Revised Revised To Do list

 Change Banks


Yay! All complete except to make sure that our health insurance comes out of the correct account (mail in form for change has been sent, with plenty of time, but who knows if it will actually be processed in time) and the disability payment goes into the correct account. *crosses fingers* Everything on our end is finished, however.

1. Change Hubby's disability deposit - Pending
2. Change Hubby's paycheck direct deposit
3. Change account that life insurance comes out of
4. Change account that YMCA membership comes out of
5. Change account that Netflix comes out of
6. Change account that Paypal is linked to
7. Set up new bill pay through Landmark Bank
8. Take my name off mom's account
9. Take my name off our BOA joint account
10. Close my savings account and my checking account at BOA 

Paperwork

1. Print worksheets off internet site
2. Complete rough draft for lawyer to look over - Mostly Complete
3. Copies of tax returns (2005-current just in case)
4. Copies of closed bank account statements (6 months, just in case)
5. Copies of W-2s from hubby - Now have past four, however waiting on filing date to know which we need or need future copies
6. Copy of hubby's disability letter - Have but not in pile of Chapter 7 stuff
7. 3 months of bank statements prior to filing
1. BOA
2. Landmark
3. ING
8. Copy of Roth IRA statements - Have but not in pile of Chapter 7 paperwork
9. Possession List - In progress

Mom Assorted


Looks like I can't go any further until I talk to the attorney and find out what else she can do.

1. Prepay for cremation expenses
2. Pay off car
3. Purchase travel plane tickets for her yearly family trip 

To Do List Update

The only payees we need to still transfer to our new account are:
- YMCA
- Netflix
- Paypal

We've officially gotten me off all joint BOA accounts. Our sole BOA account is in my husband's name only and will be closed as soon as we confirm that his disability comes to our new checking.

My mom's prepaid for her cremation and paid off her car. I have an idea of how I'm going to have her word a letter that will possibly protect us both based on my research (and subject to the review of our lawyer).

I have quotes for new homeowners insurance and health insurance so that we know what's going to happen later in the year when rates go up. (Our homeowners is dropping us in August so we're switching in late April so that it's before hurricane season but we can continue to get the benefit of a lower rate until then.) We decided to stick with our current BCBS plan with the lower deductible and switch early next year when the deductible resets.

More To Do List Things Done

- Life insurance forms to change bank accounts have been faxed.
- Form to change BCBS bank account has been mailed.
- Remainder of car insurance for this six-month period has been paid.
- Several household items have been replaced (such as the garbage cans that were literally crumbling.)
- Receipts have found a place to be kept.
- Disability has been contacted about bank account change.
- Hubby has changed deductions to Married-3 based on CPA's advice and we've requested his direct deposit to be changed.

Due Dates: Huge Relief

I pay my bills on two separate days.

Due Date: between 2nd and 15th Paid: on the second
Due Date: between 16th and 1st Paid: on the 16th

I was fretting over my BOA account and the right of setoff and paying them for March just to buy myself extra time. I always pay them on the 2nd, so therefore in my mind I only had until the 2nd. Right?

I got my account statement in the mail and saw it's not actual due until the 12th. My Capital One card due date is the 14th. Chase is the 6th, but I'm not worried about them.

HUGE relief. I will be able to get most things transferred over by the 15th. My plan is to have my name taken off the joint account and then as soon as hubby's first VA disability check hits the new account, we'll close the old one.

If the do catch me for right of set off then at least there won't be a lot of money in the account.

Which means I can use that $350 payment for something else.

YAY!

CPA Meeting

I met with our CPA on Monday. I was grateful that they had moved my appointment up by a few weeks; I needed to get our refund faster so that I can file bankruptcy.

He's worked for us since 2004 and I'm quite pleased with him. Because I used to have a corporation (not nearly as impressive as it sounds) all the possible deductions and such were overwhelming. We met him at the school during our business classes. A large part of his client list are massage therapists so he is aware of things specific to our business.

Last year we closed our business. Corporations offer some protection, but I didn't have enough business to justify all the extra fees. 2009 tax filing was partially to officially close our business at a federal level. (We'd already done so at the state level.) We also did our personal taxes.

I walked in and explained that I needed copies of our past tax returns. I have them, but they're in a box, stapled in nice little binders, and I didn't want to have to locate them, dissemble them, copy them at Kinkos, and then put them back together.

"Is this for a loan?"

"No. Um... it's for something with a lawyer."

"Something I need to know about?"

(Very meekly) "I'm thinking about filing CH7."

"You're not alone. You'd be surprised how many people I know in the same boat. How many years do you need?"

