Conversion ?

[yensidfan]

My wife and I are so confused. I am in the process of going through a change in jobs which is going to cause me to lose 18k per in income. On the means test I then go from a positive to a negative dmi.

I emailed our attorney and suggested that we dismiss (haven't been confirmed yet) the C13 and move forward with a C7.

He thinks that we should stay with C13 because of the protections it offers and the fact that our payment was only paying secured creditors anyway. This way we wouldn't have to pay him for the C7.

I am of the mind that paying the C7 fee and just knowing that we are done and can move forward without trustee following everything we do will give us so much peace of mind.

We don't have a house we are trying to save or any major assets. Can anyone think of any reason where a 13 would be better than a 7 if you don't have assets you are trying to protect?

[SMinGA]

Well, its better for the atty if majority of your ch. 13 atty fee was to be paid in the plan. Atty may not be thinking of your best interest.

[yensidfan]

Oh, I didn't think of that. Yes, we still owe him 2k which would have been paid in the plan. So I guess for him I would want to pay the 2k (he has done a lot of work) for the 13 then also his fee for the 7.

He did say that since essentially we were paying the same to creditors either way this would save us from having to pay his fee for a 7.

We are going to meet with him in his office which I think will help being face to face rather than through email. I just want to go prepared with a full arsenal of questions so that when we leave there we will know we made the best possible choice we could under the circumstances.

I just think it is funny because I told him when we first met him that I could be taking a major hit to my income and he said well then at that point we would propably convert to a 7. Well, here we are before even being confirmed on our 13 and the hit happened. So why not convert now?

[justbroke]

After having been there... in a Chapter 13... I would always go for the Chapter 7 if you are not trying to save property (arrears on secured property).

Justbroke opines: It makes absolutely no sense to be in a Chapter 13 if you need not be.

[Bkman2]

Because of income I went with a chapter 13. Its been 7 months now and the 6 month look back show I make about $950 less per month. It will cost me about $1000 to convert and I may have to pay $1000/$2000 to keep my car. Thats is, no other assests.
At the end of the day I will be better off because this will be over before the end of the year.