New Jersey Story

[tobee43]

is your attorney from nj??? if so, you have your answer.

[robger99]

I am significantly over mileage on my lease and am looking at about a $2500.00 charge at the end of the lease in 18 months. So I can not reaffirm the lease and they will continue to allow me to drive it if i make the payments? I wonder why my attorney never mentioned this as I told him about the overmileage issue.

[tobee43]

no thanks!1 LOL!! i will never set foot in nj again...ever!

[cchamberlin8]

I can't saw enough about how great my attny was. If anyone in norther jersey wants a reference I would highly recommend him.

[tobee43]

well...most likely you would not be able to go bankrupt in nj...they are so terrible....

however, in nj, as in all states you have the choice to go either "state" or "federal" bankrupt....using one or the other's guidelines....in your case i figured it had to be federal.

and you also lucked out getting a "good" attorney in nj...since they are really crooks there.

[cchamberlin8]

I filed through the federal bk court. My lawyer never mentioned any other options and I've never heard of someone filing only at the state level, but there is a lot I don't know.

All my debt combined basically equaled by gross annual income. I did pass the means test.

[tobee43]

did you go federal in nj .....or nj bk...because we were from nj and relocated for the reason that nj is a creditor state...terrible to those debtors.....

we could file federally in any state so why stay there we thought...we couldn't afford it any longer.

yes, you r indeed a lucky one....however, you mention nothing clearly about what your income to debt ratio ...or how you did on your means test etc...if you were within the guidelines then it should have proceeded just perfectly!! which apparently it did!!

congrats to you!

[cchamberlin8]

Chapter 7.. sorry I saw my typo there.. I just changed it.

[tobee43]

i'm confused...did you go chapter 7 or 13???

[cchamberlin8]

I'll keep this brief. I got a lot of information off of this board most of it usually at times when I knew I was being totally irrational and worrying unnecessarily, but nonetheless this was very helpful to me. I had a hard time finding information about NJ specifically so I wanted to just post my story and experience here so that if someone else is in NJ going through this, this may help them. Feel free to reach out to me directly too.

Anyway, I basically found myself in a situation where I was completely over my head in credit card debt for a number of reasons. I was keeping afloat, never late or missed any payments, but I was struggling. I had a long term relationship end that caused me to move back with my parents temporarily which helped me be able to not be late or miss any payments. After living home for a few months I realized that with my debt load, I would never be able to get back out on my own unless I did something to tackle my debt. In total I owed about 65K in unsecured debt and 20K in student loans. I also have a few loans against my pension. Knowing that my pension loans and student loan payments had to continue, I realized that bankruptcy was really my only option to get out from under this rock and begin again.

I moved very quickly. I met with my attorney at the very beginning of April and filed on April 29, 2010. I was over the median but with some help from my attorney I was able to file a chapter 7. It was not a clear cut case and I think had the trustee looked hard enough or an audit occurred I would have been converted to a 13, but I made it through.

I have a car lease with VW that I surrendered through this process. I have continued to make my payments and they continue to send me a statement. This is ideal for me because I am significantly over the mileage and would have to pay a fortune at the end of the lease. Now I just give them the car and walk away with no liability.

I had my 341 mid June, 2010 and it was painless. A few basic questions but that's all. My attorney was also served as a trustee so he was very good friends with the trustee overseeing my case. I can only assume that helped a little.

The last day for objections was August 10, 2010 and I received my discharge on August 13, 2010.

Overall, a very smooth process. My credit score at the time of filing was around 730; I don't know what it is now, but I know it's lower. A week prior to discharge I started to receive offers for new credit cards from capital one. no annual fee, 0% APR for 6 months. I haven't applied, but it made me feel a little better about potential credit after bankruptcy.

If I can help anyone else, I'd love to do so.