When should you stop paying bills before BK?

[DrowningInMI]

The struggle is real and I’m hanging on but I can’t file ch 7 until next year (10-12 months). How many months before they start garnishing your wages (credit cards and unsecured debt)? I want to keep my home so I will continue making those payments.

[justbroke]

Unfortunately, there is absolutely no way to predict the behavior of creditors other than them (a) start dunning you, (b) make incessant phone calls, (c) sending to collections, and (d) threatening a lawsuit. Absolutely no way to tell. Different creditors behave differently and use a number of factors to determine whether it's worth the effort.

Unless and until a creditor sues and then wins a judgment, they can't even seek to garnish wages or levy your assets. There is no way to tell what will happen. Some creditors may sue you after 90 days, but that's about it. Whether or not they will is anyone's guess. Some other creditors may sue after 180 days. It's a crap shoot.

I know it's not what you want to hear, but there's just no way of telling. My guess is after 90 days, but more than likely not until after 180 days (6 months). Whether or not you could avoid suit and garnishment over a p eriod of 9-10 months is pushing the outside limits.

[awafan]

I quit paying on a bunch of credit cards in early May last year. The first time I was contacted by a debt collector, who was also a law firm in my state, was in mid-November. You have 30 days to respond. I waited until almost the end of the 30 days (mid-December) to respond and then sent a letter certified mail asking for validation. It took about a month for them to provide that information, so it was now mid-January. The first week of February they served me with a lawsuit and I then had 21 days to respond or they would have been able to obtain a summary judgment against me. I filed bankruptcy in mid-February. So, it took about 9 months after I quit paying before I was actually sued. I could have fought the court case to delay it further, but at that point it wasn't worth the fight. There were several other debt collectors that ended up contacting me. I've only told you about the first one to contact, verify and then sue me.