anyboby filed for bankruptcy before...

[1zq82NV]

what is the process? does it take awhile? i might have to if it really comes down to it my bills are getting outta hand so any help would be appreciated

[Imperial]

Beg, borrow and steal man; bankruptcy isn't as easy as it used to be.

[98layinframe]

yeah i believe in most areas you still have to pay a good portion of your debt back ever after ya lose the shit.

[1zq82NV]

Quote: Originally Posted by Imperial

Beg, borrow and steal man; bankruptcy isn't as easy as it used to be.

how is it nowdays

[snoplow]

a buddy of mine did last year u just get a lawyer and give him cash and he gets it goin it does take a bit of time, cause u gotta go through counsiling, and let the statetreat u like a dick bag for a while then they take all the shit u included in ur lawsuit and ur debit free on that front. its a bit of a pain in the ass, but like everything else, if it was easy everyone would do it!

[1zq82NV]

i mean its been a while i been behind and its not getting easier

[1zq82NV]

i mean i dont wanna take that route or i can pay what i can untill ppl start with the collection calls ...right?

[Imperial]

Start by selling what you can to make ends meet (truck would be where I'd start); stuff is just stuff and you can always get more, bankruptcy stays on your credit for 7 years and pretty much cockblocks you on anything.

[1zq82NV]

yeah and ride my bike 30 min to work ... wont do it

[roboticsguy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Imperial

bankruptcy stays on your credit for 7 years and pretty much cockblocks you on anything.

Partially true (boldfaced part). It depends upon which type of bankruptcy you take. For personal bankruptcies, there's Chapter 7 (full liquidation of debt, no payback) and Chapter 13 (debt adjustment plan, partial payback). Unless you are completely destitute and have little income, you'll likely have to file under Chapter 13.

Chapter 7 - stays on your credit for 10 years.
Chapter 13 - stays on your credit for 7 years.

Stuff can be replaced. Been there, done that. Let it go, swallow your pride, do what you have to do to get by until this period in your life is over. You'll come out miles ahead.

[gameloader]

Quote: Originally Posted by 1zq82NV

yeah and ride my bike 30 min to work ... wont do it

a 30 min bike ride aint shit... come on man..... maybe sell the truck and bye something ALOT cheaper? say you sell the truck for ~7 grand buy some for 3 grand and you got 4 grand to pay bills

[UncaDanno]

Been there. Back when I was a grunt in Uncle Sam's School for Boys. Yes, legally it stays on your credit report for 7 to 10. In actuality, it haunts you for long after that.
It can age off the Big Three's reports, but not from a local or regional credit report. When the local or regional "syncs up" with the big three, the bankruptcy will legally get sent back to them and will continue to show up (since the automatic timer is no longer in effect) until you go through some major hassles to get it removed.

[nti06]

***bankruptcy will at least protect any 401k savings you have***
first place to start is with ebay. ebay anything you don't want or won't ever use again that you can possibly sell. get rid of your house phone or cell phone and drastically reduce your plan, and talk faster. leave your lights off, get bunny ears and ditch the cable/satellite/highspeed internet. sell your body to desperate, single, cougars/milfs.
anything you can do to reduce your living expenses. cancel all credit cards. ALL OF THEM!! they are the devil!!
If you have any balances less than $300, pay those off first. eliminate some small fry pirannahs cards then start stabbing the big sharks.

[snapdaddy]

DONT DO IT it not worth it like everyone above has beed saying, it will stay with you for ever and youll never have good credit again, sell what you can to get by

[gameloader]

i really wish i could edit my above post... i just relized i spelled like a million words wrong... ha

[roboticsguy]

Quote: Originally Posted by gameloader

i really wish i could edit my above post... i just relized i spelled like a million words wrong... ha

You have 30 minutes from the time you post it to edit it. Click on "Edit Post" in the post you are referring to. Worst case scenario? It won't let you edit it. Try it.

[draggindime96]

i did it before all the new laws took in affect. it suck ass takes a whaile to get credit back goin but like said above it will f@ck you in the long run.sell out man.you be better off

[skittles]

do whatever you can to get away from bankruptcy.. sell the truck, sell sex favors, sell anything...