I know that the initial request will be for the previous three years and that the trustee can request previous years, so I asked for 2005 onward. He printed them up, stapled business and personal separately, paper clipped each year together, and handed me the stack. He was extremely supportive.

I had sent him an email confirming the amount that our return would cost this year. Apparently I worded it ambiguously and he misread it. He didn't realize we needed to do a final filing for the corporation this year. He was going to give me a deal by making our personal less since he had forgotten and charge the standard rate for the final return.

I bust into tears. I told him I had made sure in the email to ask. He felt bad and reassured me, told me he'd never bait and switch me, and that it was an honest mistake. He realized if he had looked further into his system it would have been clear what we needed to do this year and would have been better prepared. He took what he remembered for granted and didn't check into it.

He apologized some more and told me again he'd never do this on purpose. He told me he'd go ahead and eat the cost and just charge us for our personal return.

It feels SO AWFUL to be in a situation where an extra and unexpected $125 makes me panic and realize how close to broke we are. That's why I was crying. It was a horrible feeling.

I cried again when I found out we were getting more than we needed to file Chapter 7. My husband had about $1500 taken out over the year and we barely qualified for the earned income credit. I wasn't aware of several other credits this year and none of the online calculators I had used (probably because they were for calculating EIC) mentioned it.

Not only am I getting $1500 for the attorney, I'll have $299 for filing, and the additional funds for the before and after classes!

On top of that I'll have a couple hundred dollars extra. Not a lot, but enough to get my teeth cleaned, which I'd been putting off for awhile.

Another very important thing that I got out of this meeting was how we acknowledge my mom's presence. "Renting" is incorrect. First of all it's not a choice we'd make with the tax ramifications. Secondly, no lease of any kind exists. She is "gifting" us $500 a month. It still counts for the means test (and we still pass) but it doesn't make the sale of our home taxable, and since it's under $13,000 a year there aren't any tax penalties on the money.

Our CPA also told us that our bank (BOA) is particularly aggressive. Same thing I keep hearing from other people. I can't verbalize the weight off my shoulders it has been to know I'm no longer on my mom's account. And while I still have a huge to do list for transferring my bank account, it doesn't feel as hard as I had envisioned it.

Why Landmark?

I've chosen to open our new banking account at Landmark Bank of FL.

Why?

When I had a business I was a Chamber member and met one of the branch managers. He took me to lunch with an associate of his and we had a nice chat. They're nice people.

Over the next few years I had his personal cell number and email and could get in touch with any issues I had. They helped me out with a few things that were very stressful, mostly involving accepting credit cards as a merchant.

Because of that I'm going to give them our personal business as well.

Feeling Overwhelmed

There has to be a good way to figure out switching over bank accounts.

My fear is that I'm going to set up a payment in the account before my husband's source of income switches over.

Also, because I can no longer simply transfer mortgage money from our joint account to BOA, I'm going to have to set up a whole new bill pay regime. I guess that's true for all of our utilities and such. I hope our new bank has an easy bill pay. BOA really did a great job with that feature... I paid everything on the 2nd or 16th and it worked out great.

I'm feeling overwhelmed. I think my dry-erase board and I are going to have to have some brainstorming time this afternoon.

Several "To Do List" Items Checked Off

- Closed personal checking and savings account, transferred money to joint account.
- Got past six months of bank statements printed for those account, since I can't access them online anymore.
- Removed my name from my mom's checking and savings.
- Opened a new checking account (joint) at a different bank.

Remaining:

- Print out life insurance auto-debit authorization so I can change the account.
- Call VA and find out how to change bank accounts for disability.
- Call BCBS and find out how to change bank accounts.
- Add new account to PayPal.
- Change Netflix over to new account.
- Change account for YMCA.
- Make a list of payment addresses and account numbers to set up new Bill Pay at new bank.

We've decided that since it will take about a month for all of this to get taken care of, we're going to make one more payment to BOA so they can't utilize the right of offset to take money we need out of the account.

More Research

Well, I can't find anything definitive and of course my card and banking account agreements are...somewhere...but this is what I've found:

- Banks commonly put a "right of set off" clause in paperwork for bank accounts. This allows them the ability to take money from one account to cover another.

- This can be done even if it's a joint bank account.

- They may or may not have to give notice in order to do this.

- They can use a personal bank account to cover a business loan or vice versa.

Doesn't really seem fair, does it?

I've found out via anecdotal stories on various forums that people have had Bank of America attach their accounts and take money out.

Yikes.

So it looks like the process of changing bank accounts will start on Monday.

Yay.