Our chapter 13 journey has started

[notreallyme]

so two quick updates.
1) refund check showed up today. Check was dated the 14th like it says on NDC. Envelope was postmarked the 16th. The trustee office it was mailed from is less than 11 miles from my house, so the post office took 11 days to carry a piece of mail 11 miles. I know an exaggeration - they had to bring it to a sorting facility first (which is two miles from my house).
2) was able to talk with another person in the bankruptcy department of my mortgage holder. She gave me a new number to call her department directly and they can process my payment. Also said I can use my bank's bill pay function - they can accept payments, just not initiate them. They said it is usually at two to four months between when the trustee says the case is closed and they (the bank) receive official notice of discharge and can set up account access.

[Carmella]

Congrats on the slowly happening discharge. Sounds like the bank will be fine with the mortgage issues, but still what a PITA.

We had one car paid off during the BK and the bank would not talk to me until they had permission from the BK attorney. All I wanted was the pay off balance since we were paying it ourselves not through the BK.

Hopefully they pull it together so you can get a car. I think I mentioned this before, but when we had to get a new car, also an accident, we had to get a price on one then submit it and wait for approval. That car wasn't (and we knew it would not be) available by the time we had approval, but we were good to go for any car in that price range. If your state is the same it sounds like a lot of run around when these loose ends should be completed hopefully within the next ? 8 weeks (count from 3/26) that's a LONG time when you don't have the vehicle!

Glad it's coming together even if it's at a snails pace. And I am glad you are happier and have a happier family!

[notreallyme]

So, things are moving along, but caught in a catch 22.
First the good news:
1) wage order made it to payroll in time to remove the payment before the 4/10/2026 paycheck
2) Trustee has started the paperwork with the mortgagee's - they have sent out the trustee's notice of disbursements made
3) refund of excess as of 3/31/2026 was sent back to us
4) NDC ledger system says a refund from our 3/27/2026 paycheck has been issued. It has said this since the beginning of the month, so I think the refund will actually be issued at the trustee's normal payment cycle at the end of the month

Now the bad:
1) Need to make the mortgage payment on 5/1. However, as of the beginning of the week, the bank won't talk to us because we are in bankruptcy. even tried their bankruptcy department. Will try again at the beginning of next week they should have received the letter from the trustee which list when we start making the payments. We need to find out where to send out our payment so that it isn't marked as late, and then need to set up auto pay.
2) Our mortgage was sold off twice. Somewhere along the lines, one of the banks pocketed the payments the trustee made for arrearages., so current bank shows us owing basically three monthly payments. Luckily this will be cleared by by the trustee's letter. We will keep on eye on our statements to see when this falls off and on our credit reports to make sure they don't report as as late.
3) The big one - we need to finance a vehicle. We were down to one and it was involved in an accident. This is where we are in a catch 22. If we were still in bankruptcy, our lawyer could talk with the trustee and get an order issued to approve a loan. Trustee says case is closed, no motion is necessary or can be made. Lenders all say even though pacer says "completed, awaiting discharge" need either in pacer the actual discharge or approval for a loan. So, I guess we are stuck getting rentals until the discharge shows up. Letter from trustee on 3/26 says would be 10-12 weeks.

Since the closing started, have found my sleeping patterns are better and my family says I am less of an "XXXhole" (note sure if I can type the actual word here) (still one, but not as much as I was). I guess I had a lot of hidden (or not so hidden) stress for the last four years while this was going on.

[justbroke]

What I did was download the Order Vacating Wage Deduction Order and faxed it directly to my HR department and then called them. It was immediately processed. I didn't want to wait for the snail-mail to get there.

I like your budget ideas. I maintain a budget out about 6-months to anticipate any issues. I also save money by using multiple accounts to segregate the funds!

[notreallyme]

So I checked the NDC site -everything seems to be moving along. Claims summary shows zero balance on all accounts, case status shows "completed", dashboard shows $0 on hand and ledger shows a refund on its way to us. Will probably receive another refund at the end of April. Paycheck for 3/27 was processed before the order of 3/26 to end direct pay from salary but hasn't been recorded by the trustee yet. Now just keeping an eye on our HR site to see when they receive the order and stop the payments. Hopefully this is before the cut-off date for the 4/10 payment. If I don't see anything in the system this week, I will forward my email from the trustee to our HR department.

