Why Are/Have You Filed BK?

[BrokeinMD]

I got laid off in 2005, lived as normal off credit cards for 9 months and then some. My other half made the credit card payments, but then the minimum balance went up and up and up along with the interest, along with my credit being cut, even though I was on time. I fought for 5 years to protect my credit integrity. All for unsecured debt, and now my other half doesn't have that money we could have used for other things. It's funny to think that if another person had changed their loan terms on me, charged excessive interest, etc. for no reason, it would be considered extortion, but when a bank does it to you, it's credit card interest. I could have relieved myself of 5 years of anxiety, worry, lack of sleep, etc. if I filed then, but my pride didn't let me. Pride has been given it's walking papers in my life, and I'm glad that we have the bankruptcy process to fight back. I filed October 2010, and hope to have my discharge by February 2011.

[boomerkae]

I'm filing jointly with my husband. We take some blame for living beyond our means, but the economy and medical bills really did us in.

In 2005, my husband had open heart surgery (at 35) for a congential defect. We were able to save almost enough money before hand to make ends meet while he was out of work with no benefits. We used CC some, equity line a little.

He is an auto mechanic, and since 2006, has lost 75% of his income. In 2008, we had a son. I go out on short term disability, DH has to have another heart surgery when my son is 6 weeks old. No time to save and no income to do it. Stupid us, we make an agreement with the mortgage company to forgo 3 payments so we can make all the other bills - including CC while we are out of work. I mail the morg company National City - now PNC a check at the end of the three months and theymailed it back, asking for the full amount. I have a long story here, but it took until Feb of this year to get it settled. Never went to foreclosure. As PNC started dinging our credit like made, the CC all lowered our limits or cut them off. Jacked up the interest rates. I keep getting more fees as I juggle payments.

In September this year, I had a little girl. Out on leave again. Car dies - that even my DH can't save. Have to buy a new (used) car. More daycare, car payment, way under water on the house - that needs repairs. I usually carry the burden. DH finally wakes up and sees how bad things are and agrees to file. He has depression, and takes it all to heart - if he hadn't lost his income.... but it's not his fault. I'm hoping filing will brighten our future, even if we have to go 13 and pay back - I'm ready for the new slate.

[nickels22]

I just filed 6 weeks ago. Excessive credit card use is the reason behind my debt and wage garnishment was the final straw that finally made me file. I've been thinking about bk since I first with a bk attorney in September 2008 but like others have said, I kept thinking I could get myself out of this hole.

When I started leasing my old car in October 2006, the salesman was raving about how great my credit was. In October 2009 when my car lease was up and even though I made every lease payment on time, they would not approve me for a new one. That really showed me how bad my situation had gotten in such a short amount of time.

My only regret was that I didn't file sooner. I know the next few years are going to be rough when I try to rent an apartment and buy a new car but at least now i'll have a little bit of savings.

[pychk2pychk]

Separation almost divorce, wife and I split up, she moved out of state but was unable to get a job for over a year, used cc's to keep two households afloat. Interest rates went thru the roof and was unable to keep up my cc payments, actually took out a 401k loan to pay off some debt last year, it didn't help much, now I have a 800/month 401k loan payment and in ch13. On a good note, the wife and I are still married, live in the same house and have learned a very valuable lesson.

[ashleywatson]

I think before file for eh bankruptcy we should take the help of legal counsel for the alternative solution for the bankruptcy, because after filling for the bankruptcy you may face lots of problem.

[gml120]

STUDENT LOANS, STUDENT LOANS, STUDENT LOANS. Me and husband completed BS in chemical engineering to find out that all our jobs were sent overseas, plants closed, etc. Payed on the loans first, tried to keep up with car repairs and groceries by utilizing credit. We have never lived beyond our means, we have never driven a car with less than 100k miles on it, and have paid over 80k so far in rent on shitty slum apartments in the worst parts of towns. The ultimate kick-us-while-we're-down was all of those loans we struggled to pay on since 2003 AUTOMATICALLY went into default because of the chap 7. We never did get "good" jobs anywhere near our field of study out of hundreds of interviews and 6 moves around the country to be "nearer to opportunity". With a chap 7 plus loan default on our credit for 10 years our dream of ever owning anything is smashed. Good news is, our neighbors living on welfare next door just told me they bought a house with land to "grow their signature weed." Thanks USA.

[Snax]

We ultimately decided to file Ch7 a year before we actually did. A gradual reduction in income and a home refinance that just wasn't happening pushed us into a corner. We COULD meet our debt payments every month, but barely, and it required sacrifices to things like a healthy food budget. Forget about taking a vacation or going anywhere for the next 5-6 years. With 3 school age children, it just wasn't a life we could continue to lead, working at every opportunity and sacrificing their opportunities for sports and such, we needed to break free.

It took a year for us to file because we really wanted a mortgage modification to take off some of the heat in hopes of actually not needing to file. 9 months later, we got the mod, but it was too little too late. Other creditors thought they could play hardball and jack up interest rates even further, and the mortgage company refused to negotiate our principle down even a penny, so we were still left with little choice. Now, with a home that is negative by over $60k, our only wish is that we had done this sooner.

The banks don't want to help. They just want to keep negotiating for this or that payment or hardship plan on the hope that people will continue to hand over every last penny they can. So taking the same sociopathic view, we took the reigns and are now cutting our losses to begin a much better and frugal life without credit.

So screw the banks. They've done their best to screw us.

[FXClarence]

Long term unemployment here. My wife luckily has an excellent job. I'm in the I.T. field. It seems any job I can find is far less than half what I was making and it is in another state. The problem with that is, then my wife would have to quit her job and we would need to go ahead and throw in the towel on the house. We want to try to keep the house, and we can not replace her job else where. Our bills were based on both of our incomes. We racked up credit card bills helping to supplement thinking things would be better as soon as I found another job. I believe now knowing what we know and where we are at financially, we would have made major changes soon after me losing my job.

