protecting assets – Jeff Kelly Law Offices

Can you freeze your credit while in an active Chapter 13 Bankruptcy?

Jeffrey Kelly — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 00:28:57 +0000

Yes, you can freeze your credit while you are in an active Chapter 13 bankruptcy. There is nothing in the bankruptcy code that would prohibit freezing your own credit.

This past week, we have received many calls from concerned clients asking this question in light of the recent Equifax data breach. The Atlanta based Equifax credit reporting agency recently announced that as many as 143 million people may have had their social security numbers and birth dates released to hackers in the breach.

If you would like to know if you are affected by the Equifax data hack, you can go to this website. If you have been a victim of the breach, Equifax will give you one free year of credit monitoring.

WSB Consumer Expert Clark Howard recommends that the best way to protect yourself is to freeze your credit with Experian, Transunion, and Equifax. Here is a link to Clark Howard’s page.

What is a credit freeze?

A credit freeze is basically a lock or a seal on your credit report. The only way to open it is with a pin number that will be issued to you by the credit reporting agency. If you lose the pin, you could be in big trouble if you ever need quick access in the future. If you have a credit freeze in place, identity thieves will not be able to establish new credit in your name using your credit reports even if they have your personal information.

Here is how you can contact Experian:

Online: Experian Credit Freeze Link.
By Phone: 1-888-397-3742
By Mail: Experian Security Freeze
- P.O. Box 9554
- Allen, TX 75013

Here is how you can contact Equifax:

Online: Equifax Credit Freeze
By Phone: 1-800-685-1111
By Mail: Equifax Security Freeze
- P.O. Box 105788
- Atlanta, GA 30348

Here is how you can contact Transunion:

Online: Transunion Credit Freeze
By Phone: 1-888-909-8872
By Mail: Transunion LLC
- P.O. Box 2000
- Chester, PA 19016

Personally, I think this disaster for Equifax will mark the end of the day and age where we use social security numbers and birth dates to access credit. I have no idea what the new system will be but the old one is now useless.

Reminder to all my clients: While you are in an active Chapter 13 case, you are not supposed incur any new debt without permission from the court.

If you are sending a certified letter, this is how is should read:

Dear ______(name of credit agency):

I would like to put a complete freeze on my credit. My full name is ________. My birth date is ______. My maiden name is _____. My current address is ____. My prior addresses are ____. My social security number is _____. My Drivers license state and number is _____. (You will need to check with each agency to find out how much they will charge you for the freeze).

__________ signature and date.

Bankruptcy and The Gun Toting Debtor

Jeffrey Kelly — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 15:26:52 +0000

When a person files for bankruptcy, what will happen to their guns? In Northwest Georgia, guns are a treasured commodity and part of a favored pastime.

People are so crazy about guns around here that Wal-mart won’t let you buy more than two little boxes at a time. I asked a Wal-mart cashier why I was not allowed to give more of my money to Wal-mart and allow them to make a profit off of me. She responded that if there were no limit on ammunition sales, they would never be able to keep any in stock because it flies off the shelf so fast.

As a bankruptcy attorney, I often hear my clients ask, “They are not going to take my guns are they?” For the vast majority of people filing bankruptcy, the answer to this question is no. I’ve been practicing bankruptcy for over fifteen years and I’ve never seen a trustee take away someone’s guns.

Is there a specific Georgia Bankruptcy Exemption that will protect guns?

The answer to this question is no but don’t get upset just yet. Georgia has a $5,600.00 wildcard exemption that can be used toward gun values.

If you have a gun collection and are considering filing bankruptcy, you need to ask yourself, “how much are my guns really worth?” How much cash could you get for them?

The safest way to proceed to is to find a gun appraiser that will write out their valuation of your collection. For most of my clients, they cannot afford a professional gun appraisal. A free alternative is to go to a pawn shop and ask how much cash the owner will give you for your collection. This will give you a rough idea of the value. It is important to note that the trustee will ask how you came up with the values of your guns. The trustee has right to get their own appraisal. As a consequence, you want to get the most objective evaluation you can before filing.

