First meeting with the atty today

[downsized]

And it went better than expected. I was as prepared as I think I could have been thanks to all of the fabulous advice here. The one thing I had wrong was regarding the means. Since dh is so newly unemployed, we figured we'd have to ride this out for a few months to qualify for 7. He said he can file it with a "change of circumstance" and it would be approved for 7 and not 13. That's his recommendation since we have no leads on the job front. We got our packet and scheduled our next meeting...the filing meeting....for 2 weeks. I'm so glad we are able to get this filed soon so we can get on the road to recovery. I paid my retainer and I can pass the atty's info along, so let the collection calls start rollin' in!

[jb1231]

Congrats! I have my first meeting with attorney today as well and I'm pretty nervous.

[queenfluff]

Congrats! I have my first meeting with attorney today as well and I'm pretty nervous.

jb1231, How did you first meeting go yesterday? I hope it went well.

[jb1231]

It actually wasn't too bad. He said it appears to be a pretty cut and dry no asset case. I'll probably form a list of questions to e-mail his paralegal so that I don't screw up on the forms.

For some reason I don't feel relieved though. I'm terrified of the 341 and having the trustees be jerks (though the attorney said they aren't). Maybe I'm just being too negative. Fear of the unknown is some scary SCARY stuff.

[OhioFiler]

I did not know there were exceptions to the means test.

[OhioFiler]

It actually wasn't too bad. He said it appears to be a pretty cut and dry no asset case. I'll probably form a list of questions to e-mail his paralegal so that I don't screw up on the forms.

For some reason I don't feel relieved though. I'm terrified of the 341 and having the trustees be jerks (though the attorney said they aren't). Maybe I'm just being too negative. Fear of the unknown is some scary SCARY stuff.

That's why you hired an attorney. You don't have to be negative or fear anything unknown. He's experienced, listen to him/her.

[queenfluff]

It actually wasn't too bad. He said it appears to be a pretty cut and dry no asset case. I'll probably form a list of questions to e-mail his paralegal so that I don't screw up on the forms.

For some reason I don't feel relieved though. I'm terrified of the 341 and having the trustees be jerks (though the attorney said they aren't). Maybe I'm just being too negative. Fear of the unknown is some scary SCARY stuff.

I hear you. I am a no asset case too. Pretty easy case honestly. When I told my lawyer my story on the first meeting, he knew in a split second that I was a Chapter 7 and knew I qualified. My lawyer probably looked at my case on the first meeting and was thinking "Damn, this is an easy one!".

I am thinking the same thing you are about the 341. I am worried I will be one of those cases where the trustee will go "Forget it. I feel like making an example out of you today, so no discharge."

But honestly, I think I have seem too many movies and TV shows- you know those ones where someone is on trial for something and the lawyers makes a "deal" and they think it is a for sure thing and they get a nasty judge and he changes his mind and goes "No way - life in prison, no parole." He he.

But like OhioFiler said, I don't think it is going to be that at all. It is all routinue. I figure I will just be super pleasant to the trustees and try to be positive and honest and humble and it should be OK. I think this is really so routinue to those trustees and they have so many cases that they probably can't even remember you an hour later. It is like going to the DMV to get your license.

And if they turn out to be a jerk, so what - that is their problem. I got to worry about my butt. I know that I qualify for this - if they don't like me and they are in a crabby mood, tough for them, eh?.

[jb1231]

True. I just feel guilty on many fronts. Guilty for obtaining so much credit in the first place and then guilty for not making more of an effort after my layoff (I'm employed now). I pretty much knew a long time ago that it would come to this, but I buried my head in the sand. Plus I felt like it would take forever just trying to pay off one creditor, let alone 15 (yes, 15). I just want to make things right even if they for some reason were to change it to a 13 because of my low rent. WhatEVER. Just get it done.

[cantwait]

1st meeting with attorney

I had my first meeting with an attorney yesterday too. I have been reading this forum for a few days and believe it really helped me. Thanks everyone! It has taken us a long time to get to this point, and I never thought I would welcome it. The more I realize how much this will relieve our financial stress the more I realize it's our only hope. We've been struggeling for YEARS, but with God's help always had just enough. We've never been late with a cc payment, even though our out go is more than our income every month. My husband got informed last week that they were cutting his salary (he makes salary plus commission) which equals a 1,200 a month cut! That was our motivating factor to file now. We had seen a credit counselor in Nov. At that time our credit card payments were 900 a month. We have rarely used them since - sometimes we put gas or groceries on them, but because they keep raising our interst rate because we are over extended (NO late payment) our cc payments now are 1,200 a month! So, although we will be clearing 1200 a month off our bills, we'll still be pretty much the same as we were because of his pay cut. The big difference is now if he has a check with a large commission, we get to keep it instead of paying bills!!! I can't wait until this is over. I still have stomach churning when I think about not paying a bill, but it's slowly going away. As I said, I've been very proud of our good payment history, BUT we only had a mediocre credit score because we had too much credit. I'm thanking God that we will be able to get a fresh start and start a new crdit card free life!