Now need to just wait for the final audit, cure process then formal discharge.

Probably overcomplicated but have set up our budget with several bank accounts so that we never fall behind.

Account 1 - "fixed" payments. Since our mortgage, interest portion of HELOC, insurance and student loan are pretty much fixed, I took these amounts and divided by 2 - this is the amount that will be direct deposited into this account. Since we actually receive 13 checks every six months (paid bi-weekly) this will slowly build up a savings amount. Will only look at and adjust if interest rates go up for the HELOC or if our escrow amount increases next January.
Account 2 - estimated amount for utilities and minimum credit card payments - these are all on auto pay. Will have to keep on eye on this - gas bill will be decreasing now that winter is over, but electric for AC and water for the lawn will show major increases when temperatures get to 90+.
Account 3 - rest of my paycheck. Used for expenses like gas, food, date night and other miscellaneous expenses. End of the month will make an additional payment on the HELEC as it needs to be paid off by September 2028. Plus put a little bit into two savings accounts - an emergency fund and a "fun" fund to save for vacations. Not sure what those will be like since we haven't taken one since we filed.

This forum was a good find - especially the suggestion to, if at all possible, maintain an emergency fund as things happen.

[notreallyme]

Just received this "Order to release employer from making further payments to the trustee." So things are moving, now just need to find out when I need to start making mortgage payments directly so that I don't mess up the final cure audit. Tomorrow's paycheck has already been processed, but my HR department is pretty quick - we are a small company, but they are very professional and efficient - so will probably be processed by HR before the 4/10/2026 pay date.

Kind of funny - stopped checking the RSS feed daily as it was becoming stressful not seeing anything, so didn't know about this until the email from the trustee showed up.

Going to follow up with our lawyer again to find out when I should start making mortgage payments.

[justbroke]

Yeah, it's confusing. That's why I always tell debtors not to worry about what's in the NDC. Use it only to see that some creditor was paid (and when), but not to track the real-time status of the case and payments. It's really good for looking at the claims and the amount paid to the creditor claim to date (with a lag). I don't even want to talk about using the NDC to check the amount due under the plan and the remaining balance. It is not always accurate.

I know you are excited to be at the end of your Chapter 13 journey and are refreshing that NDC page like crazy! You are in good company because we have all done that.

The NDC does serve a good purpose for "summary" information. I'm not disparaging it but always take what's in the NDC as a summary of the Trustee's actual accounting system.

[notreallyme]

First I want to thank you Justbroke so being so helpful during this process. Your quick responses to questions has really made this process less stressful. Probably not worth trying to find our trustee's actual ledger system or try to view it - on his site he just refers debtors to create an account at NDC. I use NDC primarily to track outstanding balances using the claims summary section and track recording of our payments and disbursements to creditors using the ledger section. It will be nice next week to log in and see zero balances in the claims summary after the trustee makes all of the 3/31 disbursements. My guess that the trustee takes his fee when payments are made was based on ledger entries like those shown below. Helpful to know that this isn't his actual ledger - it is just a delayed summary of what is in his true ledger as reported by NDC. (the TFS entries were when I remitted our income tax returns).

2/11/2026			N/A	(AM21) Employer Payment
2/11/2026			W.H. GRIFFIN	TRUSTEE FEE - PLAN RECEIPT
2/12/2026			N/A	TFS - Automatic Payment
2/12/2026			W.H. GRIFFIN	TRUSTEE FEE - PLAN RECEIPT
2/13/2026			N/A	TFS - Automatic Payment
2/13/2026			W.H. GRIFFIN	TRUSTEE FEE - PLAN RECEIPT

I appreciate everything that you and the other contributors have done to explain the process and reduce stress by responding to questions.

[justbroke]

For what it's worth, we only use the NDC to see, generally, what is paid. Chapter 13 Trustees don't use the NDC to manage their books. The Trustee can only take a commission if they make a payment, so if they show a payment being made then they can take the commission on the payment. I'm guessing that the NDF doesn't reflect exactly, in real-time, what happens in the Trustee's real case management system (CMS).