What is my guns are worth more than what I can exempt? Does this mean that I cannot file bankruptcy?

You can still file bankruptcy but you need to understand liquidation before filing.

If you are filing chapter 13 and you want to keep your guns, your plan must pay back to the unsecured creditors (credit cards, medical bills, and signature loans) the same amount of money that your creditors would get if your guns were liquidated. For example, let’s that you have $5,000.00 of exposed equity and owe $100,000.00 to a credit card company, $50,000 in medical bills and $10,000 on a signature loan from a bank. Your chapter 13 plan must pay a total of $5,000 pro rata to this unsecured class of creditors.

In a Chapter 7 situation, you could file the bankruptcy case but the trustee would take away your guns and sell them. The trustee would have to write you a check for the value that you were able to exempt and then the rest would be distributed to the unsecured pool of creditors.

Bankruptcy is complicated. If you are considering filing a case, take advantage of a free consultation and meet with me or one of my associate attorneys.

Bankruptcy- Can I Keep My Furniture If I File in Georgia?

Jeffrey Kelly — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:07:22 +0000

As a Georgia bankruptcy attorney, one of the most common questions I hear from potential clients is, “Will I be able to keep my furniture if I file bankruptcy?” In Georgia, the answer to this question in almost every case is yes.

The exemption law in Georgia for furniture states that any bankruptcy debtor may exempt “the debtor’s interest, not to exceed $300 in value in any particular item, in household furnishings, household goods, wearing apparel, appliances, books, animals, crops, or musical instruments that are held primarily for the personal, family, or household use of the debtor or a dependent of the debtor. The exemption of the debtor’s interest in the items contained in this paragraph shall not exceed $5,000.00 in total value” [see GA Code 44-13-100(4)].

Just the other day, I was meeting with bankruptcy a client in my Rome GA office who was panicked about the prospect of losing her household furnishings. Once I explained to her how the application of the statute works, she calmed down.

The issue is how much is the furniture worth? The cost to replace furniture with brand new items is not the issue. The question is how much would I pay to replace your sofa with a similar sofa with a similar amount of wear and tear on it? The answer is that I would go to a garage sale to find one. The odds of me paying more than $300 for any item at a garage sale is extremely low.

Its works the same way for electronics. You may have paid $1000 for the flat screen television. However, if you were to sell that same television at a garage sale, what is the likelihood that you could get more than $300.00? How would a potential buyer no whether not something was wrong with the television? Does it have short in it? Do all of the buttons work properly? Has the screen ever been hit by anything? Why is that scratch on there? Will it still be covered by a warranty? These types of concerns usually drive down garage sale prices.

Another way to look at the situation is to ask, if there were no exemption law and the trustee was going to sell my household furnishings, how much money would they receive? I would argue that a bankruptcy trustee would receive no more than you would at a garage sale.

I want to emphasize here that the question is not how much money would you take for it? Sometimes people may get sentimental about their personal items and won’t sell for a reasonable price. How much you would take for the item is not relevant. How much would the trustee take for it is relevant.

Antiques are a much different story. If you have antiques, you will most likely need to get some kind of appraisal on the antiques before you file bankruptcy. Some antiques can command a high sales price.

If you are a single person and your the total value of your furniture is less than $5000 with no single item being worth more than $300, you will not lose any of your household furnishings if you file for bankruptcy. If you are married and the total value of your furniture is less than $10,000.00 with no single item being worth more than $300.00, you will not lose any furniture if you file for bankruptcy.

In addition to the furniture exemption, Georgia has a $5,000 wildcard exemption for each debtor that can be used on any item.

I have been a Georgia consumer bankruptcy attorney since December 1998. In the hundreds of cases that I have filed, I’ve never seen a single debtor have furniture taken away from them because the value was too high.