I have one bank account that I opened and I operate that with no debt. Is bankruptcy a solution? Is it difficult to do?

Without an income you should qualify for a chapter 7 and walk away from the debt. But your credit score with take a major hit. It's not hard to file but definitely use a lawyer who knows BK law.... because there's a lot of rules and red tape.

Also if you use the same bank as credit card they can access your funds to make payments.

yes, I was also told to change bank accounts so the bank had a loan with couldn't just take the money

You can also go through a debt consolidtation organization. My husband and I used Christian Debt Counseling. However, if that is not an option we learned that eventually these creditors will offer settlements to you sometimes for more than 50% of what you owe. We even got to the point (it took over a year to get there) where we called them and asked them to settle and they all have. These creditors know it is rough for people these days and they can be hard on people but you just have to hold strong and be totally honest that you have no money to work with. I was mortified but we even got served with papers at our home from an attorney regarding a debt that we had, previously this creditor would settle but we wrote a heart felt letter to the attorney and they settled for 50%. We not out of the woods yet, but I can start to see a glimmer of light. It really will get better, but it is very humbling. I have had a lot of guilt over our debt.

Just a quick note as I went through chapter 7 bankruptcy. My credit took more of a hit from not paying the bills rather than from bankruptcy itself. My credit after 1 year after filing was in the upper 600's. You can clean up your credit score easily. Let's say that you have a Discover credit card that is on your credit report as being dismissed in bankruptcy. You simply send a letter to each of the credit bureaus asking that it be removed because you no longer owe that debt and in most cases it will be removed. Try to request from your credit bureau (Trans Union, etc) 2 to 3 credit cards or any other bills dismissed in bankruptcy that it be taken off, but do not request everyone off all at once. Just wait 2 to 3 months before requesting another 2 or 3 old bills to be removed. This is what my attorney recommended and it worked. My credit score today is in the 700's (almost 2 years after bankruptcy). My credit score is better than many that never had filed bankruptcy so do not view it as the end of the world. The longer you allow yourself to sink in debt is to keep receiving death blows to your credit score.

The strange thing that happened to me after bankruptcy is all the credit card offers I received. I tore them all up, but I was told by so many before bankruptcy that nobody would ever want me again and that simply is not true. I do have one credit card today that is used in cases of emergency. I also have one Target store credit card too. Just do not expect a high balance. The balance limit on my card given to me 3 months after bankruptcy was $1000.00.

Also, you can still get loans. One month after filing bankruptcy my transmission went on my car. There were other issues (when it rains it pours) with my car that had to be fixed. I did not have a credit card yet and was in a bad spot. I tried a loan company that gave me a $3500.00 loan at a kick butt rate. I only had to pay $126.85 per month. Since I paid it off early, I can now apply if needed for even more. My point again is that life does not end with bankruptcy but often improves so do not fear it if you see no way out of your situation.

Now the last comment said that credit card companies often settle for 50% less than what you actually owe. This is true but be careful for 2 reasons. Most are out to scam you out of your money. This person went through their own attorney as that was a smart thing to do, but most others claiming to be a law firm that you never can visit are full of crap. Here are the potential problems with loan modifications that I learned about as I tried to do them before. Let's say you pay some joker $2000.00 over a period of a year or two to settle your debt with the credit card company. Pretend that you owe $15000.00 and the credit card company says: "OK, we will take $8500.00," but do not think that you can make payments on that as you are required to have the full amount up front. (Quick note: Some companies will tell you to mail them $200.00 or more per month so that they can have the money in hand to negotiate with the credit card companies...Watch out!! You often will never see that money again). Let's say that you did have the $8500.00 and paid it off. You not only paid it off, but you also coughed up money to pay the middle man for handling your situation. You might smile and claim that you still are $4500.00 ahead, but that is not true. The credit card will report the loss and the IRS will come after you during tax time for a good chunk of money. Try not paying the IRS and see what happens. The company that was trying to convince me that they are soooo successful at negotiating my debt did not clue me in to this very important fact. WATCH OUT OR YOU CAN BE SCREWED!!!! Some (few) often are OK with debt settlement but most get screwed in the end. You can do the debt negotiation yourself as that will save you additional money. The later you are late with the payment the better your chance of getting a reduce amount. Search online as you can find out what each credit card company lowest % of the debt they will settle for then you can know how far you can really push them. You really do not need to pay anyone else to negotiate for you even though they will try to convince you that they are sooo experienced. No, you can find out what they do online as to how they negotiate. It's simple, you simply tell them how much you have and see if they will accept is pretty much it. If they say no to you then say bye for now. I had Discover sending me offers in the mail on what they will negotiate at. You simply push them to go lower. When they say, "No, we can't do that" then say "OK, I guess there is nothing more to talk about." A guy I worked with did that and it worked wonders for him as he got a sweet deal.

