Scared

[willbfree]

Your cc companies will begin telephoning within a week or two of missing your first payment. Even with a spotless payment history it was extremely quick when the companies started calling with payment reminders. The early calls were autocalls and didn't have a person. Within the time period of missing that second payment there were humans on the phone. Understand the time period of missing that second payment you will be contacted at least every fourth day by each of your creditors. The telephone harassment arrives quickly once you miss that second payment.

[chad9162]

one question remains...2 of the ccs that i have used in the past 30 days, only have $150.00 balance on each of them, would i be screwing myself to just pay those off? It would be 2 less creditors trying to claim abuse for the cards

I don't think paying off small amount cards would really benefit you. I doubt they'd spend the money to prove abuse for such a small amount of money. The money would be better spent on paying your Chase and Visa (the ones with charges more than $600).

If I was you I'd meet the attorney sooner. You're just gonna drive your self nuts for two weeks not knowing. He or she will know what to do. If you can't meet the attorney sooner just wait before making financial decisions (payments to creditors) and see what they think.

Like I said before I used a a CC in March for $223. The attorney did not care. Even if the creditor wanted to dispute it, it'd cost more than the get. He also said we could negotiate.

[okiebk09]

If it were me I would just pay the minimum payment. I would not give anyone anything to use against me if possible such as preferential payments etc. Someone else can chime in here that may have more in depth advice but that is what I would do if it were me. I would pay the minimum on any card that I had charged on recently until at least three payments had been made if possible unless your attorney tells u different.

[mamaof2]

You are all so great..thanks for the advice, i already cut up the last of the ccs, and will not use anymore, one question remains...2 of the ccs that i have used in the past 30 days, only have $150.00 balance on each of them, would i be screwing myself to just pay those off? It would be 2 less creditors trying to claim abuse for the cards, then i would only have 4 to really deal with, if we went ahead and filed before the 90 days would be up.....advice please!!!

[okiebk09]

We all know the position you are in...wanting to hury and hurry so the calls don't start. Let me tell you that first you need to go into all your credit card accounts online and take off all contact infor as far as your work. Make sure all contact is thru your home phone and home email address.

Then make sure you have copies of all cc statements I would say for at least 6 months if not a year becauase once you stop payments you will not have access to your accounts online and from what I hear you won't be able to get them by calling either. Then you need to look at the cards you have recently made purchases on. Pay only the minimum on those cards for at least 2 more payments if not three. No more credit card usage because if you want to file in 90 days then you need to stop the purchases now. You want 90 days between the last usage and filing so that the trustee does not presume abuse and the creditors do not object to your discharge.

You have got to prepare mentally for the phone calls. We had capital one and they called 4 times a day at least on every number they had for us. Citicards did the same. We had a loan with Citifinanacial and let me tell you those people are the biggest rats on the face of the earth. Hope you don't have a loan with them. And this went on for 90 days. We stopped paying all cc in sept 08 and filed Jan 23rd 09. We are now 5 days from discharge and I cannot tell you how life has changed for the better since we did this. We gave up both our cars, kept our house, and were $5000.00 over median income. We also have $20,000.00 in equity in our house still that no one was interested in or could take.
So what I am telling you is there will be days where you want to tell the cc companies off but you WILL make it through this but you must be patient in filing. I was the same way you are about the phone calls at work but you know what only the banks that I had loans with called me at work. We always found some way to put them off until we filed and then never heard from them again after filing. It is best to keep researching this forum and go by what they tell you because you do not want to take a chance on your case being thrown out. Best of luck to you!!!

[inpain66]

LOL RAMAN noodles,

boy do i remember those days

I lived on them in college and now I live on them again so that I can pay my dumb student loans. Oh the irony!!!

[indy]

LOL RAMAN noodles,

boy do i remember those days

[inpain66]

I know, I made my last purchase on the cards yesterday for food and gas, I know that i may have to make some payments, and am ok with that, as long as it doesnt make it drag on longer than it already is going to. Any advice from anyone here will help me alot, as i am very scared, but have never been without heavy debt since the age of 18 (that was almost 12 years ago)

You have to STOP using cards for daily things that you need.

This is the hardest thing to do. Now that I do not have cards I realize how broke I really am. I thought I was on top of the world when I had credit and that denial is what led me here eventually.

If you have been in debt since 18 it is going to be VERY hard for you to reprogram your life. You WILL run out of money between paychecks and some weeks you may not be able to afford the food or necessities you are used to. Welcome to home hair dye, coupons, and driving around with the gas light on. The party is over. I am in the same spot you are. Ramen noodles is my new staple food

It sucks but it is reality and this is the hardest thing about bankruptcy.

[chad9162]

Yeah I don't feel since most of my debt was part of my house, fixing it up etc. Since the banks caused the housing melt down I blame them. Chase took over my WAMU CC, just missed the 1st payment....my interest is no 31.99%....banks are not your friends. The only little bit of regret I have is Bking my credit union. They always gave me credit when needed.

[indy]

as soon as you retain a lawyer (not nessessarly file) you give them that phone number and they cannot call.

some will get through the cracks and I would expect your work to get a few calls. If it is that big of an issue you may want to ask your HR dept about it.


any cc usage 90 days before file could be problem.

as far as means test go to legalconsumer.com that is the best test out there and others on this board agree. Just do a search.

I would stil pay for 3 months on those credit cards, and stop using them NOW. This at least shows you were not trying to commit fraud.

fililing before the 90 days then you might raise flags

your lawyer will advise you on what you should do.

good luck

[queenfluff]

Don't feel guilty - everyone is hurting right now because of the economy and the credit card companies are treating us unfairly by jacking our rates and adding ridiculous fees. Honestly, they don't care about you so don't feel so bad that you need to do this.

