I’m in Chapter 13, but I’ve got a bunch of other payments that have come up, and I’m not on a wage garnishment. I’ve been making payments electronically every month to the Chapter 13 Trustee, and right now, money is super tight. Can I just skip a payment to the Chapter 13 Trustee and make it up later?
I say do this at your own risk. This is generally speaking not a good idea because once you fall behind with the Chapter 13 Trustee, it’s very hard to make it up. They’re paying attention to this. They’re keeping journals and records, and if you fall enough behind, and it’s not very far, maybe a couple of months, they’ll file a motion to dismiss your Chapter 13 case, and really, if that happens, all of the payments you’ve made before are pretty much going to have gone for naught.
That’s one of the reasons why we really favor wage garnishments in Chapter 13 for our clients, because it makes it much, much more likely that you’re going to have a successful Chapter 13 case, so my strong advice to you, is don’t fall behind with your payments to the Chapter 13 Trustee.
