Ch 7 to be dismissed shortly, getting prepared for collections

[olivies]

You know, the whole thing shows a glaring loophole in the BK code. If you know you're broke and can't make a car payment but take one on anyways, you're good to go. Heck, they allow you to put that car payment in your means test EVEN IF you are surrendering the vehicle. No worries, the golden discharge is yours and all is forgiven. But be responsible and try to cut it and pay the bills, and drive around a 10-12yr old car because you know you can't afford the payment, and you get penalized. No discharge for you! Dontburnthep doesn't qualify for a ch 7 because she wasn't living far enough above her means. There's some irony for you!

[dontburnthep]

You know, the whole thing shows a glaring loophole in the BK code. If you know you're broke and can't make a car payment but take one on anyways, you're good to go. Heck, they allow you to put that car payment in your means test EVEN IF you are surrendering the vehicle. No worries, the golden discharge is yours and all is forgiven. But be responsible and try to cut it and pay the bills, and drive around a 10-12yr old car because you know you can't afford the payment, and you get penalized. No discharge for you! Dontburnthep doesn't qualify for a ch 7 because she wasn't living far enough above her means. There's some irony for you!

Thanks, Olivies

And sadly, if we'd done the research ahead of time, we'd have purchased two newer vehicles that we really couldn't afford, gotten our discharge and lived happily ever after. Our credit pre-filing was pristine, no lates or negatives on either of our reports- EVER. We could have easily gotten 2 car loans, with decent interest rates. But we assumed that since we were having money trouble, it would be better to keep our aging, but still functional vehicles for as long as we could, never remotely dreaming that we would ultimately need to keep them running for the life of a 5 year chapter 13. We would have bought the cars to get the 7 discharge, but it's really messed up that that's what the BK code favors. Taking on more debt. Ridiculous.

[sillywalks]

Sunshine --

I thought I could claim the $200 per car, but my lawyer said no? I'm not sure that is applicable in every district, or maybe he is wrong (which would be great!).

I believe folks should keep in mind that although you cannot claim the ownership allowance, you are allowed 200.00 for a car that is a) over 10 yrs old or b) has over 75,000 miles, this is in addition the the operating costs. I claimed both on my petition. Don't know if it will help the OP but do know that is sometimes overlooked on the means test if you don't know about it. It was a "bonus" for me as I didn't know.