Avoid the pitfalls
Hello to all. My wife and I recently came out of Chapter 13 after 3 years (old rules). Hooray! And while I only came on this forum a few months ago, I would like to share a few things we have learned and a few thoughts I had on the forums I have been reading. This may take a few posts so I don't bore you all to death.
1. Do not have anything to do with any debt reduction service, credit card help etc. They are all in cahoots with the credit cards, at best, and at worst they are scams. The best help you have is U. S. Bankruptcy law and a good lawyer.
2. I would not attempt to file a BK on my own. Get a good lawyer. If you have to, hold off paying your bills until you have enough money to afford it. The adage" The person that represents himself has a fool for a client" is never truer than in Bankruptcy. My apologies to all who have done it and made it through, for almost everybody this is a bad idea.
3. I am really sad when I see the posts of people showing their credit scores and the new credit they have obtained. It's your life, but man the biggest lesson we learned over these years has been you need very, very little credit in your life. A house, a reliable car, sure. But a good savings account is your best friend, not a credit card. And please, no replies that you are a business person and need your credit card for travel, etc. I traveled all over the country on a debit card. If you look around, they will accept them.
4. The trustee is no friend of yours, nor is their staff. They are there for two reasons. One, to represent the credit card companies to make sure you are not going to cheat them out of one red cent, even though they have quite happily done that to you for years. The other is to collect your payments and distribute them to creditors. That's it. Your lawyer is your best friend in BK, if you get a good one.
5. The meeting with creditors is not as bad as you think it is. Ours was held in a hearing room in the federal court house. Now, it was designed to make you feel bad for being a scum person filing bankruptcy. Everbody filing, about 40 people, were all in the room and had to testify in front of everybody. So there was a big embarrasement factor. But the questions were not hard, and the person taking the info was not rude. There were some filings of up to a million dollars in our bunch, but not one creditor in the bunch.
I'll end it here, but I will be back. Good luck to all of you, especially the one filing under the new Chapter 13 law. It was damn hard before. Now it is worse.
1. Do not have anything to do with any debt reduction service, credit card help etc. They are all in cahoots with the credit cards, at best, and at worst they are scams. The best help you have is U. S. Bankruptcy law and a good lawyer.
2. I would not attempt to file a BK on my own. Get a good lawyer. If you have to, hold off paying your bills until you have enough money to afford it. The adage" The person that represents himself has a fool for a client" is never truer than in Bankruptcy. My apologies to all who have done it and made it through, for almost everybody this is a bad idea.
3. I am really sad when I see the posts of people showing their credit scores and the new credit they have obtained. It's your life, but man the biggest lesson we learned over these years has been you need very, very little credit in your life. A house, a reliable car, sure. But a good savings account is your best friend, not a credit card. And please, no replies that you are a business person and need your credit card for travel, etc. I traveled all over the country on a debit card. If you look around, they will accept them.
4. The trustee is no friend of yours, nor is their staff. They are there for two reasons. One, to represent the credit card companies to make sure you are not going to cheat them out of one red cent, even though they have quite happily done that to you for years. The other is to collect your payments and distribute them to creditors. That's it. Your lawyer is your best friend in BK, if you get a good one.
5. The meeting with creditors is not as bad as you think it is. Ours was held in a hearing room in the federal court house. Now, it was designed to make you feel bad for being a scum person filing bankruptcy. Everbody filing, about 40 people, were all in the room and had to testify in front of everybody. So there was a big embarrasement factor. But the questions were not hard, and the person taking the info was not rude. There were some filings of up to a million dollars in our bunch, but not one creditor in the bunch.
I'll end it here, but I will be back. Good luck to all of you, especially the one filing under the new Chapter 13 law. It was damn hard before. Now it is worse.
- Date Closed
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