Suggestions on my situation??

[Alyssalove87]

Hello all,
I'm in a somewhat sticky situation which has led to me prepping to file ch 7. In late 2008 my identity was stolen (presumably by someone in my state as that's where all of the bank accts etc have been located) and I've spent the past 3+ years dealing with the mess that's currently my credit situation. I went from a pretty solid mid-700's credit score to my current score of 460. Unfortunately I've filed police report after police report, ID theft reports, consulted civil attorneys and disputed with the credit agencies probably hundreds of times and I can't see messing with it anymore. I merely want out from under it.

I'm currently saddled with a car financed through Santander, my plan is to surrender the vehicle and hope I can either afford or finance a car to last me a year then finance an actual decent vehicle at a manageable interest rate. The rest of it is my own current CC debt (which would never have led me to declare BK but my attorney told me it has to be included) and roughly 20,000 dollars in random expenses.

My main concern is tracking down all of the lenders that have me listed as attached to accts with them. I receive multiple phone calls, letters and sometimes emails so I can list them all in my documentation but literally half of these creditors aren't even listed on my credit report. Any one have any experience in tracking people down? I just don't want to miss someone and have them "pop" up in a year while I'm trying to rebuild.

Also has anyone score actually gone up merely as a result of filing and getting discharged? My score is soooo far in the toilet right now it can't really get worse...

[bcohen]

Yes, filing for bankruptcy will typically improve a person's credit scores if they had already defaulted on their debts prior to filing. The reason for this is because all of the balances owed will be zeroed out, and the creditors are no longer allowed to post additional late pay/charge-off notations to your credit report.

It is an interesting question, however, if bankruptcy can be used to discharge debts which are not yours, but are in your name due to identity theft. Perhaps one of the attorneys who posts here will have some advice on that issue.

[Alyssalove87]

Well my consumer rights atty suggested the bankruptcy since I had so many junk debt buyers after me and its starting to affect everything in my life, from renting an apartment to buying a car, and I need to protect myself from the ones trying to sue me. It's crazy, I get collection calls and letters in Spanish because the initial applications were submitted in Spanish, and the response to reporting it as identity theft and my pointing out that I cannot speak Spanish is usually to hang up on me and sell the debt to another collection agency. I literally have debts that aren't mine that are on the 6th or 7th collection agency. It's impossible to deal with, ultimately after the bankruptcy my lawyer thinks I may even qualify for a new ss number since mine has been so vastly abused. I mean outside of my school loans I have my car and roughly 1200 of my own credit card debt, and then 20,000 that isn't mine and is comprised of Internet payday loans, credit cards and closed bank accts they opened and overdrew. It's literally a last resort and ill keep fighting the entries on my credit report afterwards but right now I can't have them suing me for all these random debts. And it's far cheaper to pay an atty to help me w the bankruptcy than it is to pay them to defend the lawsuits that will start popping up in these next few months. So frustrating! But I'd like to thank everyone for their posts here, it's encouraging to read that there's light at the end of the tunnel!

[TheBajan]

Alyssa,
Welcome to the forum.

I'm so sorry to hear this has happened to you. What has your atty suggested regarding the problem of attempting to notify the creditors? I know they have a right to be notified and obviously you are aware of this and are trying to deal with it but it sounds like a hit or miss impossible task.

Also, since you are being proactive about dealing with this, what steps do you need to take to get a new ss number? I would work on that asap because it almost sounds like it's the only way to stop this.