Ok this is my first post so please forgive me if I am asking stupid questions.
Also forgive me if this gets to be somewhat of a novel in size. I'll try to be concise.
I live in snohomish county, of Washington state. And will have to file in the seattle bankruptcy court.
I won't go into the reasons here, why I got myself upside down in credit. I'll just say that at one time, I had no choice but to get credit cards, just to 'survive'. And I have been paying for it ever since. I would have lost everything, without them, when I needed them. But they have had their pint of blood and a couple gallons more, since.
I am only going to be filing on about 7 thousand dollars worth of debt. And before anyone gets out their sledgehammers of incredulosity about filing on "such a small amount", It will be clearer later on.
6 thousand of that, is credit card debt. (Closer to 7500.00 if you include the two cards I want to keep. And 8500.00 overall.)
I believe that I am legally obligated to include ALL of the credit cards in the bankruptcy.
How do I go about keeping two of the cards ?
~~~~~~~
Now to explain a bit of my circumstances.
I am retired. I live on 746.00 a month. I do get the bills paid every month. But because of all the CC payments, I am penniless every month, by the end of the first week. From that point on, I have nothing for groceries or gas.
This is no way to live, and I have lived this way, for years.
I am not a stupid man. I do the best I can with what I have. I really don't know anyone else who could have made it as long as I have, on so little. When I did the required credit counselling, by the time I was finished, my "counsellor" was incredulous, and was telling me that I should do exactly as I have, because it was better than anything they could recommend.
~~~
Once I used the credit cards, it became a viscious circle. I had to go on using them, because, as I pointed out above, I was penniless after paying their bills. After a few years it had gotten to the point where I couldn't use them, because they were full up used. But I still had to make the payments every month.
That's where it has been for a couple years now. It's bad enough on the face of it. But some of the creditors have done things to intentionally cause extra charges. Those come as hammer blows that cause you to lose any progress that you have made so far.
~~~
Here, I'll insert one incident. A horror story about Bank of America.
I made an online payment. I always save the "confirmation page" to my own computer before leaving their site. Well, I forgot, once. Never again, after that.
That one time.. I paid. I got the confirmation page. All was well with the world. This payment was made two weeks before it was due. I was feeling good about that.
That money was immediately taken from my bank account, the instant I hit the "pay" button, and was gone from that point on.
Four weeks later, I am on their site to make the next payment, and discovered that I owed over 80 dollars in extra charges.
They had held the payment for over two weeks, and counted it as paid, the day after it was due.
I was on the phone, immediately, and two times after that, trying to get to talk to someone who either cared, or who had any sort of ability to actually DO something. But the end result was always, "Well, according to our records, you paid a day late. The money doesn't show at any point before that, in our records."
Well, of course it didn't show in their records. They changed the records, to fit what they had done.
Ok, so after they held the payment for over two weeks, then they added the late fee. That brought me over balance. They added a fee for that. And I can't remember what else they charged me for. There were at least three charges, and now I owed over 80 dollars in charges, and the regular monthly payment on top of that, by the next due date. Plus, to be smart about it, I would have to add an extra 25 dollars, to bring the 'balance' far enough back from the line that they wouldn't just pull the same sort of thing again.
They had trumped up so many extra charges in this way, and in other ways, that over the course of about 14 months, on a card that had a limit of 1000.00.... I had paid over 800.00 in EXTRA charges and fees.
I did close the card after that last incident. And now I call them "Bunko America", because I am absolutely convinced that they are doing just that. Running Bunko on America.
~~~
I closed all the accounts that I want to file on, two months ago. I am still current on all my payments. But I have decided that enough is enough.
If I file on the debt that I want to file on, I'll regain about 185 dollars a month. I know that that doesn't sound like much to most of you here. Probably just candy bar money, for some. But when you are absolutely penniless for most of the month... Month after month, after month, after month, aft... Well you get the picture.
After being this way for more than three years, and with no end in sight... Sometimes 20 dollars can get to seeming like it might as well be a thousand.
With that, I'll have a bit of 'breathing room'. I'll use some of the savings, to pay off the two cards I want to keep, a bit faster. The rest will all go into either my 'tank', (groceries. LOL), or my truck's tank.
