Miss Me?

We are in the process of bankruptcy.  There are two types of bankruptcy for people who are not a business or corporation; Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.  A 7 just says, Oh Fuck, Clear Away the Debt and we won't have any credit to speak of for a few years.  A 13 takes 5 years of us making some unknown amount of a monthly payment to a trustee, who then disburses it to the creditors.  After 5 years, the whole thing gets swept away, paid or not,and no credit during and for awhile after, either.  There are limitations on who can do a 7 under what circumstances.  We are currently in a gray area in between a 7 and a 13.  Of course, I'm hoping for the 7, as I'm not sure I would not kill myself sometime during the five years of a 13.  Of course, if more bad shit happened, a 13 can always be turned into a 7.  I'm in the odd position of wondering if I should be hoping for bad shit.

Making sense?  Are you keeping up?  Me, not so much either.

Last week, That Man got a real job offer.  Not a contract, a regular job, with some benefits and proper taxes and everything.  It's even work he is interested in doing.  This is a minor miracle, and we're very happy.  He has been working a contract job, with no benefits, and no income tax being withheld, and our health insurance being through Pay Through The Nose For Crap Insurance COBRA.  Before we started the bankruptcy, I had been paying bills with money the IRS is going to want next spring.  That's not going to be pretty either, let me tell you.  But, it's not *today*.

Last Friday, we had our first meeting with the bankruptcy trustee guy.  It went as expected; simple and terrifying.  Because of the new job in the offing, things got pushed back a couple of weeks, and the answer about 7 or 13 didn't happen.  We won't have to go to the next meeting, just our attorney has to file new paperwork.

Today, it only took me two hours to pay the mortgage.  After being on hold for about a half hour, That Evil Mortgage Company told me that they would now accept my payments in any form.  Too late of course to do anything this time except the expensive wire transfer, but that's minor shit at this point.  Par for the course for them, as well.  But that brings up the question; how can I easily and cheaply pay them with out putting our account at risk from them again?  I'm in discussions with my credit union about that.  We may just open a second checking account there, and *only* cycle the mortgage payment through that second account.  That way, no matter if/how they stir around in there, they can't get things that are not theirs, and they can't cause Not Sufficient Funds fees to happen by doing that stirring.

I wonder if that's an oncoming train.