Why Are/Have You Filed BK?

[brokemfer]

I'm here primarily because of divorce. My ex-wife and I were married, bought a house, and had 1 child. We ran up quite a bit of credit card debt slowly over the years, and never made more than the minimum payments. I made good (not great) money, she made decent, and there was always enough to pay the bills, save a little, and have some fun.

We ended up separating and eventually divorcing after 7 years. In order to keep the divorce out of the courtroom, and to keep life as normal for our child, I agreed to take on about 85% of the marital debt. I also agreed to a child support arrangement that ended up being just over 50% of my take home pay. I figured I made enough money, and could cut living expenses that I could make it work.

I made it work for about 18 months. However, in July my paychecks (even with a 2nd job) just couldn't cover all my obligations. I made an appointment with a credit counseling service. I walked out sixty minutes later and made an appointment with a bankruptcy attorney the next day. The three choices that were presented to me were to add a third job on top of the other two, go back to court to get the child support order reduced, or declare bk. I chose the third. I filed chapter 13 in September. I had my 341 hearing in October, which went off without a hitch. My confirmation hearing is set for the second week of November, and my attorney anticipates no challenges in getting the plan confirmed. It seems I filed just before a tidal wave of filings hit here in Michigan.

[syn]

I am here gathering information for my dad. Excessive credit card debts, business loans and IRS troubles have forced into either filing chapter 7 or 13. Every was fine with the business until he tried to purchase a second location which happened to pass at the wrong time, gas went up and people stopped driving (he is in the automotive trade) so he became behind on the IRS by $30,000 over two quarters. He is forced to sell the second location or the mortgage company is going to take it for being 4 months behind. Luckily the IRS put a lien on the property so if he can sell it the IRS will be gone. The mortgage company seems in no rush to auction it off.

$140,000 deep in credit cards he is in. $50,000 in business loans so it's alot. Not to mention the $150,000 home equity loan on my house that my dad can't add into it but that will probably be entirely separate issue since he is 2 months behind on that.

So that's my issue, haha.

[pageturner]

Why I filed for chapter 13BK

Victim of Fraud, subprime loan, excessive debt that I wouldn't be able to get out from under. I've been dragging debt behind me for 20 years. Lost a parent young. Family that can't assist. Finally coming to my senses and learning how to live within a budget.

[BROKENN]

Business bad deal from *friends*. I had lived off debit for years, never saw the money. The deal was wrong and I was wrong for not investigating, hence new rule, atty consult on deals. The SBA people were wrong too, just like CCs, we weren't qualified. In the end, we weren't attuned either. Live and learn

[bulletproof77]

Basically where we live (Southern California's High Desert) is an economic disaster. There are NO jobs, housing is in the toilet and fuel and taxes are just out of control. In my case, I was laid off in June after 10 years at the same company, my wifes's hours were reduced and of course our healthcare costs went way up. I have found a job in Los Angeles (driving a gasoline tanker truck, want to talk about stress ??) working every crappy hour I can get. It's no fun being 55 years old and starting back "on the bottom" working nights, weekends and all holidays. I have no life and yet still the bills keep piling up. I drive a 7 year old pickup to work on the LA freeways just hoping I don't break down. With gas prices and my commute, it's just not working anymore. I/we are partially to blame though and I feel bad about contemplating bankruptcy. But, we can't refinance an "upside down" house anymore and the calls are starting to come in daily. We have an appt. with a lawyer next Wednesday and hope we can find some relief from all this.

[Teamsmith00]

I racked up some debt in my early 20's trying to fund a failing business and pay a mortgage on 20k a year from my full time job. It started with owing the phone company, and cable company, next thing you know my checking account got over drawn (ironically cause of an unauthorized debit from the cable company.) My failing business finally failed, and my full time job was cutting hours, I simply couldn't afford to live anymore. I wasn't able to find another job in my city, so I moved 70 miles away and took a job with Walmart, and moved in with my girlfriend (now wife) After 6 months of trying to sell my house with no success, they foreclosed, leaving me with a $23,000 deficiency. Add on a few medical bills, and my credit is toast, though not as bad as the majority from what I've researched.

Once me and wife married, my company that I was with went out of business, so we lived on credit cards for 4 months, and toasted her credit in that short time. Now that I'm in a stable job, and doing better than ever, we just can't seem to get out of this hole, and our newest addition to the family, while we love her to death, has a lot of cost associated with her (but I wouldn't trade her for anything) we usually have around $50 left after we pay all of our cost of living bills.

