i just have a few questions such as when you pay the fee on chapter 7 that's all you have to pay and all the bills will be gone right?and then chapter 13 has payments ? also can you file against your house?

By Anonymous on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 11:46 am:

just thought of this one what do you tell the bill collectors when they call you do you tell them your going through with bankruptcy or not?and if not what do you tell them? we haven't been to a meeting yet but we will be going next wed.

By Missmudd on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 11:53 am:

Normally you would be able to keep your house, but this varies by state. Try looking at your local library, they usually have books specific for your state and even if you are using a lawyer it doesnt hurt to read about it and get a feel for what is going on. If you have creditors call you after the bankruptcy is submitted but not approved you tell them that you have a bankruptcy pending, give them the court number and they are not to contact you again. Make absolutely sure that you list everyone, I have heard stories of creditors coming back years after a bankruptcy because they were not notified and not given representation at your hearing. (Not that most come but it is a way for them still to possibly get their money). I know this is probably already drummed into your head, bankruptcy is BAD for your credit. If there is no possible way for you to pay your debts then bankruptcy is ok, but if it is just because you are having a hard time, sometimes just making arrangements directly with your creditors is a better way to go. GL sorry you are having these troubles.

By Karen~moderator on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 11:58 am:

Ditto Missmudd, if there is any way you can avoid a bankruptcy, I would give it a shot.

I know a lot of people are taking advantage of it before the laws change in October, but think carefully before you do.

I'm sorry things are rough for you right now - but please, check into other options before doing this.

By Missmudd on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 12:02 pm:

Oh and one more thing, taxes and child support are not dischargeable debts meaning that you can not claim them in your bankruptcy and are still 100% responsible for them.

By Mommmie on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 12:22 pm:

Yes, 7 the bills are gone and 13 you make payments. You can tell the collectors when they call they you are filing bankruptcy and sometimes they will stop bugging you and sometimes they'll try to talk you out of it by lowering the amount you owe them, either way they'll call you bad names. Ignore them.

Don't know about the house question. Do you mean you want to stay in your house and continue making payments or you want to give it up?

To reestablish credit after bankruptcy get a secured credit card where you send them $250 and you get a $500 line of credit and do good for a couple of years and it'll be converted to a regular card. Keep the limits low, of course. Change your lifestyle. That's the hard part. Live in a poorer part of town so you're not comparing yourself to folks with more money than you.

By Luvn29 on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 12:25 pm:

I deleted post because I figured the original poster has read this by now and got the info from mine that she may need, so I don't want it left up for anyone to google.

By Emily7 on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 12:45 pm:

Don't tell the bill collectors you are filing for bankruptcy until you have actually hired a lawyer & gotten it started. Your lawyer should tell you to tell them that you are filing & that if they have any questions or concerns to call him.

By Colette on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 12:50 pm:

(((anon))) no advice but I am sorry you have to consider doing this.

By Vicki on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 01:42 pm:

I am sorry that you are going through this. My dh is in the mortgage business and one thing I remember him telling me about. He had clients that went through a very hard time and got behind on lots of things. They worked their way through it, but in the mean time, they had LOTS of past dues etc on their credit report. He told me that if they had actually just filed bankruptcy when it all first happened they would have had better credit scores. Once you file and it is closed, your credit immediately starts to rebound. But these people took over 2 years to get everything all caught up and it completely distroyed their credit because it was on going for about 24 months! So while I think it was very admirable of them and the right thing to do, it really hurt them more in the long run!

By Ginny~moderator on Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 03:10 am:

If you are going to file bankruptcy, you MUST do it before October 17, when the new laws take effect. With the new laws, you will be forced into Chapter 13 unless there are really, really extraordinary circumstances. Talk to a bankruptcy attorney immediately. Only an attorney can answer your questions accurately.

By Anonymous on Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 08:38 am:

We filed bankruptcy about a year and a half ago. I won't say it was the best thing we ever did but we felt like we had no choice. You won't get rid of school loans which is the big thing that still looms over are heads. We kept our house. We just kept our payments up all the way through. We let our car go though which was fine by us. We were able to by something outright for a small amount and we now have two cars that are paid for. They are not new cars by any means but its still nice not to have to pay! Good luck whatever you decide. It really was not that bad.