[emmacat]

Hi Can't Wait,
I, too, had an excellent payment history-no late payments for the 18 years or so I've had credit cards. I was always proud of how responsible I was. I took a lot of pride in that. Like you, my credit score began to drop because my credit was maxed out, not because I made late payments. This was due to a number of factors, mostly my choice of a poverty level pay career in teaching.

It was the hardest thing for me, too, just stop paying! I was terrified. At the same time, it was very freeing.

Watching the documentary "Maxed Out" helped me a lot. I highly recommend it. I became very angry at the credit card companies. They are predatory lenders and criminals. What made me decide to finally file, was when one of my credit cards raised my interest rate from 10% to 30% FOR NO REASON (I was never late).

I realized I would never, ever be able to pay off the balances and started thinking about what I could do with all that extra money. I decided I could invest in my future instead of my past. I calculated that, minus all the interest, I had already probably paid off most of the original purchase price. That helped too.

I felt so guilty when the creditors started calling, but the dumbies didn't disable their caller i.d. So as soon as I saw "Citi" I would just unplug the phone (it goes to voice mail). Even listening to it ring made me sting with guilt! A glass of wine helps.

As soon as I filed, they stopped calling. You can't believe how good you're going to feel.

[jb1231]

I know how you feel, emmacat. For several years (before I lost my job) I was an on-time, every time payer. I felt really bad when I stopped paying, and then all the phone calls just frightened me and I figured I wouldn't be able to negotiate a plan with 15 creditors.

[cantwait]

It's kind of comforting to know I'm not alone in this. I'm still nervous about not paying the cc bills, because I haven't not paid yet. My first due date that I'll let pass is April 26th. I wish I would have met the attorney last week, because Saturday I just sent off a $193 payment to a card. Yes, that's the minimum payment on that one. I received a bill today and the min payment is $115. Last month it was $110. Nothing has been charged on it, the balance is $43 less than it was last month but the min payment still rose. I haven't used that card in a long time, and the min payment used to be $88. I too know I've paid back much more than I used plus gave them a profit, so I'm feeling a little less guilty. They really don't have much business sense. If they would have kept our interest rates in the mid teens, we would no doubt have stuck this out for many more years. They ended up pricing themselves right out of our ability to pay. We could have been life long income for them because we would have never paid them all off. I actually am glad we are pushed to this point - I can't wait to feel the freedom without the stomach churning!

[jb1231]

Cantwait, you'll be fine. I had stopped paying on most of mine (15 total) over a year ago and only one of them is just now suing me so before they even have time to send it to collections your case will be closed.

[queenfluff]

I am like you too emmacat and cantwait. In the 20 years since I have owned cc's never paid late and I always carried a balance - so the cc's companies liked me because I always had big finances charges (or so I thought they liked me - apparently they like the customers who don't pay better because they make more money off of them - I just figured this out in the last year - boy, was I blind! ).

It was funny that when I printed out my credit report for the lawyer I was like "Damn, this thing looks good!" (and it does!). It says stuff like "Closed/Never Paid Late" or "Open/Never Late". Same thing with a few past student loans I had etc. I don't know what my credit score is - that could not be so great looking because my Citibank balance is kinda high. (funny how even though I have been unemployed for the last few years - Citibank continues to raise my credit line even though I asked them not too.)

In a week in a half will be first time I will not pay. Citbank is first. I don't feel guilty about it or scared though. I feel relieved that the responsiblity to pay is gone now. No more sitting down with the calculator and my balances every month to figure out where I can balance transfer too or from so I can pay the least amount of cash on my bills possible (not because I didn't want to pay but because I was trying to stretch out what cash I had left for as long as possible in the hopes I would be landing a job soon - didnt work out like I planned so here I am.)

I am actually curious to see how it goes and what happens. It will be kinda funny to "hide out" from the calls. Weird eh? I wonder how soon they will start calling me? I plan to just turn my cell phone off (actually I may not have to even do that because that is getting shut off too!).

A bit of humor is getting me through this too. I mean, it is just money and not the end of the world. I am trying to take it with a grain of salt. I can't believe I am saying that because I am the world's biggest worrier when it comes to money but I am realizing now that alot of my worry came from worrying about paying my cc's!. I try to remind myself that there was a time when credit cards didn't even exist and people got along just fine. So, my world can go on without them in my life.

I have never had creditors call me before to try to get payment so this is new to me. I am thinking that maybe by the time they are ready to call me they will have gotten my bankruptcy notice already. Maybe I won't get any calls.

Am I supposed to just tell them I filed for bankruptcy and they won't call anymore?

[cantwait]

Thanks jb 1231. That's good to know. queenfluff, I shouldn't give advice because I haven't actually filed yet myself, but I did read on a post somewhere that you shouldn't tell the cards you're going to file bankruptcy because then they harrass you more and try to sue you until they get the notice from the court to not contact you.
emmacat- the raise in interest rates did us in too. You are right, they are predatory and crinimal. We may be financially bankrupt, but these companies are morally bankrupt. Another thing I thought of - we may end up helping the economy because if most people are like we were we only bought the bare necessities because all our money went to credit cards. After some time, we'll actually have some money to go out and buy things - in cash!