Can judgements be add to bk? I "think" so but am not sure.........how long does the whole process take? Should you get an attorney, or file on your own? Can you keep 1 crappy car? anyone that has any experience and can give any kind of tip would be greatly appreciated! I need the does, don'ts and know hows!!
Bankruptcys are much easier if you have an attorney. They can help you with making a game plan. I kept my crappy old car..noone would want them anyways. Bankruptcy puts an end to any action related to judgements, and if I'm not mistaken the lawyer can file a motion to have them vacated after the bankruptcy. Do yourself a favor and don't get talked into reaffirming anything unless you absolutely need to. My husband reaffirmed Sears and they have steadily dropped his available credit as the debt has been paid down. I'm sure that once it is paid off they will close the card.
Been there, done that, got the tshirt, the black eye, and the bruises. I may not be an expert, but I'll give you my 2 cents, and perhaps others will agree, or offer their spin on things. I never knew or cared about my scores until after I had to declare BK for reasons I won't bore anyone with. Your scores seem pretty good to me now. I don't know your reasons either, but I would just caution you that it's no cake walk afterwards. It lightens the load in the short term, but rebuilding the credit will be an uphill battle. Do: Get all three reports from the original CRAs to make sure you list everyone that you need to. You will get to pick and choose which debts you want to discharge and which ones you want to keep. I would suggest you keep your oldest (or fairly oldest) CC that you can still afford after the BK, or possibly even a couple of them. It was hard (for me) to get a CC to rebuild my credit afterwards, so I would suggest trying to keep one or two if possible. I'm not sure how a BT might look to try and lighten the load on the one(s) you choose to keep. Ask your attorney about this ahead of time. If you have a car note/and or mortgage and plan on keeping them, that will help rebuild your credit too. Do not start going late on payments on your accounts. Even if you will disharge that debt, I think you should keep current up until the date you file. I don't know if this really makes a difference, but I think it's in your best interest to stay as current as possible. You'll see the stats of "in the last xx years: xx times 30, 60, 90 days late. I would suggest you do get an attorney. Mine had terms available (100 or so a month for xx months). Good luck.
NOT TRUE...you don't always get to pick and chose, esp if the accounts are charged off. Not every credit card issuer lines up to offer reaffirmation to bk individuals, in fact sears was the only one that showed up at ours. Also, trying to pick and chose could cause those creditors that didn't get reaffirmed to challenge your bankruptcy Remember that you went bankrupt for a reason, and most people do it because they are way behind and cannot hope to catch up. Get rid of the overwhelming debt, start a savings and worry about fixing your credit when the dust settles.
i so agree with you. Get a copy of your credit report from all bureaus. Get a attorney it goes faster and you know your backside is covered. Put all credit cards and chargeoff, and judgements in there. We couldn;t pick and choose anyway except for the cars. we kept our cars. At ours Kaufmanns showed up and gave us one heck of a deal. we affirmed that card and it was tradeline from long ago so it eventually looked good. we had 3000 debt on the card. they told us to pay 700.00 and they would give us a card limit of 500.00. we got it all in writing and we prevailed. 6 months after we declared we got a cross country bank visa for 300.00. you will be able to reestablish credit. dont worry about that.
I didn't mean to imply that "picking and choosing" was a happy, let's play with things type of proposition. Like someone suggested, I was way behind w/o hope and put everything in. In retrospect, I might have wanted to keep one of the cards if I could have afforded it. Again, I am not and expert, but was trying to offer advice on how I might have done things differently, and how they might help to restore their credit more quickly. Their being here is probably a huge boost for ideas on that to begin with. If keeping a "cheap" card, or other lines of credit open is not an option, I guess I would suggest getting secured loans or credit cards through your local CU. If you can get unsecured, I would again suggest a local CU, household, and patelco.
