How long before you filed and why?

[2bdebtfree]

I just got back from a consult with my first attorney. Before I get on with the results I would like to say thankyou for sharing your stories. It has been an immense help with my thought process and I feel for everyone here.

Wipetheslate - I feel for you also. At least with your debt gone, you won't have to worry about those snakes calling for money. I hope you are feeling well today and I'm glad you replied.



Nomore - I was in panic mode and probably stilll am. I understand. I have the same here with my husband's medical issues. Appealling SSDI's denial. My 2 teenagers. Everything. It's alot to deal with. Hang in there. As people are telling me, it will get better.

So I had my first appt. with an attorney today. I put everything on the table. How I happened upon the cash advance, got into so much debt, what I did with the money. He suggested Chapter 7.

Would have to use the state exemptions because I have $70,000 equity in my house. (Don't want to refinance because I don't want to put unsecured debt into secured like I have previously done). I am keeping my house as rents would be more than my mortgage is.

Using the states exemptions, each car has a $700 exemption. My car (2002 impala with 140,000 miles, good condition) is worth $3800 in KBB and my husbands truck (1996 Dodge Ram, 170,000 miles, poor condition) is worth $1500 in KBB. The trustee can take the equity in both vehicles. The attorney says to go to a used car dealer and have them write on their stationary how much they could sell each car for. I know I wouldn't pay $3800 for my car so if the dealer says it is worth $2000, the attorney said he can usually work with the trustee not have us pay the money to the trustee. The truck would not be able to sell at the used car lot so that one will be easy to exempt. He, also suggested that I trade my car in and buy a new one and then there will not be an equity issue. I'm not sure I can afford a car payment so he is going to make up a budget for me. If I decide not to buy a new car, then we will just work with getting the values down on my car.

My equity in my house is exempt. So that's good.

About the cash advance. I told him the circumstances and I will tell you how it got to be $9000. I got a letter in the mail from Citi. You know the ones about the 0% balance transfer for a year. Well, I called up and just wanted to take $2000 out. Just to cover my back electric bill (my electric got turned off for a back balance) and pay my cc's until my husband's disability got approved. Dumb, I know. Should have known 1st time you apply you get denied. As I was talking to the guy at Citi I said I wanted $2000. He said how about $3000? You have 12 months to pay with 0% interest blah, blah, blah. I would say yes then he would go up another $1000. This happened a few times. So it ended up being $9000. I ended up saying no to $10,000. He was very savvy, I guess you could say. So anyhow, I ended up with $9000 in my bank account. I took some money out and got the kids clothes for school, had to go to Canada for a week for a family emergency, food shopping, did a few things that needed to be done on the house, etc. No luxuries. I still have approx $3000 in the bank. Attorney said that waiting just 90 days and then file bk would be no problem. He stated that the cc companies have a sales pitch thing that they do to get you to take out more money than you wanted to. I forget what he called it. I'll have to email him to ask him. As i have no pattern in my cc history of luxuries or any fraud if the Trustee did bring it up then he would respond out the sales pitch thing. I told the attorney I would like to wait a little longer for it to age and he said 90 days would be enough. He said there should not be a problem.

He said that I could have up to $1200 in the bank to file. I would have to spend down what I have in the bank. I asked if I could use the money in the bank to pay him and he said yes. There would be no problem. I just have to spend it down on necessities.

I have a 1985? 19ft boat in the yard with a broken motor. Haven't used it in three years since getting towed out of the ocean. I don't car about that so if the Trustee wants it he can have it. We will take pics of it to show if brought up.

He told me if I retain him and file in November than I should stop paying the cc's now. Since I'm current on all cc's once (if) I retain him then I shouldn't really get any phone calls since he will have sent a letter I am filing to all creditors.

He also said to not play the blame game which I was told on here to do the same. It makes sense not to. Me and my husband are both a part of it. It was just easier for me to accept where we are financially by blaming him. Stupid, huh??

Since I already have a small tax refund that should not be a problem either. I already have the least taxes taken out of my check so I can't change it to take even less out as I would have to pay next year. I usually get less than $2000 federal back each year.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know what happened at my first attorney meeting. I have to still check a couple more out. I feel pretty comfortable with him. I asked a lot of questions and he answered each and everyone of them. I was in his office for about 2 1/2 hours. I think that was a lot of time for a free consult. There was no pressure to sign the contract.

Before I even sign the contract he is going to have a budget set up for me. All utilites, food, gas, entertainment, etc. Then I can get a good financial picture to see if I could possibly buy a car. What I have money for.

In my mind, I'm so caught up in the cc payments and keeping the utilities on that I don't have a really good concept of how much money I actually have for things. I think someone else looking at it might be a good thing for me where my mind is still in panic mode and not really thinking clearly. Soon I hope.

I think this is long enough. Thank you all for your posts. I've been reading and will continue to read. It has been very helpful to me. I hope that maybe my thread will ease someone's mind to bk. Thank you again and good luck to all!!

[tobee43]

Sadly, I do not see Congress making any changes.

