Haven't been here in a while, still haven't filed, judgments... questions :)

[hopeforus]

Ok first, please be gentle. This has been the year from hell and we still haven't filed our bankruptcy yet. My husband lost his job in June, we've been separated, back together... lots of issues but are doing awesome now. We dealt with our 4 year old being diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes a few months before his birthday. We are both full time students and I was trying to keep my grades up through all of this so I wouldn't lose my financial aid. (I graduated with my AAS and am now transferred and ready to start my new semester. yay!)

Our income kept switching like crazy so every time I would get our bankruptcy forms filled out... everything would change again. It's been incredibly frustrating and I guess I am still confused what to do when you have a job change. Do you wait till you are stable for so long or just let it change and just explain it? One of our changes was hubby moving back home so that was a big deal.

In the meantime we have I think 3 judgments against us at this point. Maybe two. I know, it's horrible. I am going through all of our paperwork today and getting it all sorted and figured out. Our lawyer has been paid for for a year now... I know we will have to pay more to vacate the judgments most likely and that's ok. I am going to call him after I get all my paperwork together again.

I haven't worried about garnishments at this point because we are on state benefits and I know we are garnishment proof if we are receiving this. I'm not sure if we have to file something with someone to let them know this though????

I did NOT know however that they could just seize your bank accounts without any kind of notice. I'm thankful I have learned this. It's been months since our first judgment and we just received another in November. So far no money has been taken from our accounts. Have we been just lucky??? I went today and pulled out 1100.00 of the 1300 that we had in there. We need to see if our VA deposits can be stopped and a paper check sent.

We are in Wisconsin and foreclosed on a house. We learned that we can use the unused homestead exemption to save any cash we have. So we were going to file our taxes and have a check sent. Our refund is going to be like 7k or more. This will pay our rent for the next 5 months. We almost were evicted in September while waiting for my student loans so this is important. My husband isn't working much and we are both full time students. I need that money. But our bank won't just let us cash it... we have to deposit it and get the money the next day. She did say that we would be able to tell if there is a levy on the account before trying to deposit anything though.

Now... would it be best to go ahead and split the refund up when we file and have it deposited into say , that account and a prepaid card like the Walmart one I have been reading about?

We are going to file as soon as we get our papers together and ask about these judgments.

Also... my daughter is 11 and has a custodial account at our bank. Can they touch her account? It's considered her money the bank manager said. It's not a joint account. Could we put money in her account and could they not be able to take it?

I just have no idea what to do about my husbands GI Bill housing money that they deposit... I really don't think they do paper checks.

So is there really a safe way to have money deposited? Are those cards really ok? Gosh what a mess. I really planned to have us filed by now but everything kept changing and our whole house has been a mess with having a child hospitalized with Diabetes and dealing with our 10 year old with Autism too. He's nonverbal and it's just been a challenge dealing with two special needs this year on top of all our marital and job issues. Things are leveling out, but I really need to find out how to protect our money until we end up filing.

I will be receiving my financial aid refund on a special card from a OneAccount. Will they know about that card? We have the option of putting it in that account and keeping it on that card ... we will have paper checks too... OR I can sent to another institution, but I wouldn't know where right now.

I'm so confused. At least I got what money was in there out for right now... that was a good first step.

Ok can't write more... my 4 year old has decided to get his meter out and test his own sugar since I'm typing. Oops. LOL

THANK YOU!!!!

[tcreegan]

Hi hopeforus,

Our lawyer has been paid for for a year now... Good Start!! There is hope for you!

Don't worry about vacating judgments yet, you can do that this summer, its not hard to do.

Do worry about who has a judgment, when, where, and how. This is the threat to your $$ in the bank. First question to your lawyer needs to be how to fend off a bank levy.

The $$ from VA benefits and public assistance is exempt, except for the threat of a bank levy by one of your judgement creditors, you would keep all this $$ in a separate account and exempt it.

Good thinking on the tax refund, get it in and get it spent...rent certainly a legit expense for that.

Second question for your lawyer, how to exempt the school fin.aid.refund. Will it fly under the "public assistance" exemption.

With no homestead exemption needed, you can exempt ~10K with the wildcard. (federal exemptions), so if it all fits under that, you're OK anyhow.

I don't know how the prepaid cards work, but it sounds like a safe way to keep $$ out of the bank. I'm old school, put it in a strongbox or money orders. (its all back in the new bank now...so don't none of you go looking up my address)

With your kids, school, holding the home together, I don't know how you do it, but I will pray for strength for you!!

Tom in Colo

almost forgot...ask your lawyer if putting $$ into the daughters account would keep the bank levy at bay. Then ask how to make it legal for the BK.