It's been a bit, so here's where we stand:
We finally got notification of our court date in September, so we're just waiting for that day.
The collection calls *did* stop, thank goodness! When I called one of the credit cards to give them our Bankruptcy Case #, the customer service rep was really nice and wished us luck in our filing - she really seemed concerned for us - so that was unexpected.
We received notification from our credit card companies that our accounts are now closed. Not because of the Bankruptcy, but because of non-payment and over-limit fees.
One requirement of Bankruptcy is that ALL of your creditors are notified, even if some of those debts are *not* being discharged. Co-signers are also notified.
Our car loan is with the bank we use for our checking and savings. Because of this, the attorney instructed us to open an account with another bank where we do not have any debts. This is just in case the bank decided to freeze our account upon getting word of our Bankruptcy. The temporary change in banking institutions has been an adjustment, but hopefully we won't have to do it much longer. Although, I'm contemplating staying at the new bank because their interest rate is a lot better than our usual bank.
Our student loans are not dischargeable in Bankruptcy, but they sent us notification that due to the Bankruptcy, they are now being administered by a different agency, or something along those lines. Kind of confusing.
Since the mortgage company was notified, our mortgage statements now indicate that no payment is due. We will continue to pay them, since we are filing under Chapter 13, but it's weird to see 'No Payment Due' on the statement.
We're still struggling financially, which just seems so bizarre to me. I thought once we stopped being 'responsible' for the debt payments, things would be happy and wonderful. I mean, it's tons better than it was, but it still seems as if we're living paycheck to paycheck. I know I should give it another month or so to really feel the effects, because part of the reason we're still 'broke' right now is because I was trying to catch up on late/past due payments from the past few months and we also had some unexpected car repairs. Right now, we're no longer late on our monthly expenses, and when the new bill-paying month starts on Sept 1st, we should be on track.
Just waiting for the moment we have our $1,000 emergency fund built up so we can start pouring money into our existing debt (automobiles & student loans). I've been trying to keep us on a budget, but since we haven't had the extra cash to put into the emergency fund, and with the unexpected car repairs this month, it's been difficult. This month will be better.
It has to be.
