Now suppose you filed a Chapter 13 case. Maybe you and your spouse fell behind on your home mortgage payments and were facing a foreclosure. The filing of the Chapter 13 stops the foreclosure sale.
So what happens next? You will be required to attend a meeting of creditors about 30 days after the case is filed. At that hearing, you will usually be required to pay your first bankruptcy plan payment to the trustee. The trustee is appointment by the court to oversee your case, to collect and distribute money to your creditors, and to account to the court and to you. If you file Chapter 13 to catch up on mortgage arrears, then most of your plan payment money will be going to the mortgage company. You will also be required in a Chapter 13 to make your regularly scheduled mortgage and car loan payments as they come due.
If you successfully get your Chapter 13 plan confirmed or approved by the court, and make all of the required payments, then you could finish your case with you mortgage being current, your car loan being current, and wiping out other bills while paying little or no money on them.