I wish we were not so emotionally attached to this house. However, if we get the second stripped off then it will not be as bad as it could be. I know others have it far worse than we do and I truly feel for them. We have our health and we have each other.

[AKB]

My husband was a owner operator in the trucking business and when fuel cost got so high he could not make any money. We tried to get the finance company to work with us but they refused. They got government money but would not lower or refinance his truck so we said come get it. Now he is driving company truck making more than he did owning his own. So we had to file chapter 13 to cover the difference in what they sold it for and what we owed. I am 2 payments in 58 to go.

[dyarlett]

When my wife and I initally got married, she was just a substitute teacher and not making regular income. I had a steady job, but it wasn't enough for groceries, utilities, etc. Basically, we used our CC's as a cecking account, robbing Peter to pay Paul each month and then things snowballed once our interest rates skyrocketed.

[MWM]

Defaulted on a commercial lease with a personal guaranty. That killed the business and all its cash flow. No choice.

[justpassingb]

Husband lost his job due to downsizing in 2009; three months later my job was outsourced to India. We lived off our savings and unemployment for a year, but were unable to find work. Eventually he found a job in another state and we moved.

We were unable to sell our house at all, even after reducing the price multiple times. We had a large HELOC on the house, mainly because we thought we were going to be there for the next 20 years. We were both long-term employees with our respective jobs and made good money. We used the HELOC to pay for college for our kids, as well as braces, medical/dental expenses not covered by insurance, and home renovations.

We finally filed in Feb 2011

[Alt2Att]

We had to file divorce because my husband was unemployed for a long period of time. It was a difficult 5 years prior to bankruptcy, but now that the creditors are off our back it is much easier.

[jjim120]

None of your choices fit my situation. Five years ago, my husband and I were successful business people, owned several businesses, owned our home and a small acreage outright, had no credit card debt. We had been in the process of transferring business control to our son, preparing to step out and retire. We were approached to help a pair of investor-developers continue a project near my husband's home town, told that their problems were the result of major health problems - one with tongue and jaw cancer who had undergone a very disfiguring surgery and the other with severe heart problems. The first phase of the project was complete and they said they wanted one of the best commercial and industrial builders in the area, one with integrity, honesty, and who could control and minimize the cost overruns and change orders they had had on the first phase. They had sought out the recommendation of the builders' association that covered the area, and said that the group recommended only two or three builders in the area who had that kind of reputation for complete quality work and integrity. They told us they were prepared to offer the minority partner's shares as inducement to get us on the project, if he could continue as a consultant to the project and would retain the rights to purchase a selected large unit. They agreed to find a lender willing to fund it.
Sympathetic to the plight of the two gentlemen, and impressed by the level of planning and excellence of the project plan, my husband agreed to do their project as his last before retirement. He was especially sympathetic to the man with cancer, as one of his employees and and a friend had had similar cancer and was left with the inability to eat solid food, only consuming liquids. That employee had been single and alone, and my husband spent many hours on the phone with him late at night, trying to help him out of major depression. Ultimately, the employee drank himself to death, essentially committing alcoholic suicide.
Unfortunately, there was no way to know, going into the project, that the attorney for the man with cancer (also an attorney, the majority owner of the project), apparently was a crook. During the course of the project, it turned out that he had made the bulk of the money he invested in the project by suing his former law partners, that he was nearly wedded to the crooked attorney, and that apparently the crooked attorney had a private agenda for the project outside his client's best interest.
The con game that they ran was massive. We, and our son, lost everything we had, including our home, as we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and never saw the inside of a courtroom until we got to bankruptcy court. We have now been discharged from bankruptcy, but still face issues relating to default judgments because all the lawyers eventually backed away from the case because they would not be able to collect any money for their work, and still have an appearance scheduled in bankruptcy court which will determine whether we face the rest of our lives living in poverty or whether my husband will be forced to testify to the satisfaction of the con artists so that they can scam several insurers and a title company. The tally of people put into bankruptcy continues - 8 that I know of to date - and an additional 3 companies, one of which was a supplier on the project, closed their doors, laying off another 60 people. Four people involved are now at death's door, and when they do die, I will consider these evil attorneys murderers. The con game continues, as I have detailed elsewhere on this forum.
Our bankruptcy attorney says that the story of the project and the con game is not admissible in that court, and everything that has happened has been done by attorneys, protected by confidentiality rules and attorney-client privilege. Massive verbal fraud by these lawyers has been committed, but is not "illegal," and cannot be proven in court. No doubt the insurance company and the title company will make the attorneys' greed worthwhile - once again, settling out of court for some big sum.

[TwentyTwelve]

Basically, being out of work and because companies practically push cards on dumb college kids.

I got my first card when I was 18 and my second card when I was 19. I figured my limit would be low because I reported on the application an annual income of 4000. They sent me a card with a 1500$ limit and later raised it to 3k. I was a dumb kid and used it to live through college and figured I would land a great job after graduating with a shiny new degree. Yeah. The great job never came. In fact NO job came and I was forced to go back to school. By then I had been sued and the total due on those two cards was over 10k and climbing with all the attorney fees and everything. After I got out of school the 2nd time I found a job with a whopping 25k/year salary. I had incurred 30k in student loan debt and the gov is going to get theirs whether anyone else does or not. I could not afford to pay everything and ended up going bankrupt.

It has been a humbling experience, to say the least. On the bright side, I am now more responsible and understand how to use credit properly, as well as following a budget and actually having a savings account.