Curious: how long did you wait to file, after deciding to do it?

[applecake]

We decided that we needed to file in Oct. 08, but we needed to wait a bit. It is now May 09 and we're just about to get filed...that's 7 months...seems like it's been FOREVER! I was just wondering about other people.

[downsized]

About 2 weeks. I had tossed around the idea for a long time but dh was opposed because we were always at least able to pay the minimums on the cards. He got laid off at the end of March, so I finally got him to agree to see an atty. We went on a reference and loved him immediately, so retained him the same day and filed 2 weeks later. The only reason we were able to file so quickly is because we had a "change of circumstance" (the job loss) that made it possible to file right away for 7. If we had our previous situation, we'd have had to make some adjustments and wait to fall below the means for 7 or go 13.

[willbfree]

Approximately fIve months from first visit to atty's office to file date.

[UhOh]

I never thought about it until one day I realized I cannot ever catch up. Within one week I met with a few attorneys and filed within the next week. So from never considering it to filed in about 2 weeks.

I'm one of those people that feel the system is there for a reason and I have not done anything wrong and I truly need a fresh start. Why wait? I have nothing to hide, nothing to lose.

Still scared though!

[liz417]

One year as of today (5/12/09)...
We had to save up to pay for the attorney, then he had a "medical emergency" and had to drop our case, now we are in the process of finding a new attorney...
Yes, it feels like F O R E V E R...

[bk4sky]

well for me i waited until i absolutley was at rock bottom and lost another job and got one with much lower income and realized there was NO WAY i can pay on anything except for the bare necessities, i made an apt with a lawyer, that was june 08, and i just filed a few days ago, it took so long because i couldnt pay for the BK all at once, he set me up on monthly payments, and then i asked if i could skip a month when my cat got real sick and he also let me skip for xmas...so yes it almost took me a year to finish paying my lawyer and im so happy i finally filed last week, its like 1 part of the weight is lifted off my shoulder, and now im just waiting for my 341 date...im a lil nervous about it but my when i talked to my lawyer about it he seemed like it was no big deal and i had nothing to worry about, so im feeling pretty good about things right now

[liz417]

well for me i waited until i absolutley was at rock bottom and lost another job and got one with much lower income and realized there was NO WAY i can pay on anything except for the bare necessities, i made an apt with a lawyer, that was june 08, and i just filed a few days ago, it took so long because i couldnt pay for the BK all at once, he set me up on monthly payments, and then i asked if i could skip a month when my cat got real sick and he also let me skip for xmas...so yes it almost took me a year to finish paying my lawyer and im so happy i finally filed last week, its like 1 part of the weight is lifted off my shoulder, and now im just waiting for my 341 date...im a lil nervous about it but my when i talked to my lawyer about it he seemed like it was no big deal and i had nothing to worry about, so im feeling pretty good about things right now

Congrats on finally paying the attorney and getting your BK filed...I'm hoping to be filed soon too, it's been a long process...

[Floridagail]

I waited 2 1/2 yrs to file. I hoped to not have to. As I had friends who stopped paying cc and never got sued. Never filed. However My income had dropped and no way to pay the cc, I just waited until I got sued by one nasty cc. I wish I would of done it sooner.

[Naomi]

I hadn't really thought about filing until about a month ago when my husband told me his friend was thinking about bankruptcy. I always thought that somehow we would be able to get out of debt, but it's starting to look impossible.
I started googling and found this forum in Apr. We're lucky in that we're still current on all bills - only because we receive education benefits/$$$ (GI Bill) but those benefits will be gone in < a year.
Then, there's no way we can pay our bills unless we can double our income and with the way things are going, that's not going to happen. Hopefully, we can just keep the jobs we have.

So, from thinking to actually filing...I'd say right now we're looking at least a year to let school money drop off income.

[Pizza]

Well I considered it as a possibility a year and a half ago, began to seriously contemplate it a year ago (when I joined this site), and I'm still waiting for the right time, but it will be soon. It is inevitible.

[Rick9972]

July 08 bought new dream house been saving for all our lives
2 weeks later DW laid off
OK thou as renters were paying on time
October renters quit paying
DW new job with 25% pay cut.
January i take a 10% pay cut to keep job
DW get laid off again, new renters do not pay
May 1 DW has new job, paying 35% less than job in July. New Renters do not pay.

May 5 meet with lawyer, will file next week. Savings gone, CC's maxed out, personal possessions sold or pawned. Figured it is time to stop playing around and accept that we need to start over.

[loveends1981]

we realized in Oct 08 we needed to file. We found our attourney in January. We paid him in March and last friday, the 8th, we finally signed all the papers and it was submited yesterday.

[BkinTX]

I had wondered about it for several months prior but we kept juggling things. I think we could have held out longer, but I didn't want to just stop paying bills.

We got our ITR and I had intended to use it to start a healthy debt snowball to pay things off. I started crunching numbers and realized even with that cash we were not going to even make a dent in it.

We used our ITR to pay the lawyer.

From the time we decided to file til our actual filing date was a few weeks. Less than a month. We didn't know to be strategic.

[Billssuck]

I knew we were in trouble about 2 1/2 years ago when I found out I was pregnant at age 43 and we also have two kids in college. I couldn't work the whole pregnancy as I was high risk and I tried to tell my husband that we were a sinking ship, financially speaking. He refused to believe me. But after months of juggling money around, we finally got to the point where there was nothing to juggle or sell and the cards were maxed out. We went to Consumer Credit Services and it was then that I saw the numbers showing about $2,500 in the red each month. Yikes...I knew it was bad but not that bad. So we were referred to seek legal advice (that was in March 2009) and we got a lawyer 3/26. We are filing on 5/28.

[arami008]

It took me from November 07 until April 2009. So Over a year. I can't believe I waited so loooong. Well my son received a transplant and that whole thing just messed us up emotionally and economically, for a moment I really didn't care much about anything let alone my credit.

Well now he is soooo much better and I want to get everything straight again so that we can be a normal family finally!

So file within a week of deciding, no point in waiting unless of course you need to wait for means test purposes or things like that.

Good luck!