Let's just tack on another $4,500

I can't stand it.

We filed the Emergency Chapter 13 last month - and we had 30 days to file the complete Bankruptcy plan.  Our attorney called us to his office to go over the final paperwork.

Flash back 2 months ago...  we gave him  a retainer of $3,500.  That's what he estimated a Chapter 13 filing would cost.  If it went over $3500 he would just add it to the Chapter 13 payment plan.  I really felt like someone was finally treating us decently. 

Looking over the papers now, we see that he shows a total of $8,000 for his fees.   We can't even question him about it at this point.  If we don't finish this filing, our bankruptcy will be thrown out.

I am so tired of being screwed, and just having to take it.

So we made our first payment of $5,328.82 to the Trustee - who will take his rather large share.  He'll then pay our attorney his portion.  So everybody's happy!! :)


Did I mention that I don't like attorneys?

Life Without Credit Cards - now let's figure this out

We have tow trucks and my husband is out on the road a lot.  He needs credit cards to function. 

We have a personal debit card that always has a low balance, and just ordered a debit card or Visa Check Card from our main business account.  Not really "Credit Cards" and for some reason my husband was adamant about getting a prepaid credit card.  I don't see much difference.

I did some research today and found this site =  Prepaid Credit Card Review 2012 
They show a very nice comparison of many prepaid cards and the fees for specific transactions.  You need to be careful, some cards will charge you just to check your card balance.  I found this site to be very helpful to compare fees and figure out what was best for us. 

I chose the American  Express prepaid card.  You can read the review here:  American express prepaid review
  There are no monthly fees, whereas every other card had one. 

• There is a fee  of $2 if you access an ATM.  We shouldn't need to use that.  
• Thee is a fee to reload the card - unless you use a checking account to reload.  We plan on using a checking account so that won't affect us.  

I did read on another site that this 2nd point is a deal breaker for some.  Most people using prepaid credit cards do not have a checking account. 

For now, this card fits our needs.  I'll be tracking the fees, and will post anything out of the ordinary. 

We haven't been using credit cards at all for the last 3 years.  Just for gas on the road.  I'm most upset about losing my Kohl's Department Store Card.  they have great sales when you use your Kohl's credit card, and I love shopping there.  We had a very small balance on that and I paid it fine.  Apparently, they will close that instantly and I'll be out of luck.  I have other department store cards with 0 balances.  I imagine they'll be closed as well. 

This is a new credit free life, and I'm ready to embrace it.

Don't Bother Showing up at the Sheriff Sale in Lititz Tomorrow

At 2pm today, we met with our bankruptcy attorney - A mouse click on "Submit" and I now have a Docket Number.  This is the only thing that could keep the bank from taking over our building at Sheriff Sale TOMORROW!

My story is long, and it spans 3 years.  Here are the facts that affected me the most severely and created the need for bankruptcy protection:

• We defaulted on a loan in March 2009.  
• The bank filed a lawsuit against us for a very inflated amount.  
• We paid back tons over the last 3 years, but they kept adding interest, fees, penalties, and flat out forgot to credit us with $46,000 paid against this loan.  This was paid from the sale of my husband's beloved cabin in the woods. 
• We worked with the bank over the last 3 years, reached agreements, made $1800 monthly payments. We are still waiting for an accounting of how and where those payments were applied, after asking many, many times. 
• When our latest agreement expired, the bank wanted an extra $1500 to extend the agreement - we call this "Blood Money"
• Our attorney informed us of this demand, as well as his demand for a $2,000 retainer.  We couldn't pay both of those, and also our $1800 monthly payment - all due immediately.  No retainer, no attorney.  He dropped us like a brick.  He never responded to the bank's demand and would not reply to our emails.

I think everyone just got tired of dealing with us.

Here's the real pisser.  The bank knew all along that our attorney made a very simple, but fatal mistake - He never responded  to the original lawsuit in court.  All along, all the bank had to do was to follow up on that lawsuit.  Even though we had worked our asses off for the last 3 years to satisfy them and try to keep them whole, they were granted a default judgment for the full amount of the original lawsuit.   They immediately acted on this judgment and set up the sheriff sale.


I wish we had the money to sue him for legal malpractice.

For now, at least, we get to keep the property and stay in business.  Our future is very uncertain.  I'm afraid we will be forced to eventually sell the property, then we will never be able to dig out of this and will have to go to a chapter 7 bankrutpcy. 

I can't wait to go to work tomorrow and see who shows up for the sheriff sale. 

The end. Hoping for a new beginning :)

Tomorrow, we will meet with our attorney to officially file an Emergency Chapter 13 banktruptcy.

The last 3 years have been, without a doubt, the hardest of my life.  We have a small business in Pennsylvania, and we were hit hard when the economy went down.  Our world collapsed 3/17/2009.

We are in the Car business,  Car sales, Repair, Truck Rental and towing.  We've done everything we could possibly do to avoid this, but we can't fight the bank anymore.  We file, or they take it all...

Attorney fees to date:  $19,165.63
These are the fees we've actually written checks for.  This does not include the banks attorney fees, which we are responsible for and are added to the amount we owe them.  I can't include this number because the bank will not provide us with an accurate accounting of what we owe them, the  fees they have added, and what happened to all the payments we have made against this loan since 2009.  Isn't there supposed to be something called truth in lending?


The best is yet to come..

For the next five years, we will pay a monthly payment to a Bankruptcy Trustee.   They will retain a fee - of 10% of any amount recovered.  This is estimated to be $353.50 per month - over 5 years = $21,210.00

Grand total of    $40,375.63

But we're the bad guys ..