Bankruptcy didn't work

How did the payments go from 400 to 1500??? That is a BIG jump? What did your lawyer say about this? Was it dismissed due to you not being able to make that large payment? May I ask how much debt you have? What's your monthly income?

I'm also curious as to why the Trustee increased your plan payments. Did you have a sudden increase in income? Normally, once your payment is set up, it stays that way unless YOU request it to be changed.

Dismissal of the case is normally only something that happens due to debtor failure to pay (though most payments are set up to come out of the debtors paycheck through a garnishment, unless your state doesn't allow that), or due to some failure on the debtor's part to appear at a court hearing, etc.

Please let us know what happened here...it will help us provide you with some thoughts on how to proceed.

My attorney had put in the $700 that I had been helping my son with. When I went before the trustee, my son had gotten a job and I was only helping him with $300/month. Sad thing is I feel as though I should have lied and said that I was still paying that. Oh well. Yes, case was dismissed because there is no way I can pay $1500/month. I could pay up to about 800 or maybe 900 once my car is paid off in December.
I was current on all the payments to the trustee up to that point, so at least that money will be returned to me. I was till paying my own secured debts (mortgage and car).
It seems as though now my attorney doesn't want to help me anymore. I am asking for his advise and not getting anywhere. I am quite nervous.

Don't lie in the BK court ... if the trustee ever finds out you lied in a court proceeding, there can be jail time involved for perjury.

There's nothing preventing you from trying again and re-filing. You might try using a different BK attorney who might be able to work up a better plan for you. But I do know that any 13 plan is designed to take all your available income. They are not going to leave you with "extra spending money" every month - they will leave you with just barely enough to live on and take the rest. That being said, I don't think the trustee would have arrived at $1500 unless they thought your income less expenses was that much. I mean they do base the payments on a calculation of what you make versus what you owe out every month.

That is why schedules J & K (Income & Expense statements)are so important. Your goal will be to show as little income and as many expenses as possible, without actually lying. For example if you say you make $4500 and have $3500 in monthly expenses, then you bet the trustee is going to set your plan payments at $1000/month. Like I said he won't give you any breathing room.

I don't know your whole situation with your son, and I don't want to seem cold. But from the trustee's point of view -- if your son is of legal age and not handicapped, then "helping him out" is not really a legitimate expense. Yes it's compassionate, but if your son has the means of providing for himself, then there's no "valid" reason for you not to put that money into your 13 plan instead. Like I said, not trying to be cold, but this is the trustee's job.

Outside of BK, I would tend to say working directly with the creditors is your best bet. If you are able to save $450-1000 per month, then take them one by one and settle with them.

I seen earlier in this post that your income decides on which bankrupsty you can file. What are the guidelines to this? I also can not believe they would leave someone with barely enough money to get by on. What about emergencies? How are people suppose to work around those or say car repairs.
I know they think most people got theirselves into this bind but if they are working hard to find their way out why leave them so tight finacially that one thing will throw them back off track?

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I don't know if I can negotiate with my creditors by myself, so would a debt settlement company be the best way to go or a debt management plan?
the median income in Fl for a Chap 7 is about $33000/year.
that is why I had to go to a 13, and you are right, it left me with absolutely nothing extra plus had me paying the total of all my debts.

i must have gotten lucky because I recently did a chap 13 and i now have more money left over each month than before. My car is included in my $400 payments for 5 yrs BUT my car payment was already $393 and I had almost 4 yrs left to pay on it. My atty gets 3K and my creditors got like 2K total and I owed them like 20K. I actual have enough money to live and about 500 left over each month. I am thinking the food "allowance" figured in was way high or something because I was totally honest about income and debts.

It depends what area of the country you file, some states and districts want almost all debt paid back, even all unsecured debt. Almost all chapter 13 plans are denied by the trustee's at first because they want blood. They will force you to sweat it out until the third hearing to agree to your repayment plan. By that time the attorney fees are up to 5000 dollars, so even if the plan is not confirmed 6 month's have gone by and if the case is dismissed he still gets paid and so does the trustee, but none if your creditors got paid becausse the plan wasn't confirmed. You bascically then paid 6 month's of payments awaiting for you case to be confirmed for nothing. This then forces you in a repayment plan that is so tight there is no room for error, meaning if food are gas goes up your stuck in that budget. Say your dryer goes out either you don't eat or buy one, oh yes you can ask the court, but the attorney will have to file court papers again racking up more legal fees to ask the court/trustee for more money. Example I have a family of 5 and 800 a month food budget. That means why get 150 a person a month to love on are 5 dolars a day to eat 3 meals.

my debt is 33.000 why are my payments 700.00 for 60 months i go to my first hearing in 30 days did my attorney calculate this wrong or is he scamming me or will the trustee adjust it at my meeting in court

You would need to talk to your attorney or trustee concerning your payment.