[wagonproject]

Yeah like roboticsguy said chapter 7 is total liquidation, you may be able to keep a vehicle or house but your debt is totally wiped out...but stays on your record for 10 years....but a judge may put you out on the streets. Chapter 13 your debts and attorneys fees are rolled into a repayment plan that has to be approved by a judge. Its also a pain in the ass because they need any and all financial information to do a "meas test" to see on whether you can even file ch 7 (you have to make under a certain amount to do it anyways). Also one of the key things is to make sure you know what you owe to the cent. A lot of people just hand paperwork over to their bankruptcy lawyers and let them do their thing without following up. It is an expensive and emotionally draining process. I wouldn't do it unless you are so far out. I see in your sig. you got irocs? Sell them man. You've got to stop making it worse and start paying shit back, if that means sell stuff and you live with little then do it. Its a lot better then filling.

[Chris0nllyn]

best thing you can do is call the companies you're paying and ask if they can work out something....paying something is better than not paying anything

[TripleZero]

Listen to everyone. Don't do it. I did it back in 04 and have regretted it ever since. It's a nice relief at first. After that it's hell.

[Rhotpursuit]

Best advise I can give is DON'T.....Find a way to listen to Dave Ramsey...XM 165 1200-1600. www.daveramsey.com He has the abosolute best advise on money. I am on baby step 2 (you'll see what that is) and should be debt free by this time next year (approx 24K) bankruptcy doesn't cover everything such as student loans. As far as the credit cards go, if you are already behind your credit is probably trashed anyway, and no worse than a bankruptcy, don't worry about them. They won't get around to suing you for 2-3 years. When you get the "We're coming after you" letters, that's the time to call them or the collectors who probably paid 10-20 cents on the dollar for your paper. Make them an offer of half the owed amount. They will probably take it. If they agree, get it in writing, use a moneyorder and keep it forever. Under NO circumstances give them electronic access to your bank account. Get a copy of The Total Money Makeover. It is very inspiring....how bad do you want to be debt free???

[LiquidFusion]

What you can do to save money on the filing (should you plan to do it) is get the papers yourself and fill them out. It isn't really hard ,it's just writing down what you own as far as property (vehicle, house etc). My dad does that for his clients, and it really isn't worth a shitload of money. Afterwards, your cc companies will call your lawyer's office and just confirm that you have filed. The Credit Counseling seems pretty easy and equals up to I believe $50 here total for BOTH classes. One is during the process so you can file, and one is right after you file. I've never had to file, and I really would rather sell my soul than leave that on my record even though I owe over $6000 to HSBC for an auto loan. If you have questions, give me a PM.

[Terracoma]

The real question is, just what kind of money troubles are you in that would require filing for bankruptcy...?

[roboticsguy]

Quote: Originally Posted by snapdaddy

DONT DO IT it not worth it like everyone above has beed saying, it will stay with you for ever and youll never have good credit again, sell what you can to get by

Ok, I'm going to throw it all out there...Yes, I filed a chapter 7 bankruptcy in September 1998. It really didn't affect me too much after 3 years. Do I regret it? Not really. Considering my position in life at the time, I didn't have much of a choice. I don't want to hear a bunch of you pretentious jackasses telling me I could have gone a different route, should've done this, should've done that. I'm not proud of the fact that I had to file, but at the time, it was the most sensible choice for me, and THERE WERE NO ALTERNATIVES. I had nobody to borrow money from, I got laid off from not one, not two, but THREE jobs in 6 months (One business went belly-up, one got bought out and relocated to Tennessee, and the last one I got elminated after one week of working because the company downsized), and the ONLY job I could find at the time was selling tools at Sears, which paid me less than $200 a week working full time. Once I was able to afford to move, I did and that was the best thing I could have done, but at the time moving was NOT an option. It takes money to move, obviously I had none. I wasn't heavily in debt at the time, though, but I did have a vehicle repossessed to the tune of $16,000. Had I not filed, my wages would have gotten garnished, then I would have been ROYALLY screwed. Seriously though, $16,000 is NOT worth filing on. It wasn't worth filing on 10 years ago, and it sure as hell isn't worth filing on now.

