Bankruptcy

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
We are filing. Anyone have any hints? How long did it take for your credit to recover?
We realize we are worse off by not filing.
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
I tried to file six years ago and couldn't afford to do it. (not joking)

Your credit will show the bankruptcy status for 7-10 years depending on the credit reporting agency.

Are you sure you can't get credit counseling for free and just restructure?

Don't have to ask - just making a suggestion.

Hugs -
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
My easy child and her husband "almost" filed around fifteen years ago. Instead they went to a consumer credit counseling agency and after five years they were back on the right road. I'm crossing fingers for you guys. DDD
 

trinityroyal

Well-Known Member
A very close friend of mine filed about 6 years ago, and was discharged 3 years ago. So, the bankruptcy will appear on his credit for 4 more years.

That said, since the day of his discharge, he has taken all of the recommended steps to rebuild his credit rating, to the point where his Beacon score is now higher than those of some people who have never filed.

He has been able to qualify for a loan and a line of credit, even with the bankruptcy still appearing on his credit rating.

PM me if you'd like more information about the steps he's been taking to recover.
 

Abbey

Spork Queen
Speaking of experience, sadly so, once you file and get discharged...you get more credit opportunities than you could imagine. I was amazed. *I* didn't take advantage of them, but some unknown person in my household did.

Laws are more tough now. I did it on my own...no lawyer. I'm not sure I'd do that again in this day in age.

Abbey
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
There's no way we can pay. Credit counselors won't take us...lol. We don't make enough to pay anyone back. We just want to be free of the creditors. We hung on for many years, but it won't work any longer. They keep adding fees and stuff.
We'll never accept any credit cards. We only use reloadables. There is no way we would bite the credit card bait again. That wasn't our main problem though. We had a slumlord (everyone knows about them out here) put a judgment on us and a Catholic School that gave our kids a scholarship changed hands and suddenly started billing us AFTER the kids had pulled out. We tried talking to them and telling them the circumstances, but they already have us in collections and Judgement #2. Then we have two credit cards, which we could pay off if not for the Judgments.
We need to get everything clear. If hub made more they could garnish our wages.
I'm shocked at the lies landlords can tell to get judgements and I'm MORE shocked at the Catholic School.
We have to do something. I'm stressed out over all this.
 

trinityroyal

Well-Known Member
MWM, when you get pushed to the wall, sometimes it's the only choice. As you say, it gets you out from under the creditors and clears the slate so that you have some time to recoup.

If you're not planning on applying for loans or credit, then the usual downsides of bankruptcy will not affect you as badly as they might do for someone else.

If it's the only way out of the hole, then it sounds like it's the right decision for your family.

Sending {{{hugs}}}
Even if it's the right decision, it's sure not an easy one.

Trinity
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
We are renting and like our house. We have a three year lease and it's a lovely place that allows us to keep our furbabies. Hub and I don't really want to own another home. We are in our 50's. We don't want to pay mortgage forever. One day I will inherit some money from Dad (hope it's far in the future, but he's 85--still healthy though!). When he passes (and again I hope it's in ten years) we will probably have enough to buy a double wide if we want one or just buy an RV and travel, if that's what we want to do. We buy old cars in cash. Hub is a mechanic. We never spend more than $1500 in cars :D. Because we are low income, kids will get help for post-school ed. It's the people who are in between who get screwed and I so feel for them. If you're rich enough or poor enough there is help. We are poor enough, but we live in an area where our "poor" income still allows us to live in a nice house, in an area with almost no crime, and good schools. I feel for those caught in between.
Heck, we may even get our judicial costs covered by something called "Judicare" for people who make in between $27,000 and $41,000. YOu have to be able to pay something, so you can't have NO money, but you don't have to pay much. Most of it is covered.
We were told we don't make enough to pay off our debts so we're not going to sweat it. I just wondered how it went for others. Thanks for all responses!
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Didn't read the other responses.

husband and I've went bankrupt twice. Both the type you don't have to pay back. (couldn't have even if we wanted, medical bills out of this world) Didn't hurt us except for credit cards and loans. Period. Lasted 7 yrs on the nose each time.

I'm not sure, but I heard all bankruptcies have to be paid back now??? Don't know if that's just here or what.

Actually, I'll take it back on the loans and such. Because the last time we filed was while K was here. Taking her on put us in a major hole we couldn't climb out of. And I bought the house 3 yrs later. With a huge downpayment. Plus paid off any and all depts not written off in the bankruptcy. And we even got credit cards. (big mistake)

Guess it just depends on how you manage after the bankruptcy. We kept our dept at zero. Those I had to pay off to get the loan for the house was because stupid husband did not put all the bills into the bankruptcy. ugh So I had to pay them to get the loan.

Make sure you get every single bill you owe on the paperwork. Do NOT leave anything out. If there is one or two you want/need to pay.....you can make a side arrangement with them to go ahead and pay it.

