Here’s How You Can Make Your Chapter 13 Payments in the Alexandria VA Bankruptcy Court
The bankruptcy law tells you to make your first Chapter 13 payment one month after your bankruptcy case is filed. If you forget, or bounce, your first payment, the Chapter 13 trustee can dismiss your case. (That means DO NOT wait until your Chapter 13 plan is approved–that will be three or four months down the road. Start making payments now!). That’s by law. 11 U.S.C. § 1326(a)(1).
When the Court confirms your plan, then the trustee may issue a “wage directive” to garnish the payment from your paycheck. If that doesn’t happen, you need just to keep making those payments.
Ten Things to know about how to make your Chapter 13 payments:
1.The Alexandria Chapter 13 Trustee, Thomas Gorman, does not accept cash, credit, or debit cards. He also won’t take online or telephone payments. Mail your payments to his address in Memphis. (That bank in Memphis handles the payments for most of the bankruptcy courts in the country.)
2. Do not send money orders. They are too difficult to track down and get your money back if they get lost in the mail. Instead, I suggest setting up a bill pay with your bank. With bill pay, your bank mails the check. You can watch your account and see when the check clears.
3. Don’t send a post-dated check. The Memphis bank will deposit it as soon as they get it. So, don’t send your check until you’re sure it’s good.
4. The bank won’t put a bounced check through a second time. Just send a new check.
5. Don’t use UPS or FedEx. The payment address is a PO Box in Memphis. UPS and FEDEX don’t deliver to PO Boxes.
6. If you bounce your check twice, then Thomas Gorman will make you to send all future payments by money order or cashiers check. That’s an enormous waste of time. It’s better to be late than to bounce a check.
7. If your check doesn’t clear your bank, don’t call to ask the Trustee if they got it. They don’t know. That bank in Memphis is handling over a hundred thousand Chapter 13 payments every month! If the bank doesn’t deposit your check, then you know it’s lost in the mail. Send it again.
8. Make your check payable to: Thomas P. Gorman, Trustee
9. Include your NAME and CASE NUMBER on your check. For bill paying purposes, your case number is your account number. If you get that wrong, your payment might go to the wrong account. People mail three thousand checks every day to that bank; so make sure yours has the right account number.
I like setting up bill pay with your bank as the best way to make your Chapter 13 payment.
10. Mail all payments to the payment address at:
Thomas P. Gorman
Chapter 13 Trustee
P.O. Box 1553
Memphis, TN
38101-1553
And Remember to Pay:
Trustee Gorman will not send you a monthly reminder or call when you are late. It is up to you to make sure he receives your payment every month.