The trustee has fees and costs too, in a chapt 7, he will more than likely take most of the acquired assets as fees to himself, leaving hardly any to the creditors if any at all. Everyone seems to knock debt settlement with the fees and such, but when they reduce unsecured debt by half istn it worth it? If credit card compainies are making hunderds and thousands to keep you in debt, why is it an injustice for a company to charge you 1/10 of what you are paying in interest to get you out of debt?

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The trustee has fees and costs too, in a chapt 7, he will more than likely take most of the acquired assets as fees to himself, leaving hardly any to the creditors if any at all.

I have a question regarding this statement from a previous post (sorry, couldn't figure out how to quote)

You mention that the trustee will more than likely take most of the assets as fees to himself. What if there are no assets? We don't have a home, our cars are all 10 years or older with 135000+ miles on them and because of where we live, the winters have been very hard on them with rust. We have 3 cars and and the highest blue book value is $2000.00. What happens with his fees if there aren't any assets to cover them? There's no jewelry, collectibles, antiques, campers, boats, ATV's ect... All we have is the very basic items that a family has to get by. If we took everything we owned and sold it all at a yard sale, I don't think we'd get more than $5000. They can't leave us with absolutely nothing. Can they??

That's a good question that I'm curious about to djd. It's too bad that no one has answered!

When I was meeting with my first lawyer about Ch7 I was afraid they'd take my son's XBox and she laughed and said, "Oh, they don't do that - people don't understand. They only want big stuff like 2nd homes, campers, etc." There are $ allowances for all kinds of things including personal property. I read on another advice forum to realistically look at your stuff and think about what you'd get for it at a tag sale. (Now, think, end of the day tag sale, don't want to drag it back in the house price.) My hubby and I laughed and planned how we'd get rid of our "junk" by saying "oh, please don't take my fabulous collection of ceramic cows that my sister has given me every Christmas" (we WANT them to take that stuff). Otherwise, we've got a whole lot of broken down furniture, the computer that I need for my work, appliances that came with our house (over 10 years old), cars with over 200k miles on them ... I look around and go "what did all that debt go toward? Where's my vacation home? My Lexus???" We have NOTHING.

We don't have anyhting big either. Yeah, there's an LCD TV that's probably wirth $750 at most, the Xbox game system, then the furniture (bed, couch, etc.). We don't have that much that could be used. Definitely not anything big!

I was curious if they would try to take that though.

I was wondering....I'm looking to file ch 13, mostly so I can strip my 2nd mortgage lien as my house is worth less than my first mortgage so lien striping in a ch 13 is a good option for me. I also have 30k in credit card debt. I lost my job and my new job is at a 40% pay cut. I do have disposable monthly income to barely make a payment to a trustee for 5 years....but the disposable income is only about $250. My second mortgage is $100k and the $30k credit card debit also....In all the research I've been doing I haven't been able to find if there is a base minimum payment every individual would have to be able to make monthly in order to qualify for a ch 13. Does anyone know?

I personally don't have a reply to this. We recently filed a chapter 13 bankruptcy. I husband lost his job about 1/5 years ago but filed for SS at 62. He has also been able to draw a small amount of unemployment. The problem is, I am the one working, so the payment will come out of my salary. My attorney first said my monthly payment would be 1600 dollars. I told him there was no way I could make that. It has lowered it to 1200 but I am so afraid when we meet with the trustee, she will put it back to 1600. I am 61 yrs old, not in the greatest of health. I worked hard and paid my bills all my life...but now I feel like I am doomed. I don't mind trying to pay as much as I can to the trustee but it is so unfair that I am caring the burden for all the payment. We filed jointly. My husband buys a few groceries, and pays 1/2 of the utilities out of his 900 SS check. I could probably get a promotion with more money....what is the use......I will just be working harder to pay the trustee. I am not crazy about my attorney, but there aren't many in the area really qualified to handle chapter 13s. Any suggestions? If the payment goes up to 1600 a month, I will not have anything left, not even the price of a movie and popcorn.

I have about $70,000 in CC debt, including $10,000 to a credit union for a toybox trailer. Right now my plan is to move out of my apartment and live in my trailer because it will be cheaper. The value of the trailer can't be more than $15,000. If that.

I want to file Chapter 7 and going by some means tests I would qualify. Will I be able to work out a deal (even if it is the current deal) with my credit union to keep the trailer? It will be paid off in 07/2012 and I want to keep it as my place to live.

Other than that I have no assets other than a 12 year old car worth less than $3000. No savings, no assets, no toys such as xbox or TV's. I want to try this 1st without a lawyer so I am asking lingering questions. If it turns out to be overwhelming I will seek help but I figure it won't hurt to ask those who have gone through this or have some insight on my options. Thank you!