Anyone file for second time?

[Stilltheone]

I was a member of another board and when I talked about declaring bankruptcy, you'd think I was a serial murderer for the way they talked about me. I made the mistake about talking about charging a trip, so then once I said I was going to file Ch 7, you can imagine the responses were not good.

I heard things like "the judge is going to throw the book at me", "I hope your judge reads this site and sees what a low life you are and dismisses your case". I also heard things like I had "planned" bankruptcy and "wait until your judge reads your credit card statements". (Do judges even READ credit card statements? Didn't think so!)

At the end of the day, I knew what we were doing was what we needed to do for our family to survive. I sure as heck wouldn't plan to go through what we went through....not in a million years. I knew that if the courts viewed any charges as fraudulent that I had a pay cut to back up my filing. I knew that at the time all of my charges were made, I had every intention of paying them back. So, I stopped worrying about what people thought and did what's best for ME.

[Minnymouth]

Take it from an "old girl"...... if I worried about what people thought of me, I would have died from stress 50+ years ago....

I have to live with me, no body else..... so people passing judgement on me is just "water under the bridge" and "rolling off a rock"....lol

I've made some "foolish decisions" in my lifetime and I've made some "smart business decisions" too...... The smartest was filing bankruptcy and knowing the fact that I needed too in order to straighten my financial life out.

Filing bankruptcy does not make you a "failure in life", nor does it meet you are stupid or not a responsible citizen. Things happen to people that force them into bankruptcy, completely out of their own control.

The foolish person is the one who "thinks" they can straighten the situtation out, and there's no way in H*** they can!!! But yet they struggle trying too.

Whether it be job loss, medical expenses, or even just stupidity on our own that forces us into bankruptcy - SO BE IT....

Hopefully it will never happen again, but as some say "never say never".... and lightening will often strike in the same place again.

Do what you have to do to solve the problem, survive it, and get on with life.....

My thoughts....................

[Confused14]

[sillyme934]

My husband and I filed May 12, 2000 and was discharged no problems. We again filed May 14, 2008. Almost eight years to the date. Today is our last day for objections and nothing has happened. The trustee never said a thing at our 341 meeting about our previous bankruptcy. I was worried about it because of the fact that it was so close to the eight year mark that he would think that we were just taking advantage of the system.

[No Gravy]

I was a member of another board and when I talked about declaring bankruptcy, you'd think I was a serial murderer for the way they talked about me. I made the mistake about talking about charging a trip, so then once I said I was going to file Ch 7, you can imagine the responses were not good.

I heard things like "the judge is going to throw the book at me", "I hope your judge reads this site and sees what a low life you are and dismisses your case". I also heard things like I had "planned" bankruptcy and "wait until your judge reads your credit card statements". (Do judges even READ credit card statements? Didn't think so!)

Holy cow... it's amazing people even *think* like that, much less *say it* to you.

At the end of the day, I knew what we were doing was what we needed to do for our family to survive.

Exactly!

Before I got to this point, I spent a lot of time in credit-related forums. I was worried that "this day" might come and was trying to find ways of increasing my FICO score to get it over 700, so I could refinance my mortgage, get out of a really bad loan, and be able to meet my monthly financial obligations.

That didn't work as planned (*grins*), but I did learn a lot. One of the "concepts" I saw touted, when the credit crunch hit and companies were raising people's interest rates to 29-36% (due to no fault of the debtor), was "it's just business." Long-time posters would comment to newbies not to take the actions personally, because it's just business.

Businesses do what they have to to stay alive, stay in business, and people may grumble about it, but they accept it, because businesses CAN do what they do. They can decide they aren't making enough money and raise interest rates to loan shark levels, and it's within their rights to do that.

And it hit me...if it's "just business" from their side, then by the same rights, it's just business from ours, too.

My house lost over $100k in equity in 6 months' time. Does it make good business sense that I should be paying $3k a month (interest only, at that!) on a house worth *maybe* $180k? A house that I can't sell, because the market here is so flooded with other foreclosures. If the lender and are in a "business partnership together" on this house, why is it only ME who takes it in the shorts?

I'm over-simplifying, of course. I get it that the bank lent me a certain amount of money, and I have an obligation to pay it back. But when a big business has a reversal of fortune and can't meet it's obligations, what do they do? They file bankruptcy, the debts are wiped out (or reorganized), and the business carries on in most cases. No one bats an eye.

So that's how I look at it. It's not personal, it's just business. From their side, and from mine.

[Never_Again]

Don't be amazed that people think like that... I probably would have been one of them, although I don't think that I would have said it!

It is amazing how much empathy one can really develop!

[No Gravy]

It is amazing how much empathy one can really develop!

Karma is a great teacher