The reality is that our government is being run by 10 Big Banks who have bought off Congress and the White House (no matter who the President is.)

yeah gman...but i bet you it got Obama another 4 years with the banks now in his pocket....ahhhhhhhh ....i don't want to interupt my fage and honey lunch... with bank throw-up talk!! LOl!

wipetheslate...glad to hear you are doing better. don't let this stress get to you...think happy thoughts if you can...like there is a rainbow at the end of this storm..

[wipetheslate]

wipetheslate, I feel for you. It's really upsetting that so many people in this country have the double-whammy of life-threatening illness and financial stress that makes it harder to get care or to take care of oneself at the most critical time. I had the experience of acting as a lay representative to the IRS for someone who had a terminal diagnosis a few years back and was grateful that I was able to secure "non-collectible" status for them during their final year of life -- I know that this person would not have handled it, had not handled it in the past, alone. It really does sound like you're keeping all of this in hand though. I wish you the best.

Thanks, empowered. Thankfully I have good health insurance and was able to get treatment at a top hospital, where I also had close family I could stay with.

Since I was away from home for months receiving treatment, I got to skip a lot of the creditor phone calls! I'm thankful I had already decided on bankruptcy even before I was diagnosed, so I was able to be pretty tranquilo about my financial situation. Only the timeline was altered. My work has been great about the whole situation, which has been enormously helpful as well.

[empowered]

wipetheslate, I feel for you. It's really upsetting that so many people in this country have the double-whammy of life-threatening illness and financial stress that makes it harder to get care or to take care of oneself at the most critical time. I had the experience of acting as a lay representative to the IRS for someone who had a terminal diagnosis a few years back and was grateful that I was able to secure "non-collectible" status for them during their final year of life -- I know that this person would not have handled it, had not handled it in the past, alone. It really does sound like you're keeping all of this in hand though. I wish you the best.

[wipetheslate]

I have been waiting about 9 months, and will file in late Oct/early Nov. I had intended to file earlier in the year, but found out I had cancer and had to deal with that. Found out I screwed up some state taxes when I moved mid-year several years back, and now waiting 240 days from my notice date to get those discharged.

My cancer is a bad type (even though I caught it early and my prognosis is much better than most, it's an automatic qualifier for SS disability as 'terminal'), so I'll take the opportunity to file and adversarial proceeding against my student loans, which I faithfully payed for 8+ years but recently put on forbearance because I'm not working full time while undergoing more chemo.

Trying to look on the bright side here! The thought of being completely totally debt free--for pretty much the first time in my independent adult life--in a few months is absolutely exhilarating.

Edited to add why: I've been circling the bankruptcy drain for years. Always paying my bills on time and making minimum payments. Caught in the trap of using the cc's to pay for the inevitable shortfall that would come every month. Applied for lots of jobs, hoping to find one that paid more, but non materialized. Just realized bankruptcy was really my only way out.

[ccsjoe]

So hopefully Sept 17 will be out filing date. We get 20 calls a day from cc companies (the same ones calling over and over). We don't answer their calls any more.

Hopefully no one will file against us.

nomore,

If Sept 17 or close to it will indeed be your filing date, then I wouldn't worry about anybody filing against you. Technically when they file, you have I believe 30 days or so to respond which puts you already in BK before anything happens.

Also, if you are relatively certain about the filing date, and 100% certain about filing, then you may want to pick up the phone and let the creditors know you're filing. If you have an attorney, give them his/her name and number. They don't have to stop calling you, but a lot will. Also, with your filing date so close, you don't have to worry about them moving against you legally, not enough time for them to maneuver!

[nomore008]

I wish I wasn't in panic mode. I guess I get very impulsive when things happen and the cash advance was one of those moments. Boy, did I learn my lesson.

I did the same, paniced and used those checks they put in with the bills a couple of times. The amounts were for $1500 and it was used just to pay other cc's and for food and gas. Paralegal said we had to wait 90 days after that to file. So hopefully Sept 17 will be out filing date. We get 20 calls a day from cc companies (the same ones calling over and over). We don't answer their calls any more.

I knew nothing about bk and didn't plan very well. Hopefully no one will file against us. I am just so very nervous and tense about the whole thing including my husbands injury and continuing medical problems.

[BCA2009]

We file 43 days after we decided to go the BK route, would have been quicker, but Thanksgiving snd Christmas feel inbetween and our attorneys office was closed for the holidays.

We were less than 30 days late on all of our bills except for one, and we were 60 days late on it. Only recieved one collection call during the whole process.

We had to file before our income edged up too high to qualify for chap 7.

[empowered]

cssjoe, I like the reference to the mushroom cloud next to the notation of filing in your sigblock. Apt.

[ccsjoe]

Gosh, this thread has really reminded me of how pissed off I am about this. :]

WOW...you are pissed!!!!

