One of our readers,Teresa, had this question:

I have a question. I filed for bankruptcy – chapter 13 in 2007 and have 5 years to pay it off. I did not want to put my credit union in the mix but my lawyer said it was mandatory. I had excellent credit before filing for bankruptcy (”robbed Peter to pay Paul theory).

I owed my credit union a little under 7,000 – can I pay them back in a lump sum – I wanted to pay them with my bonus – am I allowed to do that since they are in my bankruptcy.

I have the 5 year plan and the bankruptcy will be over in Feb , 2012. In 2007 before bankruptcy filing I opened a checking/savings account with a bank but you have to have 100 in each acct. each month to avoid 10 fee for each. I would really like to use my credit union again. Please advise.

Thanks for your question Teresa! You should be able to pay off this part of your Chapter 13 without a problem. However, you need to contact the lawyer or law office that handled your bankruptcy first. This is because the laws that govern the hows and whys of changing your bankruptcy terms vary by state. Your lawyer will also need to verify where the money came from.

So yes, it should be possible, but don’t take the chance without speaking to your lawyer first so that you are confident that you stay within the law by doing it.

Thanks for your question!
Mr. CC

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 15:16 and is filed under Bankruptcy FAQ. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.