Money in bank at time of filing

[jayzi]

I took out a $4300 loan from my 401k to pay for our chapter 7 and to have some money to catch up on some expenses and bills. We opened a checking account locally here in Texas with that money and took a money order for the $2500 cost of the filing. At the time of our filing we had $1500 in that account, $500 in our primary account and $400 in an "Emergency" money market account. The second checking account is down to $950 and will be less as we pay for school shopping coming up. My question is if the trustee is going to want that money and/or is this going to affect my case at all? Our 341 is set for August 31st and we are so sick over this! Any help would be tremendous!

JZ

[lunasgal]

I had the same situation in a way- My paperwork said I only had 500 in my account, but I actually had over 4k. My lawyer said after I pay my mortgage, and him that will be the amount, and I would just have to explain it in case the trustee asks for my bank records. Hope he was right.

[jelo6875]

I was freaking out when this happened to us too!! My husband has direct deposit and had tons of OT the week before we filed...on the day we filed he also got paid...so the balance in our checking was way more than we had listed on paperwork...atty said it didn't matter they only look at past 6 months of bank statements.

[tcreegan]

Texas exemptions

Something to talk to your lawyer about: Texas is a state that allows you to use either state or federal exemptions. The federal exemptions allow quite a bit of cash to be exempted as "property" You can use up to 10K of unused homestead exemption. So you can have about 2K on hand and whatever unused homestead exemption you have left. Check w/ your lawyer about this, he/she probably already knows and isn't worried about it but you will sleep better at night.....

Tom in Colo

[wnguyen]

I believe if the money in your account is primarily wage money within 20 days of deposit then it should be fine. In addition to that, as Tom points out, you also have cash exemption, especially if you are in a state that allows you to choose either state or federal exemption. I had more than $1900 total in all of my bank accounts on the day I filed.