By Anonymous on Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 09:16 am:

My ex and I filed bankruptcy about 9 yrs ago. For us it was the right thing to do at the time. I hated doing it and it was humiliating. But it all worked out and it felt like such a weight off our shoulders to have just the 1 pymt afterwards, house and vehicle. We had a rent house and a house we lived in. Our renter skipped town right about the time I quit working. We tried like MAD to find a new renter and then we tried like crazy to sell BOTH the houses. I began babysitting from home to try to help- but it wasnt enough money to get us CAUGHT up. I guess it worked out how it was suppose to- but boy was it a stressful yr that yr! We did end up divorced shortly after that.

Good luck!

By Bobbie~moderatr on Friday, August 19, 2005 - 01:09 am:

Your attorney will want a list of all the places you owe money to. He will then send out a letter to all of them telling them that you are filing and that you aren't to be contacted via mail, phone, etc. He will ask you which debts you wish to continue to pay if any. He will then contact those places and they will forward an agreement to him that states you won't discharge this debt and you will sign a paper stating that you will continue to make the payments to them on time. Which you have to do... If you are going to keep the house you have to make the payments on time.. In the end you will receive a letter stating that your debts where discharged..

A few FYI's... If you try to sign off on a credit card (meaning you want to keep it) they (the bank) can often decide not to let you keep it and disable your account.

Make sure you know all the bills you owe. Do a credit check if you need to.. I say this because if you don't have it listed it will not be discharged. That hospital bill DH had at 18 and never paid and has just forgotten about after all these years will still be there when the bankruptcy is over. The only things discharged are the things on the list.....

You can not have taxes, child support or moneys for education discharged. Those bills you will have to work out some how.

And if you are going to file make sure you are going to be on good finical standing when it is over. Do not sign off on a bunch of things you know you won't be able to pay for in the long run. Make it worth going through it..

AND DO NOT OPEN ANY CREDIT CARD OFFERS... Once you file every car dealer ship and credit card company from here to no tomorrow will be sending you SPECIAL offers........ Don't go back there again...... Rip them up, shred them but don't think for one moment that you learned from your mistakes and you won't go back there again. I know people personally that have filed several times. They think they got a handle on the money beast and the next thing you know he has a handle on them.... And those people are exactly why the laws for filing are changing.............

Best of luck and honestly filing isn't as bad as it use to be. The couples I know that have filed both have bought new houses with in 2 years of filing. It use to take 7 years to get anyone to even look at you... The point is, this is scary but not the end of the world.

By Luvn29 on Friday, August 19, 2005 - 07:27 am:

Just a little side note to Bobbie's post, which was excellent. Those wonderful credit card offers you get? Well, read the fine print,and that would change your mind even if you did consider it. Most will want about $200 for fees for this or that, which will be charged to your card, and then they want a $60- $90 dollar fee every year. I have even seen some that will take a fee every month.

Then they give you a credit balance of maybe $250-300 which will leave you with a balance of $50 or less after they put all of their fees on. And you WILL NOT get a credit increase for a few years no matter what they tell you, so basically, you are getting a credit card that all you can put on it is their fees, and that is what you are paying for every month.

It's just not worth it, getting those cards, no matter how much you might think you need one. Give it a year or so IF you need a card for ER's only (and can prevent yourself from getting into that mess again) and then get one without all of the hidden fees.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Saturday, August 20, 2005 - 12:07 am:

And I forgot one thing in my lesson last night. LOL... All fees are paid to your attorney. He will then pay whomever gets what. The courts etc... He/she will walk you through the whole thing. It might be your first but I am sure he/she has done tons. Seeings that it is the going thing to do and all. But trust me when I say if you are going to do it make sure you do it so that you are left on a good standing when you are done. Too many people sign off on things they really can't afford because they feel guilty/shame (or whatever their reasoning is) and they end up in trouble again in no time.

