First Charge-Off happened today.

[Keebler]

I never thought I'd ever be at this point in life, but the first charge-off happened today and more will follow in the weeks ahead.

Still not ready to file...

I've been talking to my creditors whenever I get a chance and they're all treating me okay. A few would love for me to avoid the charge-off and have offered some amazing deals. But, there's still no way out.

For those of you keeping score at home, you can see what my credit scores do as a result. They'll be updated in a couple of weeks.

Until now, the Credit Score simulator tells me filing bankruptcy will make my scores go up 40 or 50 points! We'll see what happens with a bunch of charge-offs dragging me down.

[scaredneko]

Im in the same boat pretty much Keeb. I havent had the courage to check my credit scores. I have been recieving alot of offers and pleading to return calls that there are things they can do.

Some of my bigger ones already charged me off this month not sure if it will make my credit hurt more or not but hoping it will help avoid any objections. Just kind of waiting on discover at this point to see what they are going to do. Found a great attorney but would really like to hold off filing until March so most of charges cash advances will be a year old.

When I file and pull my report will be interesting to see the scores.

[larryg]

Why would you want to have a charge off if you are going to file BK soon?

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Larry, just fyi, there are a number of reasons why people choose to wait to file. Most common are property transfers made to family members or other insiders recently, and they want to put some time between the bk and the transfer to lessen the appearance of fraud. Another one is cash advances, as mentioned -- the longer time you can have between cc cash advances and filing bk, the better. Meanwhile, as you wait, your past due accts age into charge off status. Sometimes it's just worth it to wait anyway. Hope this helps.

[Keebler]

Why would you want to have a charge off if you are going to file BK soon?

Charge-offs are bad and I don't want any of them.

But, we have medical expenses that we need to put behind us. It would be far more foolish to file quickly to avoid charge-offs and be stuck with large medical bills -- without releif -- than it is to sit by helplessly and watch things fall apart while we try to put as many expenses behind us as possible.

It's called "making the best of a bad situation."

[Lindsay]

We chose to wait to file for a long time too. It's been about 7 months since our last credit card usage or payment. We waited because I didn't want to take any chances of an objection even though we didn't do cash advances or buy luxury items. I just want everything to go nice and smooth. I think several of our accounts have been charged off (they're with collection agencies) but I'm not brave enough to look at the credit report. However, I'll have to get over that fear shortly so I can get the correct information for our attorney to file with. I'm used to seeing a pretty credit report; it must be pretty horrendous by now! It's a tough thing to have beautiful credit for 10+ years without any lates, then have it all go to heck!

Keebler, I like that FICO chart you have in your signature! It's amazing how fast the score drops with late payments. The last time I saw my FICO it was 700! I bet its like 300 now!