Personal Bankruptcy Affecting Your Life? Try These Tips
A great personal bankruptcy tip is to go over your credit report very carefully to make sure there are no errors on it. Overlooking a bill as small as forty dollars can come back to haunt you and can even make your credit score drop. The resulting drop will put you in hot water with your bank.
Be weary of creditors once you have filed for bankruptcy. These companies think because you have filed for bankruptcy, you cannot file it again for a long time. You are not risky to lend to. By accepting loans from these companies, you are putting yourself at risk for more financial turmoil.
Understand that bankruptcy is a pretty lengthy process and you will have to be patient. Many people do not understand that and they get frustrated when the process takes so long to complete. Expedite the process by having all of your debts and financial statements prepared before retaining an attorney.
Consider hiring an attorney to help you. The laws surrounding personal bankruptcy can be complex at best and confusing and convoluted at worst. If you feel unsure of how to go about moving forward, consulting with an attorney may be the best move you can make. An attorney can be the guiding hand you need to make the process as smooth as possible.
It is often thought that filing for personal bankruptcy will leave you homeless. Meanwhile, it is true that some or all of your possessions are seized by debtors. Most filers get to keep their homes. It depends if there is a second mortgage taken out, or the overall value of the home has decreased.
If you are being faced with home foreclosure, wage garnishments or other situations that make it necessary to file for bankruptcy quickly, you may want to explore an emergency filing. Regular bankruptcy filings entail approximately 50 pages of paperwork and one to two weeks for an attorney to pull everything together. In an emergency filing, your attorney can file just the first 2 necessary pages and keep creditors from continuing foreclosure or garnishment proceedings. The rest of the work will be completed afterward.
If you are planning to file for bankruptcy in the near future, don’t charge up your credit cards thinking that you won’t have to pay back the debt. In many states, there are rules about how much credit card debt and what kind, may be discharged in a bankruptcy. For instance, if you make purchases for luxury items, such as an expensive new TV, within 6 months prior to filing, you may be obligated to pay that amount back. On the other hand, if you used your credit card to purchase groceries, or other necessities, the rules may be different. Be sure to ask your attorney for advice.
If you have to get a new car while in Chapter 13 bankruptcy, don’t try to get approval for the most expensive car on the market. Your trustee won’t approve your plan if it includes a luxury vehicle, and you probably can’t afford a high car note anyway. Stick with a reliable, but cheap vehicle, to ensure you can afford your new purchase.
Filing for bankruptcy does not wipe out all of your debts. It does not stop you from having to pay alimony, child support, student loans, tax debt and most types of secured credit. You will not be allowed to file if these are the only types of debt that you have on record.
Be completely honest when filing your bankruptcy schedules. You must disclose absolutely all of your debts and personal property, including tax refunds, child support, social security and other less-obvious assets and claims. Hiding your assets or claims is a federal crime, which can be punishable by loss of your claim or a prison sentence.
Before you make the decision to file for personal bankruptcy, you should evaluate your finances thoroughly. If there are any places that you can save money to put towards your debts, you should consider doing so. Filing for bankruptcy will cause harm to your credit for many years to come.
There is more than one option when considering bankruptcy. The two primary types are Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. Chapter 7 should be considered when there is serious financial trouble. It assists you in liquidating appropriate assets and eliminating large debts. If there is a possibility with structured payment plans that you will use to repay your credits, then you may wish to consider Chapter 13, which will enable you to keep some of your major assets.
Before meeting with an attorney about your personal bankruptcy, get your paperwork in order and have it available. The attorney will need to see all of this documentation to help you move forward. Don’t be selective in what you bring! Every document you have that shows finances, assets, debts and credit will need to be considered.
With all of the advice you got from this article, you should start feeling optimistic about the future. Bankruptcy might have deterred you from your normal path in life, but remember that you can reclaim your focus and still live comfortably. Use the information you got today about bankruptcy and plan out your future.
The author is an expert ghostwriter from the Philippines but currently residing in the states at the moment. His shift in career from the financial services field towards the internet marketing field began when he created a weblog Ride A Horse as a result of his passion in writing. Now, he manages a website How To Get Rich Quick among many others in different niche categories with the aim of expanding his residual revenue from internet marketing.