In 90day wait before filing - credit card use for medical?

[tiredofbills]

We have finally decided to file (very hard decision) and I have a medical procedure in about a month that will be around 700.00. I'll have the money probably a week after the procedure to pay right away. My worry is that they won't let us go through with it until we pay and it has to be done. I may be worrying for nothing as they normally send it through insurance first and then we get a bill nearly a month later for our portion. This procedure is different than the others and if they make us pay I want to be prepared. We have several credit cards that do not have a balance (paid off). IF we used one of those credit cards to pay for the procedure and paid the card a week later in the full amount - would that be ok? I don't want to have to start over on the 90 days and I don't want to get the whole preferential payment. What is your advice on this? If it really isn't a good idea then I'll go beg my dear old mom who I'll never hear the end of it from. ;-) Thanks in advance!

PS: We're not sure if we are filing 7 or 13. We're trying for a 7 and filling out our I and J forms now.

[SinkingFast]

If you went thru the normal channels, filing insurance first and then paying the remainder, that would be fine. That's like paying your gas or electric. It's normal course of business. No preference there.

If you use a CC and then pay the CC in excess of $600 within 90 days of filing,........ You're into a Preferential Payment there.

[DeadManCrawling]

Maybe you can pay 400 upfront and 300 after?

If it comes down to getting necessary or vital medical care, I would rather take the risk of the debt being denied in bk than the risk of death or further injury.

Preferential payments. . . can you give them $400 one payment, then 30 days later, 300?

That would solve it from a technical standpoint.

There's also the risk that you wouldn't be able to discharge this debt so close to filing. As I said above though, better alive and with one debt not discharged than . . .

best wishes,

-dmc

[SinkingFast]

Under Old Law,............ Worst case, generally speaking, was,......... The Creditor would Object to that one charge. You'd have to pay it back after your BK.

We haven't had many, if any, reports of similar events under New Law. People on the Forum are being pretty careful to avoid charges within the 70/90 day time frame.

Ask your attny what they think will happen.

Another thought for you is,............... If you're planning to use an otherwise $0 balance CC to pay the bill,........... You can always reaffirm that particular acct with the Creditor.

Another thought to run by your attny.

Like DMC,........... I'd get whatever taken care of. Your health is more important than worrying about the bill.

[CA3kids]

Our attorney in CA told us if we have a no-balance card that we use and pay off the next month, as long as it has no balance at time of filing, it should be ok. We have a history of using this card in this way, tho - we have never carried a balance on it. I think as everyone here keeps saying, it depends so much on your district, so ask your lawyer.

Good luck!

[CA3kids]

preferential payments

Another thing our attorney said is that in our district they look at total payments over the 90 days, not how much is paid each month. So in that case splitting the payment over two months wouldn't work here in CA.

We lucked out, it sounds like - we found out during our last meeting before filing that our attorney actually wrote some of the forms that are now used nationally to inform people of what to expect in a chapter 13 filing, and what lawyers/debtors are expected to do. We were impressed with his knowledge before, but especially then. Talking to 3-4 lawyers is a must!

[tiredofbills]

Thanks!

Thanks for all the kind replies. I've been reading this board for awhile and everyone is great help. I am pretty sure they'll run it through like normal. At my next appointment I will double check and if that is the case I'll be fine. My mortgage payment just falls 2 days before the procedure and we're not caught up yet from trying desperately to pay all our credit cards. Once I get paid right after the procedure we'll be alright. Thanks again!

[keepmine]

If you are really going to file, stop paying those cc bills that will be discharged anyway. Few that as a source of funds for your mortgage, lawyer, edical, etc.