By Ginny~moderator on Saturday, August 20, 2005 - 09:47 am:

Parade Magazine is offering a free guide which explains the basics of bankruptcy. Go towww.parade.com, click on Intelligence, and order "Personal Financial Choices".

By Anonymous on Tuesday, August 23, 2005 - 01:07 pm:

Does anybody know how to get my son's debtors to stop calling my house?

My ds is in debt up to his eyeballs. And even though he hasn't lived here in over 4 years, ds keeps putting down our phone number as a contact number. I want to scream.

By Ginny~moderator on Tuesday, August 23, 2005 - 01:44 pm:

There is a federal law about this. I will research it when I get home. I had a similar problem once and referred to the specific law and federal agency involved and the calls stopped.

By Anonymous on Tuesday, August 23, 2005 - 03:29 pm:

thank you ginny we are going in tomorrow to get this started.

By Dandjmom on Tuesday, August 23, 2005 - 03:50 pm:

I've filed 2 1/2 years ago now, Yes I also say that if you can avoid it then do. But being a single mom and having the fininancial troubles that I was hainvg at the time it was the right chioce for me. Yes you can stay in your house. make sure your payments are up to date ( and I did this with my car, which I later decided to include) was a committment letter. As far as the phone calls form creditors. I told them myslef that I was going through bankruptcy, some got nasty soem didn't call anymore. My lawyer told me that anyone I felt uncomfortable talking too or telling my sititution too, too direct the calls to him and he and and associates will handle them.

I heard and was told by everyone also when I got ready to file that it would mess up my credit. I have gotten a credit card for emergencies ( non secured) so that itns' the onl ycard you will be able to get. I recently moved but beofre I moved I applied for a home mortgagwe and was approved ( but decided to go with an apartment and not take on more then I could handle and find myslef back in the smae position.

I'm currently saving to buy somethign right out and not have to owrry about a car note. And I agree after a bankruptcy you have to change your lifestyle and learn to live wihtin your means and not above your means. I've learned that tryign to keep up with the Jones isn't worht it. All that time I was wasting working my slef to death and tryign to live up there wtih them , I've find it more peaceful, relaxing and more pleasureable not living with them.

By Ginny~moderator on Tuesday, August 23, 2005 - 06:33 pm:

Anonymous whose son's creditors call her house.

Here it is. You must try to determine the name of the calling agency or the creditor on behalf of whom they are calling. If they won't tell you and you have caller ID, note the phone number. If you don't have caller ID, use *69 (I think) to find out who the caller is.

Once you know who the caller is, or if they won't tell you who they are, you say: Pursuant to Section 805(b) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, your call to me is a violation of federal law. If you call me again I will report you to the Federal Trade Commission.

Here is the relevant section:
§ 805. Communication in connection with debt collection [15 USC 1692c]

(a) COMMUNICATION WITH THE CONSUMER GENERALLY. Without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, a debt collector may not communicate with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt --

(1) at any unusual time or place or a time or place known or which should be known to be inconvenient to the consumer. In the absence of knowledge of circumstances to the contrary, a debt collector shall assume that the convenient time for communicating with a consumer is after 8 o'clock antimeridian and before 9 o'clock postmeridian, local time at the consumer's location;
...

(b) COMMUNICATION WITH THIRD PARTIES. Except as provided in section 804, without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector, or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, or as reasonably necessary to effectuate a postjudgment judicial remedy, a debt collector may not communicate, in connection with the collection of any debt, with any person other than a consumer, his attorney, a consumer reporting agency if otherwise permitted by law, the creditor, the attorney of the creditor, or the attorney of the debt collector.