As far as credit goes, after 5 years my credit score was back up in the mid 600's, and I have the credit reports from 2003 to prove it. In Februrary of next year, the bankruptcy will be off my credit report entirely. I'm aware that my credit score WILL drop some, but as it sits right now my credit score is 696. So for you to say that "you'll never have good credit again" is utter bullshit. How you manage your money AFTER the bankruptcy will dictate how your credit reacts. The problem is, people do NOT learn from their mistakes and end up repeating past behaviors that landed them in bankruptcy court in the first place.

Having said that, let me crystal clear when I say this: If you can avoid bankruptcy, by all means AVOID it. Bankruptcy proceedings are public record, and you WILL get your name and all bankruptcy information published in the newspaper. Since this is the age of the internet, anyone that google's your name will be able to find out about it. I found it to be a very humiliating experience and is not something I EVER want to experience again.

Please....listen to what Rhotpursuit has to say about Dave Ramsey. I've learned a LOT from that guy. He's very practical and takes a common sense approach to eliminating debt, which is obviously what you need to do.

[UncaDanno]

Consumer Credit Counseling Service.

Part of the United Way. About five years after I got out of the Army, first wife and her medical bills got us into a really deep pit.
Went to the CCCS at the United Way and got assigned a counselor who was really thorough and tough as nails. His first and middle names were Angus MacFergus. What does that tell you?

Anyway, he set us up on a plan to pay off all debt. The budget, by the way, included monthly entertainment and "blow money" amounts. He wrote letters to all creditors and, after the first two months, we never heard from them directly again. I wrote one monthly check to CCCS and Angus took care of the rest.

Took more than just a couple of years, but I finally paid everything off and my credit score started improving after just the first four months of starting the plan.

[LiquidFusion]

Wow, robotics. Glad you pulled through, man.

[roboticsguy]

Thanks, man. That was a BAD period of my life. I had just gotten divorced from my wife and that 12 month period following that was ROUGH. I prefer to think of that as the time of my life where I found out just exactly what I was made of. I survived. Many of my friends who knew me back then will still tell you to this day that they have no idea how I managed to get through it all by myself. I refuse to fall down. Flat out.

[Hucko]

get your shit together and pay your bills.

Here is how you get started (if your smart you'd follow this):


Before reading, get rid of attitude that I NEED that, you don't ****ing need it (because you cannot handle it and being backed up by bills prooves it), straight up. Addicted to something? tough shit, it ends now.

moving forward.

1. 100% Stop buying fast food and start making your own.
2. Stop buying booze, smokes and drugs.
3. Stop buying random shit and toys, no you don't need that dvd or what not.
4. $1 is a big deal, the whole excuse that its only $1 or 50cents, adds up quick.
5. Stop buying anything from a vending machine or gas station, welcome to the world of bulk.
6. Sell off a lot of stuff to put towards bills (you cannot afford to have them)
- Video game machines
- LCD TV or plamsa if you have it
- Drop cable TV and drop the internet down to 0 or very little.
- Drop down the cell phone to a cheaper plan, no texting, no data plan.
- And random stuff, that you do not need.

Again - you had your chance to own these things, you apparently got carried away and now you've ****ed everything up, so... you pretty much do not deserve anything of the items above. You prooved you cannot handle it.

Even if you had other things happen to you caused this debt and it was not careless spending, tough shit. You have a duty to get this stuff taking care of and pay your debts.


Now, once you've made the big cuts if your life, you should have freed up money to pay said bills

Now you need to make calls to the places that you owe money and work out a payment plan with them.

To recap things you don't need are things like TV, movies, big internet, data plans, texting plans, things like that. They should be willing to help if you've missed an entire payment or two.

most importantly, you do not buy anything new unless its soap for your body or somethign that is actually needed and its time you used the cheap shit and shopped at the cheap places to save money.

No new expensive clothes, etc.

I hope you actually pay attention to this and follow it.

[roboticsguy]

Well said, Hucko. Covered it all.

[1zq82NV]

thanks for all the input guys... i'm staying away from filing and paying the bills that i can even if that means i have to go in the hole with some... encourageing(sp) shit you guys thanks