Making the decision to file personal bankruptcy (prepare for long post)

[palmtreegirl]

When I met Dh he had a huge debt load. It got to the point that the interest was killing us. We went to a debt consolidation service (a reputable one whose name I cant remember off hand ..if you need it PM me and I will find it).

They consolidated all of our bills and cut the interest down to almost nothing. We made one monthly payment which was MUCH lower than the regular.

It did nothing to our credit report (barring the late charges we had just started to incur). We ended up paying it all off after we got a huge chunk of money but before that happened it was such a relief to cut out the interest and lower the monthly payment.

Before anyone says that it DOES affect your credit, we have bought 2 houses since then and have gotten low interest loans that you can only get with excellent credit. Our credit scores are very high.... (But we did it before we were deeply in trouble.... before we had bad marks against us opn our credit file, except those couple of late pays.... On our credit report it never showed anything except that we continued to pay off each card. Then it showed that we were paid in full when we paid it all off at once.)

This is what we did also. We ran ourselves into debt after getting married and having the kids. We could always pay the minimum due but weren't getting anywhere so we contacted a Consolidated credit services. They took over paying our bills, we'd send them a money order every month, they worked with the companies to get the interest rates lowered, some even to 0%.

After we sold our home we payed off all the debt and our credit is better then ever. The only marks on it are from before we worked with Consolidated when we made a few late payments.

There are different types of credit services, some will leave marks on your credit because they tell you NOT to pay your bills for a few months in the beginning. Consolidated DIDN"T work this way. They told us to continue making payments until our account was set up with them and they spoke to our creditors. When you see the commercials(like Ameri-debt) that say that they will cut your payments in half, we didn't do this. Because we wanted to pay our debt off ASAP we kept making basically the same payments we would've normally but since the interest was cut dramtically we made progress and then paid it off.

I also think that your debt is your responsibility to pay off. We did it, it wasn't easy but it was a life lesson learned the hard way. You can do it too. Good luck!!

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

My goodness this thread has taken off! I checked in a few time from work and was only able to pop back online at 10:30pm and there are 2 1/2 new pages of replies.

Thanks to all of you for your advice, your experiences and your good wishes. I do want to pay everything off. Bankruptcy is a last resort and I know I can probably pay everything off, so long as we keep our jobs, work regualr hours and mind our spending. I'm tired of living paycheck to paycheck and we were hoping to be able to do things this year - things that only would be done if bills are paid up-to-date.

It drives me crazy that their (the creditors) computers dial our number routinely because we're "on the list". One told me yesterday that my number is dialed every 7 days - even though I spoke to them last week and commited to a payment amount and specified the date I would be paying. So many want a check-by-phone or a post-dated check. NO WAY, too risky - especially when situations arise like they did this week. DD broke her wrist and so far I've had to pay $40 in co-pays to the doctors, and the car needed to go for state inspection, plus a new emission test - another $40.

Life happens

 

[binny]

would also avoid consumer credit counseling. I have read that those can look even WORSE on your credit report than bankrupcy because it basically means that not only can you not manage your own debt, but you are on the verge of bankrupcy and anyone who lends you $$ stands a VERY good chance of losing it if you should declare bankrupcy anyway (an astounding number of people who turn to consumer credit counseling agencies end up declaring bankrupcy anyway).

this is really true!

We went to CCCS and it was terrible for our credit!!
Its been several years and still people question us about it when we apply for credit.

Good luck!
I too would talk to your creditors first and see if they will work with you! Sometimes all we need a small hand up