I know how you feel about the not making payments. I have not missed a cc payment in 20 years and now my first one will be missed coming up next week. I was a model customer - but do the cc's care - no way, they just jacked my rates to the sky so I can't afford to pay the minimums anymore so here I am. As far, as I see it, it is partially their faults I am doing this. I really see it as their the ones who are losing out more on this than me - sure, my life will be different afterwards but it is possible to adjust. I mean, there was a time when credit cards didn't exist (hard to imagine but it is true) so I am sure I can pull it off.

It is hard when you know you are a dependable and honest person and you feel bad to not pay your bills. I went through those feelings too and than I started learning about how deceptive and predatory the practices of the cc companies can be and that I didn't feel so bad.

Watch the movie "Maxed Out" and you won't feel so bad about stiffing the evil cc companies. (you can watch it for free online veoh.com)

My lawyer waited an extra week to file mine (at least, he was supposed to file this week - haven't gotten anything in the mail yet) just to clear a balance transfer that should have been OK but just to err on the side of caution. I guess it varies by district as someone else said, but the rule for me was that no total charges over $1000 per card for 3 months prior to filing which is why is you have used your cards recently you may have some problems. This is one of the reason why people wait because it is all about timing.

I luckily decided to do this at a good time for me - I had read online about the rules of cc use when filing (I didn't know about the amount limit though - I luckily got it just under the wire) and once I had decided that I needed to do it (It was in the back of my head as an option but I was hoping I would not have to do it) I stopped using the cards altogether. My final decision came when I didn't get a job I was interviewing for - I thought I had such an excellent shot at it and I didn't get it. There was (is) nothing else on the horizon job-wise and I knew that soon I would have no money left to my name so I started the process. I never thought it would come to this - it was really a last option for me.

I want to get mine over and done with too but honestly timing is everything if you want this to work out right. So, stop using the cards now and go and see that lawyer - he/she will be able to advise you on what to do and when to file.

[eddiep]

I know what you mean, I had no choice the first time I skipped a payment, it was the ccs or my mortgage, food and electricity. I felt guilty and scared and had not even thought of bk as an option. Funny though once I bit the bullet and said enough, I cant do this any more, I felt relieved.

I suspect your lawyer will want you to wait a little while because of the charges. Definately run all your financial decisions by your lawyer before you do anything, hopefully he is not a newbie

[mamaof2]

Thanks so much guys! Point well taken..I will listen to him (even if he tells me to wait), this whole not paying the bills thing feels so wrong, and is making my stomach just churn...but you are all right, and i dont want to mess it up, i guess i should give a little more info on the cc i have....

we have 20 cards and 1 loan that are unsecured, of those.....6 have been used within 90 days.

[beyondtherapy]

Why people are telling you to wait

I guess i just dont understand what everyone waits for, is it to come up with money to pay the lawyer...or am i missing something else? My husband and i have tossed the bk thing around now for over a year, so we know we want to do it, but i am just wondering why i am being told by everyone on here to wait, we are keeping our house, so i am not worried about that...i just want to know if i am missing something.....

i have all of my paperwork (paystubs and such) ready to go for my consol, and dont want to delay any longer....any info and advice on the waiting would be greatly appreciated

The reason people are telling you wait is multi-fold:
1) It would be prudent to give the debt time to "age." If your creditors see you are current on all debt, and you are planning on keeping your house, they will be much more likely to object/cause problems for you then if they see that you haven't paid on most or all of your outstanding debt for several months.
2) There is an automatic lookback (by the bankruptcy court/trustee...I think it's 70 days for purchases and 90 days for cash advances but I'm not positive) on your statements prior to filing bankruptcy to see if a "presumption of abuse" arises. You don't want there to be a POA. That's not a good thing. It slows down the process, could cause you headaches, causes more paperwork - and that's in the best case scenario. Worst case, it could lead to a dismissal. You don't want a dismissal, you want a discharge.

I could go on enumerating but instead I'll just tell you a quick story. I filed my C7 on April 13th 2009. I wanted to file September 1 2008. Why didn't I? Because when I met with my attorney mid August 08, he told me I absolutely NEEDED to pull back the reins, slow down, and give the process the time needed to get it done right. That meant I had to wait for my debt to age at least 6 months. Like you, when I went in for counsel I was current on all my payments. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but when taking a step like bankruptcy you need to prove that you are in a place where you really can not budget your way out of the situation, you have no other choice but to declare insolvency. If your creditors see that you've been current right up until the point when you file, it will be harder for them to justify that you truly can not creatively budget a way to pay them.

Your attorney will know what's best for your specific situation. If s/he gives the go ahead to file immediately, as long as you have been 100% truthful, transparent, and upfront about all your income and debt- about everything specific to your case- then by all means, file away. But if your atty advises otherwise, you would do well to listen.

Good luck.

BT

[chad9162]

My husband and i have tossed the bk thing around now for over a year

I think the problem is that you're new and asked a lot of "noobie" questions. So we assumed you were a noob! Also you didn't mention the fact that you've been thinking about BK for over a YEAR! That would have told us your not a NOOB! Also your concern about phone calls at work make you sound unconfident in you decision....again making you appear confused or disorganized. The majority of people here, after much thought, do not care what others might think of their BK. This feeling of embarrassment is again a Noob trait...no offense.

People are just saying don't roll out of bed tomorrow and file BK before you know all the facts and do some planning like change bank accounts if you are Bking on any accounts at your current bank.

I think you'll be find. My epiphany occured end of March and will file in May. But I've been reading and learning and asking questions so I know what I'm getting into. After read a few post here I change bank accounts within a few days ......