Opinions wanted: Should I wait another month?

[jp2861]

Guys, you are trying to make bankruptcy a black and white thing when it's got a ton of gray in it. The 90-day period serves only to shift the burden of proving that you didn't make the charges already intending to file from you to your creditors. That's all.

The 90 day period isn't now and never has been a guarantee that your creditor won't file an objection. It just LESSENS the chances of an objection because the creditor has to prove in court that you did the charge knowing you weren't going to pay it back. Frankly, that's hard to do.

The more time that passes after big charges before filing, the better. If you aren't filing in a rush to stop a foreclosure or repossession, then if you can wait to file, I would wait.

I reread the post and don't see where anyone mentioned 90 days being a guarantee of anything. Where did you read that?

90 days is a number pulled out of a hat. It serves no purpose at all. The burden of proof could be shifted at any magical number the rule makers decided to put there at the time the rule was made....period. Like I said, it could be 30 days or it could be in 120 days, and it wouldn't make a difference.

[keepmine]

I reread the post and don't see where anyone mentioned 90 days being a guarantee of anything. Where did you read that?

90 days is a number pulled out of a hat. It serves no purpose at all. The burden of proof could be shifted at any magical number the rule makers decided to put there at the time the rule was made....period. Like I said, it could be 30 days or it could be in 120 days, and it wouldn't make a difference.

90/70 days is not pulled out of the hat. It's part of the bk code.

http://doney.net/bkcode/11usc0523.htm

(C)

(i) for purposes of subparagraph (A)--

(I) consumer debts owed to a single creditor and aggregating more than $500 [$500 (added by BAPCPA 10-17-05)] for luxury goods or services incurred by an individual debtor on or within 90 days before the order for relief under this title are presumed to be nondischargeable; and

(II) cash advances aggregating more than $750 [$750 (added by BAPCPA 10-17-05)] that are extensions of consumer credit under an open end credit plan obtained by an individual debtor on or within 70 days before the order for relief under this title, are presumed to be nondischargeable;

[PaKettle]

Pa - First of all, you have done this the right way - do alot of research and get yourself in position to know exactly what is ahead of you.

It has been at least 10 months now since your cash advances. If you have been making payments on these for at least 6 months, I would not worry much about objections. I know it is a scary proposition, but the creditors have to prove you did not intend to pay these back. After this much time and this many payments, that is highly, highly unlikely.

So, if you have made at least 6 minimum payments on each of these credit cards since your last cash advance, you are all set. File when you are ready. It might be easy to say 'wait as long as you can', but the sooner you get in, the sooner you get out and on with your life!

One more question for ya all:
Does waiting another month, having more accounts go to collections, make my rebuilding my credit a lot harder? That is one thing I was thinking that might make it better to file now instead of later. I don't ever want to build up to having a bunch of credit again, but I do want to have a card for emergencies and back-up for traveling. So, will having more stuff go to collections make my credit a lot worse than it is? As it is, it is not THAT bad because I have many accounts that I paid off, a long time ago, and never re-charged on so they show positive payment reports, and some accounts I closed simply because I didn't use them. So in my credit report it shows a lot of things under "Positive reports" or whatever the term is.

lrprn, yes, I am seeing that bankruptcy has TOO many gray areas, that's why I don't like this new bk law. I think in the old days it was much easier and much more cut and dried.

Boscoe, you hit the nail on the head: I want to get this thing over with and get ON with my life! However, I am not sure how many payments I made on those transfers: at least 4, maybe 6, maybe 5. So I guess I will wait another dang month!

B12, no we have no house. we're TRULY poor, a no asset case. We do have a nice new car, (Honda Civic) but even that I kinda sorta wish we didn't have to keep paying on. But we have just enough equity in it not to want to give it back, and I really don't want to drive an old posssibly unreliable car. So we'll probably keep it, just so we have nice, dependable transportation.

Thanks for all the replies. I reckon we'll just have to do some soul searching and make a decision. The attorney wasn't adamant about waiting, he just said he thought it might be a bit of insurance. I'm thinking we'll go with his feeling, and wait. But oh, man! do I hate waiting!