Some people believe that chapter 7 is a cop out and that you ought to be ashamed of yourself for not owing up to your debt. Do not listen to such people as they are not living in your shoes. If it was wrong then there wouldn't be a law allowing it. If you can't see a way out and a credit counselor doesn't either then why be ashamed? I was ashamed originally until the weight of all the stress I was going through was completely lifted off of my back. A good night sleep is far better than sweating at night wondering how you will make ends meet.

A word of caution on deceptive practices. Credit card agencies tried scamming us before trying to take us to court for the money. Chase bank card charged $2000.00 to our credit card just before sending a Sheriff to our house with a summons to appear in court. We called Chase cards to dispute this charge, but they attempted to make it appear that maybe someone else used our card without us being aware of it. I yelled at the lady for her deliberate stupidity as we are already over the limit to begin with, and 6 months behind in payment. I told her that she knows full well that the card would not even allow me to purchase $5.00 in gas because the card is turned off. If I tried buying bubble gum the cashier would have told me that the card was "declined." I disputed it, but in bankruptcy it was all dismissed thankfully. My word of caution is to watch each credit card statement as they might insert an additional amount hoping that you will miss it. You may see some additional charge on top of your late fee and interest added.

You can call the CC company and ask that they stop adding the interest and allow you to make low payments. Some will work with you, but they often require your banking account info so as to make the monthly deductions themselves as they want guaranteed payments.

Also, do not ignore the collection calls either. If you do not answer then they will call your next door neighbors like they did mine, as well as your place of business. They are very nasty!!! The best way to handle them is to say: "I will have money by (whatever date) and I will send you a payment by then" and HANG UP!!! If you do not hang up then they will ask for a post dated check and so on. They will not hang up until they get something out of you. They do not care if all the money you have is to feed your family as they will tell you that. If the stress of them is too much then you can tell them not to call you again and that any future calls will be viewed as harassment and will be dealt with by law.

There is a meeting of creditors in chapter 7 bankruptcy that so many fear. Also, the liquidation of assets scares people too. I can tell you that there is nothing to fear unless you have an extra car, boat, motorcycle, etc. Each family member can have one car, but if you have 2 cars for yourself then they might liquidate the one. They will not liquidate your TV's as I thought they would do with my 57" TV bought several years back. My wife thought they would try selling our furniture and so on as she was nervous. Nope! They do not want things like that as my lawyer pointed out. If you have a lot of equity in your home then they probably will go after that for payment, but we did not have any. Do not expect any creditor to show up for that meeting as we didn't have any. We sat at a table in a court house with our attorney as some guy recorded the session asking us questions and that was it. It lasted about 5 minutes. Nobody yells at you or says: "Why didn't you pay your bills??"

What can be nice is that if you are leasing a car that they will ask you to re-assume your debt with them and will often have you pay a new lower price with them. Unfortunately, I had to be part of one that did not agree to do that, but most will. We not assume our debt to our home lender. This means that they do not have to report our payments to any of the credit bureaus (down side to it), but it also means that if we were to simply walk away from our property that they can't come after us to sue us for the difference in what they lost in money.

Having a good attorney helps. If you decide on bankruptcy then have ALL debts you owe handy. You cannot leave out one bill. Also, if you purchased a 50 inch plasma TV or withdrew a lot of money from a CC then do not expect to file bankruptcy on it. Many try to scam CC's this way and end up screwed themselves for trying it. Also, in chapter 7, you will need your lawyer fee upfront as you cannot make payments. My lawyer fee was $2600.00 required upfront prior to filing. Luckily, someone loaned me the money.

I hope this somewhat helps in making the educated decision in this matter. I just do not believe in stress. People often get nasty when you talk about bankruptcy and immediately assume that your debt was caused by frivolous spending. No, it can happen from medical bills, to loss of work, and so on. If your filing bankruptcy is due to your $80000.00 heroin addiction then a royal verbal bashing on you is warranted. You are not a loser if you file so do not make anyone allow you to feel that way. Live stress free as time is so short.

sorry, anything but a quick note as I opened my previous comment with.

Hi hope20z,

I'd just like to add: be sure to check out the bankruptcy laws for your state as some can differ from state to state In my state depending on which Chapter you file. For example, in my state 20,000 is too low to declare bankruptcy since its not really a lot of debt, per se Here your unsecured debt would have to be much closer to 30,000 other wise they recommend Consumer Credit Counseling or Debt Consolidation Companies since 20,000 could realistically be paid off within 5 years or less.

Also, please note that if any of your unsecured debt involves student loans or some tuition payments for the most part its non-forgivable debt unless there's an untimely death or disability
So if you have student loans they wouldn't be forgiven during bankruptcy

Lastly I agree about banks being able to access your account if its at the bank where you have a credit card If you have to switch banks, be sure to read the fine print at other banks You can also try a Credit Union too. A lot of the ones out here give Second Chance accounts to those w/ really bad credit

Good Luck I hope everything works out well for you! :)