Hugs
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
I filed about 20 years ago, was living with a crazy man who managed to get "us" a bunch of credit, and when I left, I found I had debts up the ying yang. I didn't have to pay anything back, and was able to rebuild my credit fairly quickly. Hubby and I looked into it after we'd been basically living on credit cards while we were both out of work, but decided we didn't want to risk losing the house, since the rules had changed so much.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Thanks. We couldn't pay back our credit if we stopped eating. Every time we thought we had a plan, we'd get hit with late fees that upped the ante to the point where we would really have to stop eating to pay it back.

No, because of our income level we don't qualify for Chapter 13. Believe it or not, some don't. If you, in the court's mind, can't pay it back, you aren't allowed to file Chapter 13.

For us it will be a clean slate, but that doesn't mean it's not stressful. We had two credit cards too that we planned on making double payments on to catch up (Hub was out of work for two months, and it wasn't a Workman's Comp so all we had was his palsy unemployment). When we tried to pay it back, we were informed that there were "late fees." They were astronomical so the cards never did get paid in full and the late fees snowballed, and you all know the rest. The Judgements were insane. One landlord puts judgements on everyone and hopes they stick (we didn't know this when we rented from them). They are truly scummy people. Right now they are fighting a move by the humane society to an area close to their rental homes (and they must own 200). They are afraid of "pet smell" and what it will do to their tenants (most who love pets). Since they have so much money, they are influential. They were horrible landlords. They used to come to our rental house all the time because they had lived there at one time and the old man liked to putter around the property so we had no privacy. Certain days he's wake us at 7am working on the deck. Or we'd see him and his son riding around the property to cut trees for firewood. I wanted to strip and do housework in the nude because Larry the Landlord was ALWAYS so close to the house, he almost had his face pressed to the window. WHen they put us on month-to-month, we gave notice and moved and they put a Judgement on us claiming the house was a mess and they had to clean it. ????--we had spent a month cleaning it.
Then we got a judgement by a Catholic School. The nun there had promised us scholarships for our kids, whom she loved. She said there are always monies put aside for less fortunate kids so that they could go to Catholic school and not to worry about the fee. We sent them for three years and nobody asked for a dime. A few years later, long after the kids were gone, the school changed hands and decided we had to pay them back in full for both kids, full tuition, so, yep, another Judgement. When we talk to the school they say, "Too late. It's already at the collection agency." And you know the collection agency won't bargain. So the late fees accumulate and I hope God is watching this Catholic School because we never would have sent the kids if we'd had to pay more than what we could afford (which we did).
All in all, we have a mess.
The school has threatened to garnish hub's wages, but they can't because he doesn't make enough, but with my anxiety problems, it is making me a nervous wreck and I just want it to go away.
Thanks for all advice. I wish we COULD use a credit counselor, but they all say we don't make enough to pay our debt so they advise bankruptcy.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
MWM, sounds like you guys are really in between a rock and a hard place on this one. 1996, I filed. In 2004 I still could not get a car loan at all, even as cosigner, so the car is in my name and the loan in my Dad's - but it is showing up on my credit report.

I didn't get a ton of card offers. I may be the only person on the planet that doesn't.

Anyway when it dropped off my report in 2006 my credit rating jumped. It's now in the high 700s. Due to keeping current on bills since 1996. I have had 2 late payments since then and both were before 2003. So they don't even show up.

It's good to hear about the "cheap" cars. They wanted to take mine! I was ready though, at the time I had a car where the KBB was $350.

Good luck - I understand very much. But I think you're headed right. Oh, one last thing - keep renting - you will be able to get housing at least! The rental people tend to look at that history above your credit.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
We WANT to keep renting for now.
And we have a good record on payment.

Landlords don't expect tenants to have good credit. That hasn't really been an issue. And this house is fantastic!!!

Not sure we want to get a mortgage anymore at our ages. If we inherit money, maybe we'll buy something, cash down-- --there is a beautiful park near where we live and they do drug checks and child abuse checks before allowing anyone to buy there. Nice community--well kept up.

But I have a yen for an RV so we can travel.

I won't feel bad about not paying the slumlords, as they are known here as lying &%$# or the Catholic School. Not sure why THEY decided to suddenly decide we had to pay, but they aren't getting paid.

And we have been very careful about our credit since then. We will get an secured credit card and build credit slowly and pay all our bills on time. As for car loans, I don't think we'll ever need one. We always buy ten year old cars. I don't care about new, fancy cars. As long as they run, I'm good :D.

Again, it's those in the middle, who make too much to get help but don't make enough to, say, buy health insurance, that I feel sorry for. We can actually make it because we can get help. But those in the middle can't. And they suffer the most. Sadly, we try hard NOT to make more because we don't want to lose our health insurance that we'd never be able to afford if we made to much to be kicked off of Medicaid. It's called "playing the game." I never thought I'd do it, but ya gotta survive. And it's not easy.
 
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