Clerk added my utility companies to the Matrix

[Annie4]

Well hot dog!

We all know I'm insolvent by now. I think the word he used was indigent....and right now that is so very sad but true.

This mistake turned out to be a good thing it looks like so far.

[walkthaplank]

Deposits are regulated by the PUC of your state. It is likely twice the average monthly billing or twice the highest monthly billing over the last 12 months.

[Annie4]

Ok this is going very well! I stopped procrastinating and called everyone....

Power total $830, re-affirmed ($200. on Sept. 11th, 25th, and Oct. 9th....the rest worked into new bills)

Gas Co. $277. BKed to $0. New bill not out yet and $75 deposit.

Water 276.16 BK'ed to $0. (New bill not out yet, will be around $50 and a $60. deposit) She's calling me back to see if we can work that $60 into 2 or 3 months.....(We are afterall indigent, remember? Ugh.)

Cable turned into 145.89 they are so slow with their updates, but she said she filled out a form and it would be 6 to 8 weeks before it went through. I'm calling someone else back, that's whacked.

DSL 98.34 BKed to $0. and new bill $43.15 not due til Sept. 11th

Cell phones $717 faxing our BK # today and that'll be $0. Not sure about a deposit yet (that might make or break it, but it's cell phones, not oxygen right?) and the new bill runs about 150. Due on Sept. 14th.

That clerk really did know what she was doing and she needs some flowers! lol

[justbroke]

That clerk really did know what she was doing and she needs some flowers! lol

She was giving you a fresh start.

[Annie4]

She was giving you a fresh start.

And THAT she did woohoo!

One thing I forgot up there is the car insurance. When I put all the monthly bills in there, I REALLY put ALL of them.

Our insurance guy here in town said $55 was wiped out in the BK and then started a new policy. That's embarassing, lol, but one thing I had to let go of early into this was pride.

He said some companies won't do a new policy after you BK with them, but the ones we were with will, so we did.

The only other thing is the cell phone deposit, if it's outrageous we'll not keep them, but if it's reasonable, we will. I faxed them the info today, not sure why they didn't get it before when everyone else did. Then they can update and hopefully let me know something soon.

[Annie4]

Ok, I looked on pacer and they added "Chapt 7 Trustee's Report of No Distribution"

That is good, BUT......they did schedule a Hearing for October 1st about the re-affirmation with the power co.

By then I will have paid twice and there won't be much left to catch up! This will be just wasting the Judge's time, right?

There's probably a form/way to ask for that to be cancelled and explain the arrangements?

[justbroke]

Ok, I looked on pacer and they added "Chapt 7 Trustee's Report of No Distribution"

Excellent, you're No-Asset and now in the 60-day Club!

That is good, BUT......they did schedule a Hearing for October 1st about the re-affirmation with the power co.

Yep. I'm unsure if the Judge would even approve it. If the Judge denies it, the power company needs to return your money.

[Annie4]

Excellent, you're No-Asset and now in the 60-day Club!

ty ty Finally! lol

Yep. I'm unsure if the Judge would even approve it. If the Judge denies it, the power company needs to return your money.

That would be awesome! Then maybe they would still work with me on the $450 deposit?

I'll have a hard time explaining why we have $450 for the power co, but not $299 for the filing fee?

He's going to know we don't have $450. I really do trust our Judge, he just looks at us and grins like he's on our side or something. (He may just simply think I'm an idiot, lol.) Whatever he's doing, we like him so far, lol.

I also wonder if I need to ask the other utility places to return the amount I paid on the Aug. 17th payday? Because that was after I filed on the 4th and I just assumed that would be automatically credited to the new bill, since I was sure they had received the BK notice by then, but it wasn't.

I paid $79.42 to the water co, if they returned it, that would wipe out our next bill completely!

$152 to the power co, that would help some.

$40 to cable, that would almost wipe that next bill out.

$40.00 to the cell phones, that would be 1/3 of our next bill!

Looks like I need to do some more calling tomorrow!

[justbroke]

I'll have a hard time explaining why we have $450 for the power co, but not $299 for the filing fee?

Maybe you can ask verbally if you would have the deposit reduced! You'd have to be prepared to say something like 11 USC 366, grants the Court equitable power to reduce or otherwise alter the amount of the deposit. Ask the Judge to reduce the deposit to a reasonable amount equal to a single average monthly bill (or about half or the $450)!.

I also wonder if I need to ask the other utility places to return the amount I paid on the Aug. 17th payday? Because that was after I filed on the 4th and I just assumed that would be automatically credited to the new bill, since I was sure they had received the BK notice by then, but it wasn't.

You can ask, but it can get complicated if they refuse to return the money. They are technically in violation of the Stay by holding on to that money as you filed on 8/4 and they received those funds on 8/17 or thereabouts... but certainly post-petition.

Good luck.

[Annie4]

Yes, I printed that whole section out and I have it in my folder, ready to ask. ty

I also noticed on pacer that a NEW HEARING was posted and it actually made me run to the livingroom and gasp at my husband, lol. I was worried! But when we came back to look, it was just an Amended notice. They moved the power co. hearing to the 6th of October, that's 5 days later and 2 days AFTER my 60 days would be up....what's up with that?? Does that seem normal?