And here is the relevant portions of Section 804 (referred to above):

§ 804. Acquisition of location information [15 USC 1692b]

Any debt collector communicating with any person other than the consumer for the purpose of acquiring location information about the consumer shall --

(1) identify himself, state that he is confirming or correcting location information concerning the consumer, and, only if expressly requested, identify his employer;

(2) not state that such consumer owes any debt;

(3) not communicate with any such person more than once unless requested to do so by such person or unless the debt collector reasonably believes that the earlier response of such person is erroneous or incomplete and that such person now has correct or complete location information;


If you decide you must communicate with the FTC, check their website for complaint forms, or simply write to them, with a copy to the collection agency. Your letter should say something like: On X date XX called me in an attempt to collect a debt owed by my son, who has not resided with me. My son has, however, given my telephone number as a contact number. I advised XX's representative that my son has not resided with me for at least four years and that he cannot be contacted at my telephone number. I also stated that further calls of this nature would be in violation of Section 804 and 805(b) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and that I would report such violations to the Federal Trade Commission. XX called me again on (date) in another attempt to collect my son's debt. This is approximately the (number-th) call made to me by XXX for this purpose in the past XXX months.
-Give your name and daytime and evening telephone number.

If you could give your son a good hit to the head, that might help also. Yeah - I know, it doesn't work that way, but isn't it tempting?

By Anonymous on Wednesday, August 24, 2005 - 12:42 am:

You just don't know how much I would like to beat the tar out of him. You know some people, through no fault of their own, find themselves in bad situations and bad luck for lack of a better word.

But this son of mine is so determined that NOBODY is going to tell HIM what to do that he'd jump off a bridge if you told him it wasn't a good idea. Drives like a bat out of H***, tickets and wrecks out the wazoo, runs up debts then moves and changes his phone number, and on and on. If his daddy or I say something about what he's doing isn't a good idea, he gets mad and storms out. It's hard to love somebody but not like them very much.

Thanks so much for the info. It will be my pleasure to use it.

But my dh told him 2 years ago that if he was going to blow off any advice and do whatever he pleases to not coming looking for any more handouts. The bank is dry where he is concerned.

By Ginny~moderator on Wednesday, August 24, 2005 - 06:48 am:

Anon - editing. In the letter, it should be "debt owed by my son, who has not resided with me for X years" or "who does not reside with me". Missed that in my editing, which makes that sentence incomplete.

I am sorry for the way your son is running (or ruining) his life, and the hurt it gives to you and your dh. For what it's worth, my dear youngest son did some fairly stupid things for a number of years, against parental advice. He did finally decide for himself that he was being stupid, and is doing much, much better now.

By Ginny~moderator on Wednesday, August 24, 2005 - 08:46 am:

Anon - you and dh would be wise to get a copy of your credit report. You can get them free from each of the big three now unless you live on the East Coast, in which case you can get them free beginning in September. I suggest you get only one - say, Experian - and if there are no problems, get another in 4 months from the 2nd reporting company, and another in 4 months from the 3rd, and keep up that cycle. You want to be sure that the credit reporting agencies are not incorrectly listing your son's debts on your credit report. If there is a problem with the first one you get, then you need to get the reports from the other two companies also, and begin the correction process. If you have to get into corrections, as always, my advice is to do it in writing by snail-mail, keeping copies of all correspondence.

I know when I got on the alert list because my purse was stolen, each of the three had errors (different errors on each one) on my credit reports. One error was listing me as living at an address where I had signed as a guarantor for my son on his lease.

I also know that these agencies often make errors when the last name is the same, especially if your son may be listing your phone number and maybe your address for credit.

By Anonymous on Wednesday, August 24, 2005 - 12:35 pm:

Thanks so much for all of the advice. I never thought about our credit report. But we did go to buy a car recently and they ran our credit and said we could buy whatever we wanted.

He did start listing our address as his about a year ago even though he wasn't living here and my insurance called me about it. I didn't even know it until she called. Our insurance forbids him driving our vehicles or they'll drop our insurance (like we would let him anyway).
DH as advised ds to file bankruptcy and get his life in order.

I'm sorry to have taken over this thread. Didn't mean to. Thanks for all of the info. Stuff I hadn't thought about.

By Anonymous on Wednesday, August 24, 2005 - 10:55 pm:

Anon # 2 don't worry about it you had questions you needed answers too isn't that the reason we have this board? Update to me and my husband's situation we have to file chapter 7 against our house and truck because we are behind on our mortgage.We would have to do chapter 13 they said if we wanted to keep our house we decided it was best if we went all the way with everything.I'm actually pretty excited in a way to be moving we've been here for awhile now and it's time for something new.Thanks for the advice i do appreciate it.