Right before I began to contemplate BK, I had paid down one creditor about $2K, as I had intended to continue to use that card. However, it seems that even if I pay down a credit card and then use it up again (only for regular expenses in lieu of walking around with cash), those charges would be considered as fraudulent and non-dischargeable. Of course, I am going to be in the situation in which there is going to be about $20-30K that the unsecured creditors are going to get from me (out of a total of about $123K), so it would seem that such "preferential" creditors and any non-dischargeable debt would taken off the to (isn't it ironic that these equal and opposite actions are both frowned on? Isaac Newton would be proud. 
)
It would seem that such "preferential" payment would really be an issue of the rest of the creditors fighting over the table scraps, and the trustee would merely add back that payment into the total pot to distribute, and then subtract that amount from the "preferred" creditor. Now in my case, I made about a $2K payment on an account with a balance of $20K, or 10%. All of my creditors are going to get b/w 15-25%, so it would seem that this is something that is no big deal.
Of course, I am still going to abide by the general rules of waiting a certain amount of time after the last payment and cash advance, etc., etc., as per my counsel's direction. I also am going to wait until I have officially purchased my house (with cash) so that I can take advantage of the homestead exemption. The purchase of the home is secured, so to speak, because I was given a government grant with the direction to buy a home.
)It would seem that such "preferential" payment would really be an issue of the rest of the creditors fighting over the table scraps, and the trustee would merely add back that payment into the total pot to distribute, and then subtract that amount from the "preferred" creditor. Now in my case, I made about a $2K payment on an account with a balance of $20K, or 10%. All of my creditors are going to get b/w 15-25%, so it would seem that this is something that is no big deal.
Of course, I am still going to abide by the general rules of waiting a certain amount of time after the last payment and cash advance, etc., etc., as per my counsel's direction. I also am going to wait until I have officially purchased my house (with cash) so that I can take advantage of the homestead exemption. The purchase of the home is secured, so to speak, because I was given a government grant with the direction to buy a home.