My wife used our credit card. How does this affect us?

[HelpMeFast!]

Hello again everyone...

We made the decision to completely stop using (and paying) our credit cards and start preparing to file Ch 7. It's been about 6 weeks since we've used any of our cards, but today my wife had to use one.

We are in the process of switching banks and my wife had NOT activated her new ATM/debit card (I did not realize this). We are usually together all of the time and I make almost all of the purchases. She went to Target to get some things (baby clothes and a $40 gift card for a baby shower) that totaled $104 and tried to pay with her new debit card. She did not know the PIN number because it was sitting at home in a drawer and she had not looked at it. They declined the debit card because she hadn't used it yet with as an ATM and she ended up using a credit card. Can we return the items tomorrow and pay for them with our check card or is it too late? How will this affect the amount of time we have to wait to file?

Thanks for the help!

[lrprn]

... They declined the debit card because she hadn't used it yet with as an ATM and she ended up using a credit card. Can we return the items tomorrow and pay for them with our check card or is it too late? How will this affect the amount of time we have to wait to file?

This small amount on a one-time charge for non-luxury items probably won't cause an issue. My husband did something similar about six weeks before we filed Ch 13 when he forgot we weren't supposed to use our credit cards and used one to pay for gas (I wanted to strangle him when I found out!). Our lawyer said since the charge was so small to not worry about it, but reminded my husband to not use any of our cards again before we filed.

You can ask your lawyer if he/she thinks this will require waiting longer to file (it very likely won't). However, if you want to be 100% safe, you can return to the store with the original receipt and ask them to take the charge off your credit card and move it to your debit card instead. Most stores are willing to do this as long as you have the original receipt with you.