Maybe this has something to do with it....I talked to her today and said I thought I'd like to recind the reaffirmation agreement to not waste the Judge's time with this, and just wanted to make sure that they would give me time for the deposit, she said yes, I would have 21 days, which was ok, but then she said, "Well if he does not approve it, we will credit that $400 you will have paid by then straight to the deposit and then you'll be actually ahead of the game and better off." She also said if he didn't approve it, they would, of course, apply the $52 I paid after I filed to the new account. That would take care of the whole deposit and she said she would give us time on the next months bill....sounds too good to be true? lol

How sweet!? Am I missing something here?

I still wonder why they wanted me to reaffirm in the first place if it's ended up about the same?

[Annie4]

Oops, got confuzzled, the 60 days won't be up til Nov. 2nd?....I think, if they count weekends....

I do still wonder why and who changed the hearing, probably not a big deal?

[Annie4]

They are actually CREDITING the cell phone bill! lol

I called to get the new bill balance and see if there was going to be a deposit for that one, and he said it wasn't ready yet so I moved on to the next question....

I also was calling about uping our minutes, because since my son grew up and got his own plan and left ours, we got less min a couple of months ago, then noticed that since we got our youngest son a phone (starting middle school, just for keeping in touch reasons) the minutes were getting used up again. The rep said he would date the change back to last month to help us out and instead of paying for extra minutes last month, he's crediting $57 because of the change. (AT&T has really been good to us for 5 years, no surprise charges and whenever there's been a problem, they fix it and then some.)

That along with the $40 we paid after filing, we'll have a credit of $97 for our 'new start', yay!

[justbroke]

Nice.

[Annie4]

(Guess it's best to keep this utility stuff together in this thread? If not, please let me know. TY)

1. Hearing for electric re-affirmation yesterday= Nope. You were right jb, he said everything should still be new, even though the money part was about the same.

2. I called the electric co bankruptcy rep= Totally changed her tune, is no longer happy, friendly and agreeable. She said she would contact my attorney. I said, "That's me." and she said, "Oh you're pro se? Is your case being dismissed??" (In a hopeful voice, lol.) I said, "No, why would it be?" and she said, "Well most pro se cases are dismissed because people don't file the proper paperwork." and I said, "Well there's a list to go by, so how hard is that? I have filed everything on time and in order." and she said, "Well let me check pacer and then I'll have to zero out the account and we'll be sending you a new bill and apply everything you've paid to that." and I said, "Ok, you'll need to wait until after 1 because he's still in court until then." She said, "Yeah" and hung up.

The order is not showing up yet this morning either, there was an order on the back of the re-affirmation agreement we signed, he will use that right? Or do I need to take one?

3. Cable co. Whew what a mess that was. They ignored the whole thing and kept trying to collect the past due amount. Even came to cut it off before I yacked at him for 20 min on the phone when my daughter called while he was here, lol. (It didn't get cut off in the end.)

I had to travel across town to the 'other' local office and deal with 3 very immature younger people who pretty much made fun of the whole thing and tried to get me to leave saying I didn't have the proper paperwork. She said I needed a claim something or another and they could NOT take what I had and grinned in a weird way. I grinned back in a weird way and left.

I was then worried and on my way to the library to print out the matrix list, which is all I knew of that might work, but I called the clerk to find out for sure what I needed and she said, "That girl does NOT know what she's talking about, for Chapt 7 you do NOT need a claim something or another and THEY would be the ones to file that anyway. All you need is the main paper with the seal showing your names, the case number and date. She may also need the Schedule where you actually listed them, but THAT'S IT."

(That clerk has helped me so much through this, she needs a raise! lol)

So I went back and told her those exact words. Even that she didn't know what she was talking about (which she really doesn't if she's never been through this before?) and the other girl actually laughed out loud and said, "Hmmmm, right." and rolled her eyes like an idiot. I got her name and told her that I was not her customer and would appreciate it if she would mind her own b'ness. A few more things were said and she told me to leave the building! lol I told her to keep talking because she's just building a lawsuit against the cable co. Then she picked up the phone and called someone and said, "What was that position for?" and whispered a couple of other things then said, "Ok, I love you, see you later." That was a personal call!, but it got her off my back for a moment. (She will remember that day, I'm not done with that yet....not done at ALL.)

After speaking with the very nice supervisor, he said I did have what I needed and they would be sending a new bill. Grrrr! I had faxed that stuff the week before, why did I have to go over there and go through that mess, double grrrr!

[Annie4]

Oh, also....when I told the Judge that I was going over the bankruptcy rules and saw 'blah blah title section number this and that" about the court having power to lower the utility deposits and asked him if the court could please lower our deposit based on that, he said yes the deposit could be lowered, but not today.

I have to file an objection to something-something and then another hearing would be scheduled. I just started nodding yes and said, "Ok, alrighty" There was a looong pause because I wasn't sure if he was finished, but he grabbed another folder and said another case # and I said, "Thank you, your honor" and we hit the trail....

I don't think we want to do that. It would save us $250 but I'm so very thankful I didn't mess anything up and I can't believe it looks like we've really done this. I don't want to add anything that's not absolutely necessary and drag anything out that I could possibly mess up. I'll just stay out of the cookie isle a little longer and make up for that, lol.