~~~~~~~
The reason I want to keep the two cards I want to keep :
I have told people many times, that being poor is expensive.
When you are this poor, any little thing going wrong is a catastophe. Plus, you end up paying for things that you wouldn't have had to pay for, if you'd had enough money to do things a bit differently.
For instance. Very recently, I did not have the money to pay a rather large electric bill. Two bill's worth, so they were going to disconnect me. I was one day from disconnect. If I didn't pay today, it would be disconnected, tomorrow. (I am diabetic, so I need that refridgerator to keep running, to keep my insulin supplys.)
Now first of all, this bill probably would have been almost nothing to some of you. It was only a bit over 200 dollars. But I was penniless. Period. 200 might as well have been 2 million.
So, if they turned the power off... To be reconnected, I would have had to pay the bill. Plus a reconnect fee of almost the same amount. Plus a deposit of at least twice that amount. In the end nearly 800 dollars to get my electricity reconnected.
Where, if I had just had the money, it would only have cost me the amount I owed on the bill. And I wouldn't be disconnected.
~~~
That is one of the ways in which, being poor, can cost you a great deal.
Here's how it was solved :
A friend of mine, who lives a great distance away, put the money in my PayPal account, as a gift to me. I called the elecric company and told them I would pay them the next day. I then drove to town the next day, used the paypal card at an ATM, and then went and paid the bill.
Now, there was a small fee to use the card. But that is absolutely nothing compared to what I would have paid if I hadn't had that option.
Another option would have been a wire transfer. For which I would have had to go 65 miles out of my way, ($16.25 in gasoline cost.), wait for it, pay a much larger fee. Etc.
You can see why the paypal card makes being poor, a bit less expensive.
The other card I want to keep is the Lowes card. Two reasons.
1. Lowes is the ONLY other credit card company that has never ever 'been creative' with my account, to cost me extra fees. They have always been a dream to deal with.
2. Being poor, if the plumbing or electrical breaks, and needs fixed... Or if the heater breaks in the middle of winter... You are SOL. But with the Lowes card, I can get what I need, and then pay for it in payments I can afford. Catastrophe averted.
Also forgive me if this gets to be somewhat of a novel in size. I'll try to be concise.
I live in snohomish county, of Washington state. And will have to file in the seattle bankruptcy court.
I won't go into the reasons here, why I got myself upside down in credit. I'll just say that at one time, I had no choice but to get credit cards, just to 'survive'. And I have been paying for it ever since. I would have lost everything, without them, when I needed them. But they have had their pint of blood and a couple gallons more, since.
I am only going to be filing on about 7 thousand dollars worth of debt. And before anyone gets out their sledgehammers of incredulosity about filing on "such a small amount", It will be clearer later on.
6 thousand of that, is credit card debt. (Closer to 7500.00 if you include the two cards I want to keep. And 8500.00 overall.)
I believe that I am legally obligated to include ALL of the credit cards in the bankruptcy.
How do I go about keeping two of the cards ?
~~~~~~~
Now to explain a bit of my circumstances.
I am retired. I live on 746.00 a month. I do get the bills paid every month. But because of all the CC payments, I am penniless every month, by the end of the first week. From that point on, I have nothing for groceries or gas.
This is no way to live, and I have lived this way, for years.
I am not a stupid man. I do the best I can with what I have. I really don't know anyone else who could have made it as long as I have, on so little. When I did the required credit counselling, by the time I was finished, my "counsellor" was incredulous, and was telling me that I should do exactly as I have, because it was better than anything they could recommend.
~~~
Once I used the credit cards, it became a viscious circle. I had to go on using them, because, as I pointed out above, I was penniless after paying their bills. After a few years it had gotten to the point where I couldn't use them, because they were full up used. But I still had to make the payments every month.
That's where it has been for a couple years now. It's bad enough on the face of it. But some of the creditors have done things to intentionally cause extra charges. Those come as hammer blows that cause you to lose any progress that you have made so far.
~~~
Here, I'll insert one incident. A horror story about Bank of America.
I made an online payment. I always save the "confirmation page" to my own computer before leaving their site. Well, I forgot, once. Never again, after that.
