How to Succeed in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
Hello everybody, Edward Kelly, Oklahoma bankruptcy attorney, continuing our series on Chapter 13. We’ve talked about what is it, personal financial reorganization. We’ve talked about how you qualify, make enough money to fund your plan, and basically be able to afford it. Kind of the opposite of Chapter 7 where you have to make as little as possible. And we talked about a plan, what is it? We used an example of you owe a thousand to your mortgage company, so you need to pay a thousand a month into your plan for it to be feasible and for it to achieve what you want.
And in this short video, we’re going to talk about how you succeed in Chapter 13. Well, so all of your debt has been rolled into one monthly payment via the plan that we have now gotten confirmed. If you remember, I talked about pre-confirmation, and now we’re into post-confirmation. So post-confirmation basically means you need to make the payments that you promised you would make via your plan for the length of the plan, which may be anywhere from three or 36 months, three years or 36 months to five years or 60 months.
Setting Up Wage Deduction
The key to that success, first and foremost, is to have a wage deduction if that’s possible. If you work for yourself, that may not be possible. But if you can have your employer, and some districts insist on this, you can have your employer just take out of your wages your monthly bankruptcy payment, either half biweekly or take it all out once monthly, the statistics are overwhelming as to greater success than trying to pay it yourself. You know, if you’re in bankruptcy, you may have had some issues with paying things on time anyway. So basically, set yourself up with your own garnishment. You can’t go wrong. As long as you have that job, it’s going to get paid.
Some districts require it, and I actually find that easier. Then I don’t have to talk someone into it. But you can direct pay often. And if you work for yourself, you may have to do that regardless. So you want to make sure that you either have something set up on auto-pay or it’s being taken out of your wages.
What to Do If the Bottom Falls Out
So the other thing, what if the bottom falls out? Well, we’re going to talk in a whole different series of videos about converting Chapter 13 into a 7 sometime in the middle of it. That is a possibility if the bottom falls out, which is good. So if you lose your job and you just can’t do this anymore, you can still turn it into a 7 without starting all over and liquidating. The other option is to modify your plan. Let’s say you get a drop in income, but you still want to finish your Chapter 13 plan. Maybe you’re saving that house, or maybe you just have a really high payment and now you can lower it. You can do a motion to modify where we send in pay stubs again. It’s much like the initial plan, except we’re just modifying the amount and we show the court why.
Contact Us for Help
This is how you succeed in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Stay on it. Don’t ever just not pay your payment. If it looks like, oh my God, I can’t make the payment, well, there’s probably a reason and we can file a motion to modify and you can get that lowered. Or maybe it’s to the point, we just need to convert this to a 7. Then you can get that stuff discharged immediately and not pay anymore. So these are ways to succeed and do that wage garnishment too. As always, you can reach me, an OKC chapter 13 lawyer at oklahomacitybankruptcyattorney.pro for a free consultation.