I live in Florida and have spoken with a Bankruptcy lawyer about my situation. I had excellent credit prior to a house I had up for sale being on the market for 6 months and tried to sustain two mortgages plus expenses on both houses and a lot of credit card debt, mostly used to fix up both houses.

It’s been since March 2007 that I made my last credit card payments. I took all of the 00 I received as a tax refund and paid it on 5 different cards.
I called the credit card companies and tried to set up a payment plan of some sort because I was drowning. NONE of the 5 would and acted really crappy when asked. The phone calls also bordered on harassment.
So, eating ramen noodles and peanut butter started pissing me off. If they didn’t want to work with me, then I wouldn’t work with them.
I changed my telephone number and stopped paying them.

After speaking with an attorney early this year, he stated that unless I was faced with court papers to appear, to stave off filing for bankruptcy. If I did file, it would be for Chapter 13 he stated.

I wanted a second opinion so here I am. My questions are…

If I do not file, the statue of limitations runs out in less than 2.5 years for the state of Florida. If I am not served a summons, after the SOL runs out, can they still serve me with papers?

If there is no summons or judgment, will the charge off debts stay on my record for 7 years from the last time I paid the credit card company? Or when the debt was sold to a collection agency which I think is usually a year afterwards (they all have been sold).

If the debt is sold again to another collection agency, does my time start over?

On my credit record, will there be an entry for the credit card company debt AND the collection agency?

I simply want to know when the credit card company debt and charge offs will drop from my record if I do not pay them.

Thanks for any help you can provide…
The SOL is 4 years, it will run out in 2.5 years since my last payment is what I was referring to.

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I keep reading about people and companies filing for bankruptcy these days. Particularly GM and Chrysler. What exactly happens when someone files for bankruptcy? People say that it’s something you want to avoid if at all possible, but I’ve also heard Bush say that it’s a good thing for the auto companies to do in order to reorganize their companies. Now I’m no Bush fan but there’s got to be SOME substance to what he said (maybe?) as his economic advisers are saying this is a good idea. Why does Bush say this is a good idea while many other leaders say it’s a bad idea?

I’ve also read comments from "regular" people who say that the Big Three should be left to go bankrupt and clean up their own mess. But that this would cause tons of people to lose their jobs.

I’ve looked up the dictionary definition of bankruptcy as well as the wiki page and I’m still confused. I need someone to give me a very simple explanation about what bankruptcy is and what is going on right now in the US. Please help me understand this!

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Me and my wife after several months of financial hardships have contacted a attorney for possibly going into bankruptcy. We are current on all our bills and always have been. She had to leave her job in January and has not been able to find work since, to try and make up for this I went into a online venture which ended up me being scammed for about ,000 from a credit card I used. We lived off borrowed money and taxes but that is all gone. My question is this, I have no money…I mean no money at all. My refrigerator is broken so we have had to eat out at fast food for the past few weeks. Things are crappy and I need money to get by, however I don’t want to get into trouble for using my cards when I plan on filing for bankruptcy. Is it acceptable to use them for things such as food, clothing, gas etc… I would greatly appreciate any help you can provide. I feel bad enough for being pushed into this but don’t want to get into legal trouble if we do file. I have yet to speak to a attorney and don’t even know if I qualify. So is ok to use the cards for these things? Would be ok to use a credit card to buy a new refrigerator? or to pay to maybe get the old one fixed???? PLEASE HELP!

Thank you so much in advance!

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I am currently in the process of filing for chapter 7 bankruptcy. I have not yet had the meeting of the creditors. At the same time I am in desparate need of a new car. I spoke with my attorneys office and they told me to apply for financing before filing for bankruptcy. I have read online that the car could be taken away. I am seeking some guidance on how to go about this. I know that once the bankruptcy is filed my credit score will drop so badly that I probably will not be able to get a car loan, however on the other hand I am also afraid that once I file bankruptcy the bank will take away the new car.

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My husband is planning on filing for bankruptcy. He has student loans of about 0,000 & has already exhausted deferments. We have to prove due hardship for student loans to be considered. I have about 00 in credit card debt. My family has offered to help me pay off my debts, but i’m wondering if my debt will be considered when he attempts bankruptcy. Would it be in our benefit for me to have this debt to prove due hardship? Would my debt be covered if he did get bankruptcy, so I should save my family the $? Thanks for the feedback.

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I pay my home mortgage to American Home Mortgage and I just saw online today that they are filing for bankruptcy.

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My ex is the co-buyer on a car that was re-posessed. I am filing for bankruptcy, which means they will fall back on him. Can he take me to court to get the money from me even though I FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY? He thinks he can, I say no. What is correct? I am under the impression I am protected by the courts when I file bankruptcy.