That one time.. I paid. I got the confirmation page. All was well with the world. This payment was made two weeks before it was due. I was feeling good about that.
That money was immediately taken from my bank account, the instant I hit the "pay" button, and was gone from that point on.
Four weeks later, I am on their site to make the next payment, and discovered that I owed over 80 dollars in extra charges.
They had held the payment for over two weeks, and counted it as paid, the day after it was due.
I was on the phone, immediately, and two times after that, trying to get to talk to someone who either cared, or who had any sort of ability to actually DO something. But the end result was always, "Well, according to our records, you paid a day late. The money doesn't show at any point before that, in our records."
Well, of course it didn't show in their records. They changed the records, to fit what they had done.
Ok, so after they held the payment for over two weeks, then they added the late fee. That brought me over balance. They added a fee for that. And I can't remember what else they charged me for. There were at least three charges, and now I owed over 80 dollars in charges, and the regular monthly payment on top of that, by the next due date. Plus, to be smart about it, I would have to add an extra 25 dollars, to bring the 'balance' far enough back from the line that they wouldn't just pull the same sort of thing again.
They had trumped up so many extra charges in this way, and in other ways, that over the course of about 14 months, on a card that had a limit of 1000.00.... I had paid over 800.00 in EXTRA charges and fees.
I did close the card after that last incident. And now I call them "Bunko America", because I am absolutely convinced that they are doing just that. Running Bunko on America.
~~~
I closed all the accounts that I want to file on, two months ago. I am still current on all my payments. But I have decided that enough is enough.
If I file on the debt that I want to file on, I'll regain about 185 dollars a month. I know that that doesn't sound like much to most of you here. Probably just candy bar money, for some. But when you are absolutely penniless for most of the month... Month after month, after month, after month, aft... Well you get the picture.
After being this way for more than three years, and with no end in sight... Sometimes 20 dollars can get to seeming like it might as well be a thousand.
With that, I'll have a bit of 'breathing room'. I'll use some of the savings, to pay off the two cards I want to keep, a bit faster. The rest will all go into either my 'tank', (groceries. LOL), or my truck's tank.
~~~~~~~
The reason I want to keep the two cards I want to keep :
I have told people many times, that being poor is expensive.
When you are this poor, any little thing going wrong is a catastophe. Plus, you end up paying for things that you wouldn't have had to pay for, if you'd had enough money to do things a bit differently.
For instance. Very recently, I did not have the money to pay a rather large electric bill. Two bill's worth, so they were going to disconnect me. I was one day from disconnect. If I didn't pay today, it would be disconnected, tomorrow. (I am diabetic, so I need that refridgerator to keep running, to keep my insulin supplys.)
Now first of all, this bill probably would have been almost nothing to some of you. It was only a bit over 200 dollars. But I was penniless. Period. 200 might as well have been 2 million.
So, if they turned the power off... To be reconnected, I would have had to pay the bill. Plus a reconnect fee of almost the same amount. Plus a deposit of at least twice that amount. In the end nearly 800 dollars to get my electricity reconnected.
Where, if I had just had the money, it would only have cost me the amount I owed on the bill. And I wouldn't be disconnected.
~~~
That is one of the ways in which, being poor, can cost you a great deal.
Here's how it was solved :
A friend of mine, who lives a great distance away, put the money in my PayPal account, as a gift to me. I called the elecric company and told them I would pay them the next day. I then drove to town the next day, used the paypal card at an ATM, and then went and paid the bill.
Now, there was a small fee to use the card. But that is absolutely nothing compared to what I would have paid if I hadn't had that option.
Another option would have been a wire transfer. For which I would have had to go 65 miles out of my way, ($16.25 in gasoline cost.), wait for it, pay a much larger fee. Etc.
You can see why the paypal card makes being poor, a bit less expensive.
The other card I want to keep is the Lowes card. Two reasons.
1. Lowes is the ONLY other credit card company that has never ever 'been creative' with my account, to cost me extra fees. They have always been a dream to deal with.
2. Being poor, if the plumbing or electrical breaks, and needs fixed... Or if the heater breaks in the middle of winter... You are SOL. But with the Lowes card, I can get what I need, and then pay for it in payments I can afford. Catastrophe averted.
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