It has been 155 days since we made our final payment to the trustee on our Chapter 13 bankruptcy. While the financial burden was lifted on that day, we were far from in the clear. There was still a long way to go to get to today.
In this post, I’ll take you through all the steps that our case went through on the way to finally being free from bankruptcy. Every year, I had to use my annual bonus to pay off the late oil bills. This year was going to be different. I called the lawyer to find out get the payoff amount.
Amazingly, we only had to pay an extra month’s worth on top of our March payment. I was convinced that they had messed up since we were supposed to be making payments until February of next year.
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I made the payment on TFS Bill Pay on 3/15, it cleared on 3/19 and went to the trustee on 3/22. The trustee took his cut that day and less than a month later on 4/19 the remainder of the creditors were paid.
At some point, I opened an account on Pacer to find out what was going on with the case. By the end of the month, I saw the Trustee’s Certification of Completed Plan had shown up as submitted and the case was awaiting discharge! A few days we received a letter with the certification and the waiting period for any creditors to object.
Wow, that was three and a half months ago! We thought it would be over soon from this point. There was supposed to be a 21 day or 30-day waiting period, so June. Anyway, nothing… radio silence. Finally a few days after July 4th, a new status showed up on Pacer. “Chapter 13 Trustee’s Final Report and Account”. A late response from the lawyer a week later confirmed what I’d seen and that things should be over soon.
A little over a month after that and another “Chapter 13 Trustee’s Final Report and Account” was posted and I thought, oh great I get to wait another month. Nothing had changed in the file, except for the signature date.
And then it happened. This week I logged in and checked the status. The screen had changed. Instead of all the activities that were listed before, it was only showing three. The initial meeting, the plan confirmation, and “Close Bankruptcy Case”. The status was “Case Closed”. The header had discharge dates listed… was this really it?
That was 2 days ago. It finally hit Experian and Trans Union. Equifax won’t update for another week or two and for whatever reason didn’t validate me on AnnualCreditReport.com, so I’ll have to wait to see it across the board, but it looks as official as can be. Hopefully, we get a letter soon for the physical proof!
I’ve already submitted pre-approvals for Capital One and for Discover and got approved for the QuickSilver, Platinum MasterCard, or their Secured MasterCard as well as Discover’s Secured card. Decisions decisions, pre-approval isn’t approved, but Capital One rejected me a month ago when I applied for the secured card so that’s definitely a good sign.
Later I’ll go over the best way to use the card to boost your credit scores and we can see how it impacts mine as I go through this journey. I’m nervous to start using credit again, but the goal is to boost my score so that when we’re eligible for a new FHA or conventional loan we can move to a larger place in a lower cost of living area.
It’s odd, we haven’t really had a chance to celebrate it. Not much has changed. Currently, we’re crushing our savings and spending money is as tight as it’s ever been and I’m on track to make my 401k match and mega back door Roth my companies limit. I’ve been putting away a good chunk of cash in our savings and adding to our kid’s 529’s. We’ve got a family vacation coming next week though, and that should serve the purpose. Maybe I’ll feel different when the papers are in hand. For now it’s just been a long awaited sigh of relief.