claim amount vs principal owed

[woeisme]

I have been following my claims on 13datacenter.com, and was wondering if anyone might know the answer to this question. It has in one column the claim amount, which I suspect is how much the creditor is asking to be paid, and then in another column the principal amount. There is a big difference between these two values for most of my creditors. The overall difference between the two is almost 30K, with about 85K in the claim amount column and 55K in the principal owed column. I've proposed a 65% payback plan (confirmation hearing is Jan 25th, last day for claims is Feb 19th I think). I am supposed to pay about 65K back over the 5 years of the CH 13, so it would make a difference if the judge is going to be paying back the principal amount or the claim amount, if it's the principal amount I might finish 9 months early, if it's the claim amount, I am a bit nervous because not everyone has even made claims yet, so if anyone else makes claims and they inflate their claims the way the ones so far have, then I might have to make higher monthly payments to get to the 65% level. (We based the 65% off of what I thought I owed at the time I filed, but everyone except the lawyer has made claims for hundreds to thousands of dollars more than my statements showed when I filed, possibly adding on new fees and interest.) So was just wondering if anyone knew what numbers the judge would use to determine how much each creditor gets paid back, the principal I owe them, or the total claim amount? Thanks in advance.

[HHM]

The chapter 13 is based on CLAIM amount. Basically, your debt's get frozen on the day you file chapte 13. That is the day the amount owed is determined.

[woeisme]

Thanks HMM, that's what I figured, unfortunately. It's weird because there are a couple claims that are less than what the last statements were, including one where the claim is for about $25, but they had been sending us bills asking for almost $1000. But most are claiming a lot more, not less. I really hope the claims don't end up going too far over, because the way my lawyer made it sound, if that happens I'll have to make higher payments as opposed to paying back a smaller percentage. (She said this when I asked about adding a medical bill that hadn't come in yet when we filed, and she said that was fine, but that I still had to pay back 65% since that is what we proposed, and that if adding creditors made the total claims higher than we initially thought, then my payments might go higher, so I assume that if the creditors all claim more than we thought, it would have the same effect.) It's kind of annoying because when we were doing the paperwork she said I just needed "ballpark" figures, not exact, for what I owed various creditors. But since I didn't have up to the second amounts for them when we filed, most are claiming we owed more than my last statement said, and it might bite me in the butt. Oh well, I'll just be happy when/if this gets confirmed and the date to make claims passes, we'll make it work one way or the other after that.

Speaking of the creditor that I added later on, does anyone know if they have the same 90 days from the 341 to file, or if they get an extension since they weren't notified until later?

[tofargone]

I had a couple of creditors file huge claims compared to the priciple. I would talk to your attorney and possible challenge some of the claims. Creditors can submit any amount they want, they don't have to really prove it until you challenge them. On my car loan they tried to up the claim by 2K due to "Internal Costs" I had my lawyer challenge their claim and they dropped the extra without hesitation.

Keep an eye on the claims, its your money don't pay any more than you have to.

Good luck