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When I was 18 I got my self into quite a bit of consumer debt. Most of it has not been paid off and it doesn’t look like I am going to be able to deal with it anytime in the near future. I just got a call informing me that a bank has filed a civil claim for close to 00 for a credit card with a balance of 00. They haven’t found me to serve me papers yet but I’m wondering if filing for bankruptcy will help get rid of all this baggage. I have two kids now and my husband just lost his job so I legitimately do not have the means to pay of my debt. Anyways I’m not sure what my best option is.

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I am considering filing for bankruptcy due to extensive medical bills. I have a car that was totalled, but I owe ,000. I had a co-signer sign for the car. Does anyone know what happends to that person after i file?

Do I get to keep the car? The car has no value and barely drives.

Also does anyone know of inexpensive alternatives to using a bankruptcy lawyer. In california we had a legal document service called "We the People" I am residing in TX.
Can i do the paperwork myself?

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I would like to get my husband’s business name secured and him have insurance, etc so when he does side work, he is insured, etc. I am just wondering if it’s okay to go ahead and set up an LLC if I am filing for bankruptcy soon? I don’t even know if he’ll do any work under this name before we file but I just wanted to secure the name, etc. Will they frown upon this even if the business doesn’t make any money? We want to do everything we can to pick up our income since obviously (provided by the fact of filing BK) are struggling tremendously? I just don’t want creditors attacking our business? I wish I didn’t have to file BK but we are left with no other options. We can barely afford our home anymore so I can’t pay these poor people back. My husband’s pay got cut in half several months ago and there was no warning at all. We are lucky at this point that he has a job at all compared to many others out there. I am hoping this side work will help us in the end and potentially even not be able to file BK and make settlements. Sorry…that is O/T. Do you think I should go for an LLC…it costs to file it as such and has many benefits. Thank you.

Technorati Tags: bk, business name, creditors, filing for bankruptcy, insurance, job, money

CIT Group Inc. is supposed to be filing for bankruptcy… I was only wondering about what retailers and companies have holdings with the financial group so that I can be prepared to see a change in the American way of living.

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I know my best option is to talk to an attorney, but I’d like to get some pre-attorney advice on here before hand.

The big question is, should I file for bankruptcy? I am only in my early 20’s, and I made some mistakes when I was in my teens. Without getting in to the story, what I will say is that, all of my credit cards were charged off, and sent to third party collection agencies. I owe about ,000 all together.

I was told that a charge off looks horrible on your credit account, and the only way to recover from a charge off is to wait the seven years for it to wash off your report. How do seven charge offs look compared to a bankruptcy? I am still struggling to pay them off, and my monthly income is sufficient to live off of and pay things such as rent, food, utilities, and for my dependents. There is legitimately no money left over to even think about negotiating the money. I know I owe it, and I’m not denying that, but I’m trying to figure out my options from here.

What are the benefits from filing for bankruptcy VS waiting it out and paying them off later down the road?

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i am currently going thru a divore and i seem to have more money going out than i do coming in.. i even have 2 jobs and i still cant seem to get my head above all of these bills.. so i was thinkin about filing for bankruptcy.. is this a good idea? also no bank/credit union will consolidate my bills for me.. please serious answers only as this i a serious decision for me. Thanks.

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We will be filing for bankruptcy in approximately 1 month. We’ve already contacted a lawyer..we haven’t filed yet because of the holidays. We had our car repossessed last month and received a letter about the sale of it this past weekend. The car sold at auction for approximately ,000 less than we owed. Is this debt considered new debt? And could be it filed under bankruptcy? Or is there a certain "age" the debt has to be to be claimed?
p.s. We are filing in Alabama.

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I am a 21 year old male and I have been in debt for a while and no matter how many jobs I get it’s still not enough to pay my debt. As of now I am probably ,000 plus in debt which includes medical, credit, and loan debts. Is filing for bankruptcy a viable option given my situation because I would really like to start school soon. This debt is pushing some serious depression on me and every little problem I get becomes a big problem because when I have to fork out money for them I lose out on money for my debt which then set’s me back and pushes me deeper into my hole. Advice?

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I cannot afford to live in my home any longer and still have good standing credit cards and wanted to now when filing for bankruptcy if you get to keep what you want on your credit record.

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After filing for bankruptcy the sheriff follows you around to know where you live; then gets into your house with a court order to see what stuff you have to be able to sell, to pay the creditors?
what if you are renting a room in someone else’s property? And the homeowner does not give permission.

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Instead of a regular monthly bank statement can a person get a printout from their bank that just shows the account balances when filing for bankruptcy? Would this be acceptable?

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I am planning on filing for bankruptcy and need credit reports for me an my wife. I don’t want to join a credit watch program. I jst want to be able to pay and print off all the reports and be done with it.

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We are filing for bankruptcy and needed to know how long is going to take if we are applying for waivers as well? Can they touch your vehicles after filing?

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