[empowered]

gman, I forgot to mention in my post about my creditor's refusal to give me time to become current with a payment plan, that the following year they declared themselves a bank so they could benefit as a member of that class. Additionally, in the span of time over which I was gathering materials to file bankruptcy the first time, I remember seeing some article where they were raising rates or something because, they explained, with the struggles of their debtors in the current economy, there was a dent in their profits.

I was angry enough when they just charged off my debt instead of giving me time to become current that I wrote my congressional representatives and I think I wrote the FTC or some other supposed overseeing entity as well after they said I didn't qualify for their probably bogus payment plan program. Since then, my stance has been that credit lenders should be required to provide payment plans to debtors -- that should be part of their cost of doing business in the domain of credit. It's obvious that I am not only person who has ended up with no alternative other than bankruptcy after the unreasonable demands of a creditor during a time of financial duress. And I've also come to believe that once you get to this point where interest rates are high (and wouldn't be permitted in most countries) and the amount you owe is so much that there is constant stress, you are already financially unseated and likely to eventually default under unremitting financial pressure. Hence the number of people, like me, who may begin as Chapter 13 and end up as Chapter 7 during a prolonged time of economic stress. The writing is on the wall after a certain point -- it's the tipping point.

Basically, I felt they pushed me into bankruptcy. It's a reasonable argument. And aren't they insured for their losses? So when they refuse to work with people who would prefer to pay and instead charge off these debts, aren't they protected from the financial loss themselves? Are they truly forced to raise rates when they suffer debtor losses or is that just an excuse to raise rates still more? It's almost, well, constructive default, where in the same way that the landlord forces you to get out, the lender leaves you little choice but to default.

Because of this complete refusal to work with me I was surprised when, after the dismissal of my Chapter 13 when I was unable to continue making payments into the plan, I suddenly started receiving time-sensitive "offers" from this erstwhile lender to settle my debt for something like 85% of what they felt it was now more than two years since they charged it off. It was pretty amusing that after all this time... anyway, I'd already been unemployed for months and had already started preparing to file Chapter 7 so there was little chance that after their jerking me around years before I would take them seriously when they pretend to play nice. I figure that it's pretty predictable that someone whose Chapter 13 is dismissed is likely to come back with a filing for Chapter 7, at which point they lose their hold over the debtor.

Gosh, this thread has really reminded me of how pissed off I am about this. :]

[ccsjoe]

I'm sooo nervous. I'm off to see a attorney for 1st consult. Why am I so nervous???

Thank you for your replies.

You are nervous because:

1. It makes it real, and
2. The end of the nightmare is beginning to be in sight, and
3. If you're like me, at this stage you are still wondering what if....

Go see the attorney, you'll be just fine....make sure you're comfortable with the attorney and ask lots of questions.

[2bdebtfree]

I'm sooo nervous. I'm off to see a attorney for 1st consult. Why am I so nervous???

Thank you for your replies.

[sunshinepa]

TO BE...........I too have cash advances along with balance transfers. Long story but mostly due to son losing job, supporting him and his kids with food, rent, car pyments and then nursing father with brain cancer 2 years. After he died, I went on a "gambling spree" with advances over a 3 mo. period. I know, I know.......stupid. But unless you have spent 48 hrs a day for 11 mos. taking care of someone you love who lived with you for 6 years, I guess you can't really describe what happens. I guess in reality, it was that many hours a day but when they are helpless, it seems like it. For me, I could not stand to be in my house for months after my dad died...........so would spend mights at a casino.instead of crying my heart out......big mistake.

Anyway, I paid on all the cards for 7 months, just missed my first payments this month and they are calling like crazy. Most of the large cash advances were money I sent to my son over an 18 month period and then about 5 k gamgling.............UGH! (I have not and will not talk to any of them, ignore the calls so not sure what will happen. I plan on interviewing attorneys in September although a forum member gave me 3 good names. Then I will save the money and hopefully file in Dec, Jan or Feb.

I really am hoping for FEB as that will have aged the major advances for at least 12 months. If I get lawsuits, I will file sooner.......hope not.

Anyway, stop paying, save for your attorney and stockpile stuff. Most of all, hang on in this forum.........so many great folks here with info and support!

Sunshine.

[tod183]

It took us about 11 months after having stopped paying our cards. We were hoping to keep the car we were making payments on. However, we never had money left after paying rent, utilities, car payment, insurance, daycare, groceries, gas, etc. I think I came to my senses about two months before I told my wife. We were way upside down on the car (worth about $6,500 and owe about $14,000), and the payments were too high (about $380). After I discussed it with my wife, we decided we'd quit making payments on the car and use that money to pay the attorney. Once we turn the car over, we'll carpool in the other, much older, but completely paid for car...

As of now, we still have both cars and have paid about half of what we owe the attorney. They let us file still, but said it needed to be paid off by the discharge date. The reaffirmation papers came in to the attorney's office yesterday, and I verified today that we are not keeping the car. I wonder how long we'll get to keep using it for free... It's due for an oil change (not gonna happen under my watch!), and I'm only putting a few dollars of gas in the tank at a time. I don't want them to get my gas money too!