doctors ...no one was immune.

good luck with trying to get a few thru...hope you do!

[IBroke]

ibroke....i didn't mention but a few accounts...actually we had at least 20 accounts in perfect status....none made it...everyone of them cut us after the bk...nowadays it seems like everyone of them check...

the example of that was even before we got into this mess...tons of the banks were cutting lines and closing people's accounts. there was no one i knew that wasn't affected by it...including atty's, doctors ...no one was immune.

good luck with trying to get a few thru...hope you do!

As I said, the main purpose of paying them off was the avoidance of the "IIB"-notation. I had these accounts for years with a perfect history so I want to keep them "clean" to help me rebuild my credit. Even closed accounts can be helpful - as long as they aren't derogatory or have bad notations. I can live with the notation "Closed by grantor". That has no negative effect on the score. "IIB", however, does. I didn't have to invest much to bring the accounts to $0. That's why I went for it because it could deliver a potentially better "ROI" due to a higher score (and lower interest-rates) in the future. If they close both accounts, I'll get my security deposit back and can simply re-open a new one. I included that amount as an exempted asset on my petition.

[tobee43]

As I said, the main purpose of paying them off was the avoidance of the "IIB"-notation. I had these accounts for years with a perfect history so I want to keep them "clean" to help me rebuild my credit. Even closed accounts can be helpful - as long as they aren't derogatory or have bad notations. I can live with the notation "Closed by grantor". That has no negative effect on the score. "IIB", however, does. I didn't have to invest much to bring the accounts to $0. That's why I went for it because it could deliver a potentially better "ROI" due to a higher score (and lower interest-rates) in the future. If they close both accounts, I'll get my security deposit back and can simply re-open a new one. I included that amount as an exempted asset on my petition.

sounds like a "sound" stradgy.....can't wait to find out the outcome!! i wish you the best with it and hope it will work for you.

[IBroke]

sounds like a "sound" stradgy.....can't wait to find out the outcome!! i wish you the best with it and hope it will work for you.

Thanks, tobee!

It will be VERY interesting - especially Friday. I asked my attorney to file in the morning and have a deposition in the early afternoon. And all is taking place on my birthday. Yeeah!

[tobee43]

Thanks, tobee!

It will be VERY interesting - especially Friday. I asked my attorney to file in the morning and have a deposition in the early afternoon. And all is taking place on my birthday. Yeeah!

what a concept...i never thought about giving anyone a bankruptcy for their birthday present?? duhhhhhh....what a present that would be in today's economical climate...

here's one that could work.....GIFT Cards toward your Bankruptcy payment!! YES!!! i hope all the atty's out there catch on for the holiday season...oh my...sorry...getting out of hand.

but you have to let us know after friday's meeting how it goes!!

[IBroke]

Oh, I will..(:

[tobee43]

will be awaiting to hear all about it!

[youngnbroke]

the trustee can only claim "preferential payment" if its over $600 right? (and i thought that was per month??) Now I'm wondering if we SCREWED up?? I was under the impression that since we were reaffirming the best card (doing this in order to avoid them coming after our stuff, which i know...probably wouldn't happen anyway) but i've been paying $100 a month on that card. Should i not have been??!! I thought i was supposed to continue paying on the stuff i wanted to keep..including the car??! ahh help!!