We are going to take a break from our series about debts you can get rid of right away to address this crazy hysteria situation with coronavirus, and why this is probably the best time for you to file bankruptcy. A couple of reasons: number one, which you may not know, all bankruptcy is e-filed and 341 meetings, that’s your little creditor meeting, can be held telephonically in these kind of circumstances.
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Certainly signature loans and payday loans, absolutely unsecured, another issue people have signed on their TV and their stereo onto those. I have yet to see anyone try to collect those. Since those aren’t purchased money loans, by nature if you’ve listed something for collateral on that loan that you already own you didn’t use that loan to purchase it. Generally, that defacto lien will be defeated by the bankruptcy.
If a debt is something you can just knock right out, is there any collateral? The case of medical bills, generally not. So just know, and this is something that the collection agents calling you don’t want you to know.
They really don’t have any leverage preventing you from doing a bankruptcy. In most cases, those debts are going to be because you didn’t have insurance, insurance didn’t pay something you thought they would or you got bad insurance. So this is one of also the scenarios that I tell my clients, don’t worry about your conscience here.
Oklahoma Bankruptcy Attorney Edward Kelley finishes up his series on should I do a 7 or 13? So quick in review, first we talked about what’s your income. There are income caps on whether you can do a 7. They’re not hard caps. If you’ve got expenses, unusual expenses that pull you back down under, they use gross income, but they do give you dollar for dollar for your mortgage and for your car payment.
There’s a rule basically in a 13 that if your amount is due immediately for purposes of your creditor, or if the length of a loan that you’re in is less than the length of your plan, then you have to pay that inside the plan. This can hit you with student loans where you don’t have a fixed length, or primarily with taxes, which really aren’t a loan. They’re just a debt that’s immediately due, or defaulted loans that have been called, which essentially are due immediately.
Oklahoma City Bankruptcy Attorney Edward Kelley says, “for example, you’ve got tax debt, if it’s less than three years since you filed it, not dischargeable. Student loans are backed by the government, not dischargeable. Child support, criminal penalties. So you have to think about not only what type of unsecured or secured debts do I have, but is there anything here I can’t discharge? That may or may not push you into one chapter or the other”.
A major consideration in choosing a case is if your debt secured or unsecured. Unsecured debts generally you’d probably like to liquidate them, or I should say you probably like to get rid of them completely in one fell swoop. That’s what the chapter seven liquidation bankruptcy is, you’re giving up your non-exempt assets, which often you don’t have any, so no harm to you, and you get rid of those debts in their entirety instantly, that’s credit cards, hospital bills, anything without collateral.
Oklahoma City Bankruptcy Attorney Edward Kelley 888 Debt Line answers if a 7 or 13 would work better for you. What this comes down to is a simple question. What are the considerations?
Oklahoma City Bankruptcy Attorney Edward Kelley 888 Debt Line speaks on the fairly amazing things you can do in a bankruptcy you might not know about. One, the automatic stay, either a 7 or a 13 or really any bankruptcy. Unless you filed one or more than one additional bankruptcy in the last year, you’re going to get the automatic stay, so that prevents any creditor from taking any action. The bankruptcy court now has sole power to do anything. That continues throughout the bankruptcy unless a creditor petitions the court with an application to lift that stay, which can happen if you’re behind on payments, you’re going to surrender something.
Oklahoma City Bankruptcy Attorney Edward Kelley 888 Debt Line speaks on things you might not know that you can do in a bankruptcy. So whether in a 7 or 13, if you have tax debt that is over three years old, you can discharge it in that bankruptcy. You might think, oh, taxes are, no way to discharge. That’s not true.
Oklahoma City Bankruptcy Attorney Edward Kelley explains how in both chapter seven and chapter 13, there are some pretty extraordinary measures you can take to help yourself that you may not know about – more specifically , the automatic stay. This applies in any bankruptcy. Federal law prohibits upon the filing of bankruptcy of any collection activity by any creditor. Where this comes up all the time in a chapter seven is garnishment. The chapter seven upon filing generates a document called Notice of Bankruptcy Filing. Get that to your payroll person immediately, and that’s the end of it. They cannot garnish you anymore.
Oklahoma City Bankruptcy Attorney Edward Kelley with 888-DEBTLINE explains how Special Powers may benefit you in an Oklahoma Bankruptcy. In a Chapter 13, so you’re going to pay everything you can for five years. Will you get some special privileges along with that? Edward Kelley has that answer.
Oklahoma City Bankruptcy Attorney Edward Kelley with 888-DEBTLINE speaks about the automatic stay and the various ways that that can be used to your advantage even if you don’t complete the bankruptcy. Also, should you always go into a bankruptcy with a genuine desire to complete it?
Oklahoma City Bankruptcy Attorney Edward Kelley with 888-DEBTLINE, if you are behind on your house, even if you’re in the last gasps of a foreclosure, as long as the motion to sell, meaning at auction, your house has not occurred, you can stop it with the filing of a chapter 13 bankruptcy.
Oklahoma City Bankruptcy Attorney Edward Kelley says some people will file a 13 to give them some breathing room. That can be effective if there is some reason to think you’re going to have a windfall down the road. Of course, all of your debt’s going to come back, but that automatic stay can get you some breathing room. Although bear in mind, if you do that, you file a 13, and then it gets dismissed. If you file another 13 within a year, you don’t get that automatic stay for more than 30 days, unless you can convince the court to give it to you.
According to Oklahoma City Bankruptcy Attorney Edward Kelley you can think of the chapter 13 plan as sort of a negotiation with your trustees and creditors as to, here’s what I actually owe, here’s how I’m going to pay it. However, you’re backed with your absolute right to do it. It’s not like they have to okay it. They can certainly object, and then you’ve got to explain, and they’ve got to explain why they have different ideas on what you owe or how you should pay it. But generally, that’s not a huge issue.
If your bank is dead set on foreclosure, or they have often have filed it? Is there anything you can do about it? Oklahoma City Bankruptcy Attorney Edward Kelley says most people think that a Sheriff’s sale is your last moment to stop it and bear in mind whenever you file any kind of bankruptcy, in most cases, the federal, what’s called automatic stay goes into effect, which completely bars by law any creditors from taking any action, including in a foreclosure. So if you get that filing to the sheriffs before they hold the sale, they’ve got to call it off.
Have you ever wondered if you can you save your house and car in an Oklahoma bankruptcy? Oklahoma City Bankruptcy Attorney Edward Kelley explains How to Save My House or Car Through a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. Let’s start with the basics of a Chapter 13 as opposed to a 7. Chapter 7 liquidation, meaning you keep your exempt property such as your home, if you’re current on the mortgage, your car, if you’re current on the payment, your IRA or 401k, if it’s properly set up, your household goods, everything else, liquidated.
Oklahoma Attorney Edward Kelley here with 888 Debtline answering your bankruptcy questions. Today we’re finishing up the series, things you must know and consider before filing a chapter seven bankruptcy. So we’ve gone through a lot of areas. Last thing we’re going to talk about is as your assets, reaffirmations and what’s exempt and what is not.
Oklahoma Attorney Edward Kelley with 888-Debtline explains why it is important to be honest with your attorney when it concerns Transfers And Fraudulent Activity In A Chapter 7. There are some severe penalties if you are found to have defrauded the federal government in a bankruptcy including, but not limited to, losing your discharge and in some cases losing your exemptions.