Will soon file, but is there any advantage to waiting?

[brokenomore]

I'm self employed and was waiting until we had all our receivables paid until we file, and that should be very soon, so we will have little or nothing to give up to the trustee in that regard.

Three years ago we filed chapter 13 to protect equity in our home, but we could not keep up with the payment, and it was dismissed, all our equity got wiped out anyway from the drop in values, and the bank now owns the home.

We are now in a position of having nothing a creditor could take from us. The biggest hassle though, is that I am not using my checking account, because I fear our account could be garnished, so I'm unable to use my card for things I need in business like renting a car. If anyone knows any way around that, please let me know. I know that budget rent a car will not accept a prepaid moneycard for an auto rental.

Anyway, one of the things that got us into the bankruptcy situation in the first place was medical debt (though we did have insuranc--and I can't understand how we could be on the hook for $28k, when our deductible was less than half that). We had had some problems the past few months, and my wife lost her health insurance and we have to wait 9 months to reinstate it.

Our income has stablized finally, and we have been paying the bills and things are better, and my wife's health has also stabalized, but what if she were to be hospitalized before we can reinstate her insurance?

I would never run up a debt on purpose knowing I would file later to wipe it out, and of course I hope for the best for my wife's health, with or without insurance.

But...besides the issues of not being able to use my debit card, is there any big disadvantage to waiting to file chapter 7? I would feel a little better about filing after my wife has her insurance reinstated.


Lastly--a general question--for anyone who is self-employed and filed chapter 7--how thoroughly do they examine your business? Is all they need a tax return and a 6 month profit and loss statement? Will they do anything along the lines of "auditing" your business?

[momofthree]

Since your wife is without medical insurance and has health issues, I would DEFINITELY wait until she has coverage again.

[brokenomore]

If we were to file today, and tomorrow I had to take my wife to the hospital and we ran up a $50,000 bill, what could we do?

They would at least allow us to make payments, wouldn't they? They would work with us before sending it to collections.

They would perhaps forgive some of it too?

What is the best a hospital will do regarding a sizeable bill?

We're trying hard to get out of a hole, and have made some good progress, but waiting to file puts us in a position of worrying about success and what will happen to those funds. If we start having a surplus, then we have something we could lose to the creditors, and something we would have to declare and possibly lose if delay filing, though I suppose we could figure out ways to spend money before filing.

[brokenomore]

This is what sucks about the laws.

If I owned a home, I could have $40,000 equity exempt from collections and from being taken at bankruptcy.

But now that we no longer own a home, I can't start saving up for a down payment to buy a home again until after I file. If I have $10,000 saved, but am not yet in a position to buy a house, that would be taken if I filed, and if the creditors knew about it (the ones who have judgements), it could be taken before I filed.