Many Trustee's use CMS's such as TrustWin (a/k/a Trustee13) to actually manage payments. The data is consolidated into the NDC for visibility. The NDC lags from the Trustee's actual CMS. Especially since the transfer of the data from the Trustee's actual CMS to the NDC is not predictable unless the Chapter 13 Trustee is using one of the major CMS systems (such as TrustWin). Personally, I look in TrustWin because my Trustee uses that system and it is the definitely real-time source of the disbursements. Again, the NDC is just a consolidation point and it is not real-time and could be weeks different than what is actually the status of the Chapter 13 debtor's account with the Trustee.

I hope that explains the NDC better.

You may want to find out the system your Trustee uses. My Trustee uses TrustWin and I can go in there and see real-time updates whereas the NDC doesn't yet have the update.

[notreallyme]

So, as of yesterday, our trustee has recorded three payrolls since he made the 2/28/2026 payments:
pay date 2/13 recorded 3/2 17 days; 2/27 recorded 3/10 11 days; and 3/13 recorded 3/24 11 days. Our trustee collects his fee (based on NDC ledger entries plus what the NDC shows as balance on hand) when he records payments, not when he cuts checks. With the balance on hand, the trustee has enough to pay the little bit remaining to our unsecured creditors and our ongoing first mortgage and HELOC and have about $1,500 left over.

Haven't been able to get an answer, but based on timing of things, I am guessing the trustee will also make the mortgage payments on 4/30 while performing the final cure audit. By 4/30 he will (assuming 10 days between pay dates and record date) have collected two more payments, with the 4/24 pay date in transit. I expect we will receive a letter sometime in April telling us when to start making payments directly so either 5/1 or 6/1 maybe? Plus

So, the wife and I have been setting up our post bankruptcy budget. After the bankruptcy ends and we resume direct payments, we will have about $2,000 extra a month on hand (5 months less, 1 month more since paid bi-weekly). Plus getting a raise on 5/1 and our last 401k loan falls off, so will see about $3,000 a month more in take-home after bankruptcy ends and making mortgage and minimum HELOC payments. Unfortunately, we will need to stay on our current budget (except replenishing our emergency savings) for two years. Our HELOC is due late 2028 and the trustee was only making interest payments - we didn't make extra payments during the bankruptcy as 1) our budget was tight and 2) didn't want to be seen favoring one creditor after another. So, we will need to make significant payments on the HELOC or face a large balloon payment in September 2028. Plus a parent plus student loan was placed into forbearance when the bankruptcy started and we will need to make monthly payments on that. Luckily we have learned to live on this budget, so we won't be giving anything up from current lifestyle. Can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. In two years when the HELOC is paid off, we can start splurging on a few things now and then and still build up funds for retirement. Currently maxing out contributions to 401k including the allowed catchup amounts, but can never be too safe in preparing for retirement.

[justbroke]

The Chapter 13 Trustee cannot write themselves a check until they write other checks. They only get paid commission on payments made. That's why it doesn't matter how much they collect from you; it only matters how much they pay to creditors to earn that commission. In my experience, there's a lag between when money comes in and the Trustee pays themself for writing checks. I was paying over $770/month for the honor of the Trustee mailing out $7,700 in checks. Is is crazy? Yes, but it also meant that I didn't have to deal with it and the money came from the "unsecured" pool. The unsecured creditors suffered, not me.

[notreallyme]

Thanks for the response. Thinking about it, it doesn't make a lot of sense to delay recording a check to get an extra $500. However it is interesting that he recorded my paycheck on Monday 3/2/2026 - the first business day after he made his monthly payments. Now his office gets to write 21 more checks this month and I get to stay in bankruptcy an extra month. In the long run the $500 isn't going to matter, but it does put plans on hold for an extra month.

[justbroke]

At the closing of the case, things do move real slow. I don't think your Chapter 13 Standing Trustee is trying to keep your case open to earn a small commission. Most of the Standing Trustees have hundreds of cases so a single case is insignificant. In actuality, the Standing Trustee has staff, a building, and expenses and that is what the fees cover. They do not want to be in a position where they are doing work on a case and not receiving their commission. I would say this is not intentional, but is happening solely because your case is about to be marked as payments completed.

