?? about finances after discharge.

[InDebtInMD]

OK - I've posted here recently that my wife and I got our discharge. I saw it on PACER last week and the papers showed up Saturday.

Now, going forward we are trying to come up with a plan where we may be able to move in a few years. One of our goals is to pay off our van, which we did NOT reaffirm, but are current on. Not having that $390/mo payment would help us save $$ a lot faster don't you think?

We are hoping to have it paid off by the end of 2006. My question is this, does it matter how long we wait to do this? If we pay it off too soon would that set off an alarm to the trustee and have him reopen our case?

[herekitty]

A couple quick suggestions ...

It's really good for your credit to keep payments up to date on secured loans, you're going to be in the process of rebuilding your credit - so why not just make your regular payments and save the extra that you would use to pay it off quicker? I'm not sure if it would send up a red flag, but I'm not sure that I would take the chance.

Good ways to spend money (and I'm going to sound like an old lady here) is to budget that things aren't on sale. Turns out my Aunt & Uncle declared bankruptcy and this is how they built their savings up and bought a house three years later. This is how it works ...

Grocery shopping: Always go by original pricing and use coupons. Normal pricing on meat is $5.00 a lb (theoritical), milk is $3.00 a gallon, soda is $10 for a week. Now let's say you have a coupon for soda for $1.00 off, meat is on sale for $2.50 a lb and milk is on sale for $2.50. You budget that you are going to spend $18.00 but you've actually only spent $14. The extra $4 gets tucked away.

Clothes shopping: Shop, again, by original pricing. Jeans are normally $40, they are on sale for $20 - tuck the extra $20 away. Around christmas time this works really well - there are alot of stores (like JcPenny) that have deals that are buy one, get one for $1.00. I bought all my presents like that - my sisters thought they both got $40.00 sweaters and I had an extra $39 to go towards other expenses because I budgeted that I was going to spend $40 each.

In three years time they built up a savings of $20K just by living life this way and tucking away any "extra" money a year, including tax returns and gift money. They had no extra income every month after normal living standards and it was do-able.

Old lady, over and out.

[InDebtInMD]

A couple quick suggestions ...

It's really good for your credit to keep payments up to date on secured loans, you're going to be in the process of rebuilding your credit - so why not just make your regular payments and save the extra that you would use to pay it off quicker? I'm not sure if it would send up a red flag, but I'm not sure that I would take the chance.

Good ways to spend money (and I'm going to sound like an old lady here) is to budget that things aren't on sale. Turns out my Aunt & Uncle declared bankruptcy and this is how they built their savings up and bought a house three years later. This is how it works ...

That's good advice. We are doing a macro-version of that, by living by the expenses we came up with for the petition. Anything left over from that particular category (for instance, food or gas) gets saved.

Also, we budget a certain amount for housing and car repairs each month. We don't spend that each month, but it goes in the bank so that when the big repairs come by we have themoney to pay for it, as opposed to how we did it in the past (charge it)

Now, regarding my van loan - I see your point regarding the value of making payments over time, and we will certainly be doing that anyway as it will take at least another year to pay off.

However, I don't think we get any credit benefit as this van loan (through our credit union) does not show up on our credit report (at least it doesn't show on Experian)

[herekitty]

My loan is through a credit union as well, and it showed up on my Credit Reports ... so I'm not really sure how to answer that one! Have you gotten the other two? If not go to annualcreditreport.com and grab them to see. Maybe you can call up the loan company and see if what reports they post with and see if you can get it on all three ... I'm not sure how that works.

[smallchange]

I also have a car loan thru a credit union and they are not required to report my on time payments to the cb's unless we both agree to reaffirm. I am willing to reaffirm but they may not due to the fact i am discharging unsecured loans with them also. Bottom line as long as i make my payments i keep the vehicle,but without mutual reaffirmation agreement they will report discharged in bk or not report at all so no credit rebuilding benefit.However if car gives out i can stop making payments without any harm to me and they can just have it back.

[accentone]

I'm curious ... once discharged, does the trustee still watch over you? I would think once you're done, the case is closed and they wouldn't bother you anymore.

[herekitty]

They keep an eye on your finances for a certain amount of time (HMM or Todd - 180 days, is that right?) and are entitled to any "big" amounts you may get like inheritence and tax refunds. As for the payments, I'm not really sure.

[Minnymouth]

Trustee can keep your case open up to one year from date of discharge...... if he feels it necessary.
Otherwise it is closed almost immediately and will show "case closed" on Pacer..

Minny

[jennga]

question about debits

I had accessed an online gaming site (gambling) that debited my account, the next day an automatic payment came out of my checking account that I had notified them not to do. Anyway the online debit bounced, I have since filled for ch7 no assets, and that company just emailed me that they have no notice of my BK and will debit my account on the 21st. Any suggestions, I know it will just bounce back but that will be another overdraft fee. Can this company legitimately object to my discharge. any insight would be helpful. My 341 date is OCT 28.