Question about paying creditor after filing CH7

[scotthay]

I filed on 6/4, have my meeting with the trustee on 7/10.

One of the few creditors that I kept current with for the last year where I had stopped paying everyone else was a credit union where I had a checking, savings and two overdraft type of loan accounts with. I haven't used the checking and savings accounts for anything for a long time, at one time I use to use the savings account to save up for things like vacation, wedding expenses, etc. At the time they only had one branch and it was inconvenient to go there and it helped me save because I didn't have easy access to the money I would have automatically deposited there.

I owe them about $1500 between the two loan accounts and like I said I have kept them current, mostly by just transferring money from them into my checking account and then transferring it back into the loan account where they would count it as making a payment. The payments are small like $75 between the two.

Once the BK was filed I got a letter from them saying they closed the checking account (had a zero balance) and closed the loan accounts to withdraws.

Online it looks like the savings account is still open (has a $5 balance that I never could access because they require you to keep $5 on the account to keep it open) and I could still deposit into the loan accounts as far as I can tell (they still show up on the accounts list).

My logic in wanting to pay them to keep current is that they loan money pretty easily for cars and such. In filing my BK I have pissed off most of the major credit card companies and doubt I will ever get a card with any of them anytime in the next 10 years or so.

I have lived on pure cash for about 4 years now, so I don't really have a need for credit other than maybe buying another car someday.

My questions are; Am I allowed to keep paying them while I am in this process? I assume I am? Also, more importantly, am I just dreaming thinking that by paying them they will somehow look favorable towards me in the near future and thus the money I send them is just a waste?

I don't want to do anything with any of these creditors to stir them up and cause them to do anything to try to delay this process.

Thanks for the help.

[justbroke]

You can pay them, but no one but your creditor can tell you if this repayment will keep you in their good graces. It could be a waste of money. In fact, the creditor's representative may say one thing, but the credit union (you know, the actual "committee") may decide that you are not worth the risk.

I would say that allowing you to stay a member was pretty nice. I would get through the Chapter 7 discharge and close and then maybe see if they will hold the discharge against you. No sense throwing away money at this point.

[AngelinaCat]

Contact the BK part of your CU and tell them of the situation and your intentions. Even though we had told our CU of our need to file, we still got the standard nastygram informing us that our accounts were closed, etc., etc. 'Hub got on the phone and spent a couple of hours talking with them. We had to reaffirm a car loan--only had about ten more months to go--and we could make the payment, so that was no problem. We also had to reaffirm an overdraft account. Again that was not a problem.

We could have chosen to move our banking elsewhere, but 'Hub had been a member of this CU for nearly 40 years; had always had good service, and wished to stay with them.

[LadyInTheRed]

In filing my BK I have pissed off most of the major credit card companies and doubt I will ever get a card with any of them anytime in the next 10 years or so.

You will be able to credit a lot sooner than you think. Some creditors will never give you credit again. But, a lot will give you another chance after you are discharged. They know you will be debt free and unable to get another discharge for 8 years. You are a better risk than you were before filing.

[brokehmowner]

Wow, this is news to me! Our Credit Union did not close us, maybe because we only had checking and savings; no loan accounts.

As for credit cards, we were discharged in December 2013 chapt 7. I applied online for a Cap1 card thinking they would reject me and then I could get a free credit report. They approved with a $3k credit line! I was REALLY shocked because we had 2 cap one credit cards when we filed bk. The interest rate is 22% though! No yearly membership fee. We will probably buy gas with it and pay it off every month just to re-establish credit because our mortgage is not reporting our payment history. But we LOVE our cash only lifestyle now. It's just awesome even though we are still broke. With the help of a pretty nice tax return which for some reason the trustee was not interested in, we even have a little savings. We are not spending it because we don't know if the trustee will come back later and want some of it. But we have managed to add a few dollars to it.

[scotthay]

Thanks for the replies. I think I will contact them after the 341 meeting and see what they say. I realize what they tell me on the phone may not really happen, but it's no big deal either way I guess.

The only credit card I really miss is my Amex Platinum business card for travel it was great. I doubt I will ever see one of those again from what I have read. Anyone BK Amex and get another card with them?

I had a lot of cards in the BK, Citi, Chase, Amex, BOA, GE, Cap One, Discover, Wells Fargo plus some other charge accounts at stores. There are only two that are showing on my credit report now, one at a Jewelry Store with about 10k credit (didn't owe them anything) and a small Macy's account (didn't owe them anything). I guess if they survive over the next few months I will try them and see if they still work, one of them is like 10.5 years old, so if it survives it should help me to rebuild my credit. I have a feeling once I use one of them they will pull my credit and then close the account though, but if I don't use it then they will close for inactivity at some point.

[LadyInTheRed]

I have an American Express card that did not have a balance when I filed. They are the only ones who didn't close my account even though I had other cards with no balance. I am about 10 months from the completion of my plan and they still report the account as open on my credit reports and send me updates to account terms. I am hoping it will stay open, but have the same fear you do that as soon as I try to use it, they will close the account. We shall see.....

[scotthay]

Is it an Amex account with an annual fee?

[frogger]

I am paying one of the banks that I filed Chapter 7 with, due to the relationship that I had with them. I don't have to pay, they don't ask for me to pay, never send a statement, but we all came to agree on a $$$ amount that I would pay them. Due to that relationship and a few other reasons, I pay them every month. They bank for me today.

[LadyInTheRed]

Is it an Amex account with an annual fee?

No. I've never been willing to accept a card with an annual fee. It's a Costco AmX. Costco members pay no annual fee unless they charge more than $4,000 at which point they charge 1% of purchases. I've never charged that much on it. I pretty much used it only for Costco purchases.