We never question when or how the Trustee makes payments. It's a black box. Most Trustees usually only deal with payments once a month.

I would not worry about this. Bankruptcy is s slow administrative process. You are likely experiencing what every Chapter 13 debtor, at the end of the plan experiences, a slow reality. My case took 4 months to close after my final payment. It happens.

[notreallyme]

Just need to vent. It feels like our trustee is intentionally slow walking things so that he can keep active an extra month so that he can collect extra fees. Checked the NDC claims summary and ledger today (I check these and download them every month).

Our case should be paid off, but the summary shows us still owing almost 2,000. Looking at the ledger, it is because the trustee still hasn't recorded the direct pay from my paycheck from 2/13/2026. If he had recorded this, there would have been a positive balance, our case could close, and garnishment (I know, it isn't really a garnishment, but that is the easiest way to describe it) of our paycheck would end.

Our trustee normally records payments within 11 days of payday - not sure why it even takes this long. Only time it has been longer is when the trustee office has some days closed due to state or federal holidays. This one is taking a minimum of 15 days. I am a little ODC, so I track when he records our payments (it helps that NDC texts and emails me when he records it). For the life of our bankruptcy, here is how long the lag has been:

lag payday to recorded	payments	payments to date
1	0	98
2	0
3	0
4	8
5	8
6	7
7	20
8	0
9	0
10	22
11	26
12	2
13	4
14	0
15	1

I find it really interesting that the only one that has taken more than 13 days is the one that will let him keep our case open an extra month so that he can charge us a fee when he pays the mortgage.

I know eventually we will get over payments back, but we will be out the 8% fee, but even more importantly, this is putting some major things on hold. We need to purchase a new car - trustee would only approve a car under 22,000. Impossible to find one that fits our families needs (and desires.

[notreallyme]

So, our payoff may be quicker than expected. Our tax return was larger than expected (long explanation below). We voluntarily submitted these to the trustee - filed as early as possible and had federal refund back on 02/04/26. Based on the refund and the two payments that he will record in February (seems to be a 12 day lag between pay date and when it shows up in his ledger - so the payments from 1/30 which showed up 2/11 and the payment from 2/13 which should show up on 2/25) he should have a little more than what is needed to pay the outstanding claims from the NDC claims summary plus the on-going mortgage payments. This includes the amount to pay his 8% trustee fee on top of this.

Thursday we saw on pacer that he filed a "Notice of Plan Approaching Completion". We have been asking our lawyer for over a month to get a solid payoff amount incase my estimate is wrong. We asked our lawyer again yesterday to get this amount. We have also asked when we should resume making direct payments on the mortgage and HELOC as we don't want to fall behind, especially not before the final audit.

Long story on large tax return. I know that is generally a bad idea to intentionally get a large return - you are basically giving an interest free loan to the government. However, for tax years 2022 and 2023, we owed a big payment - my wife's employer always under withheld. We decided we would never owe a tax payment in April again. I changed my w4 to no exemptions, multiple jobs part way through 2024. For the 2024 taxes, withholdings were within $200 of taxes owed. in 2025, my wife left her job to basically become a full time caregiver for her mother who has worsening dementia but I left my w4 as is. This along with the changes in tax law led to an even bigger return than we had originally planned on. Unless interest rates really go up, we are going to leave our withholdings as they are. Then we plan on using the annual refund to partially go into savings each year and to also fund a vacation on our anniversary in March.

Interesting side note - after the trustee had already received the payments, we received a letter stating that he had received our tax returns and was reviewing them and to not spend any funds until he determined if we had to submit them to him. Letter was dated 01/26 but didn't show up in our mailbox until 02/13. On 01/22 our lawyer had already communicated to the trustee that we were voluntarily remitting the refund and had previously forwarded the returns to the trustee. We are in a 100% plan that was actually overpaying the amount so was going to be shorter than 60 months anyways. Our plan has no requirement to provide the refund to the trustee, so we found the timing of letter a bit humorous.