Between filing and 341 meeting

[cracksmeup]

So, I filed on August 20th. I'm waiting to get my letter with our meeting date. Who do I pay in the mean time? I'm assuming I still pay my car loans, mortgage, utilities, but what about student loans? Do I pay them during this time or do I wait until after discharge? Is there any type of bill, other than unsecured debt, I'm not supposed to be paying? I live in Pennsylvania, if it makes a difference.

[Buckwheat2U]

I would advise you to contact your attorney.  As soon as you file an automatic stay is issued and all creditors on the list you filed are notified to halt collection activities, foreclosures, repossessions etc.  Typically student loans are exempt from any sort of BK and you'll end up paying them eventually.  Again, best advice is to consult your attorney as to what you should do as doing the wrong thing can damage your case.

[FireMedic1]

If you made payments up to your file date. You dont have to pay any longer until after DC. Nor can any creditor place negative info on your credit reports such as lates and such. Once DC'ed then it will all go back to the way it used to be. If any creditor list a neg after file date. Your lawyer can file a claim violating the BK laws and you will recieve $1000 plus court cost and lawyer fees. So for now. No more payments. Only unless your reaffirming an auto or mortgage.

[Anonymous]

What Firemedic just wrote is not at all correct.

Your student loans may still be due during the stay.  They cannot contact you or ask you to pay during the stay. However, they still may expect you to pay on your due date.  If you miss the first payment, your loan becomes late.  They cannot post to your credit report that your loan is late.  If you miss the next payment, it becomes 30 days late and so on.  Again, they cannont post to your credit report that it is late.  However, if you go 120 days past due, they can default you and report this to your credit report.  However, they can still not contact you or ask you to pay. Once the stay is over, the defaulted loan becomes immediately due in full.

YOU MUST contact your student loan lenders and find out what their policies are.  Many will grant you a forbearance during the bankruptcy automatically.  But they are in no way required to do this.  I SPEAK FROM EXPERIENCE.  For example, Wells Fargo will not grant a forbearance and expects you to pay during the bankruptcy. 

[FireMedic1]

Sorry I was answering more of the whatever the poster was paying on and didnt directly address student loans as an individual item. @Anonymous can answer more on this subject.

[Anonymous]

I agree that you need to talk with your attorney. I'm not familiar with bankruptcy, and I wouldn't want to give you advice on your loans before you get the green light. If they advise you to pay I can help you with your loans, and go over possible payment plans, etc. that may help you a lot. Just let me know. 🙂

[Buckwheat2U]

Student loans are can be a sticky situation which was the primary reason I said to talk to the attorney for advice as BK is a federal matter so exercise a lot of care.  Making an auto or mortgage payment can go either way as it depends on if you're reaffirming those so again, best policy is to talk to your attorney.  In my case I was going to pay the parent loans initially outside the BK but the Trustee wanted more for the creditors so they were just deferred for the 5 years of my Ch13 and they just accrued more interest and then I started getting the bills again as soon as it BK DC decree was dry.  They can do that and though your not paying on the student loans either through the Trustee or externally,  they cannot be DC through BK and become due again once your BK is finalized.