I look forward to putting this all behind us, and starting off on the right track, purchasing a home, instead of living in an apartment, having lower car payments because of lower interest rates, and being able to use credit for things like emergencies when needed.

I'm glad to be on this forum, reading and sharing with you all.

[Nicollette]

I was so wrapped in the payday loan mess; borrow from this one to pay back another one, and so on. Well, by the time I would pay back this one, I would be broke, so I would go reborrow the next day from a different just to get my bills paid (utilities). It was so bad, I was ignoring all my other bills, such as credit cards, car payments, etc. I started the payday loan cycle, when I was getting short term disability payments from my job because I was on sick leave from carpal tunnel surgey. My disability payments were half of what one of my actual paychecks are usually for. It got to the point where I felt like I hit rock bottom, not being able to pay my bills, so in the mist of all that, my doctor diagnosed me as being severely depressed and put me on antidepressants. Then one day, I just told myself, I can't live like this anymore because I'm setting a bad example for my daughter. I knew the only way out was to file BK. Once my case was filed and all the collection calls stopped, I felt my life turning around completely.

I would like to share with everyone that payday loans are nothing but trouble. They put me severely in debt. I feel I learned my lesson and I've never even considered going into one of the stores since. I'm also glad that Ohio passed the Issue 5, which puts a cap on the interest rate of what the payday lenders can charge someone.

[Goodrisk47]

In the mortgage business

specialized in subprime

'nuff said?

[violetuniverse]

i filed back on 05 when the law changed. my debt was 60k over 5 cc. i was very depressed and on zoloft. it made me not care about aything. some people drink and drug to feel better....me i spent. im sorry i did but at the time i just didnt have a clue and wasnt myself. im trying to up my fico score which is now 654

[jencz]

$25,000 unsecured credit card debt, buying a second house without selling the first one, and than losing my job in November of last year, as an icing on the cake.

hello, I am new to this forum but Edytahome your story is a copy of mine!
I bought a new home in Sept 07 with the intention of renting out the previous then lost my job this past December! I did find another job, but making about $12,000 less, so needless to say we ran up the credit cards. It's amazing how fast the debt can just pile up, truly frightening! i am meeting with our attorney on Jan 5th to start the filing process. She is hoping to file chapter 7, she just wanted to make sure we had a few solid months of no credit card use first.

any Advice anyone?

[deris657]

Hello there. If i am going to file BK the first reason is Medical Bills. I broke my nose and go to the hospital for check up and they are supposed to make Xray that never happened and send me home becuase there is no major damage happened and know what? they billed me $4,000.

[kenshirley]

How about none of the above as a choice???
We were both retired and had gone back to work for something to do.
Of course the bills matched the income and within 8 months of one another we both became disabled to the point where we could no longer work and just had the retirement with the bills that did not match.

[threnners]

My husband found his "soulmate" on the internet and decided to move back to his home state. Luckily we had no joint accounts and everything is in my name, but I cannot afford to pay creditors, the bills from 2 hospital stays, and the lights/phones/day care, so something's got to give.

I see my attorney tomorrow about it.

[Jade]

My reason - 3 years of hell.
Hubby and I have worked all our lives and never got into trouble with debt before. Three years ago, we decided to refinance our home to buy a bigger one, as daughter and family moved in with us. We got a sub-prime (big mistake). Our second mistake was not selling the house immediately - houses were selling like hot cakes at the time at top price, but it was too inconvenient to find temporary accommodation for two families- also we thought the 8 months it took to build the new house would only increase our equity. We put the house on the market just before we moved into the new one (at that time we had over $100K equity in both houses). You've guessed it, the housing bubble had burst and no-one even came to view the old house. One son had a serious accident and we ended up paying the medical - with credit cards. Also lawyers fees (also on the credit cards). Paying two mortgages/property taxes etc etc meant we were charging more and more on CC's. Hubby had an income of over $100K a year, so we were able to keep up with all payments. Then last April he was laid off, got another job only $60K - I lost my job as mother became seriously ill, so had to care for her (in UK)- frequent flights and eventually a 5 week stay after she died to sort her affairs. The list of moans goes on, but we still have excellent credit, have never paid late on anything and managed to pay $22,000 off our debt, last year. We still have a total of $60,000 unsecured debt, plus 2 car loans, and two mortgages. New Years Eve, hubby got an email from his new company, they couldn't afford him anymore. With me still searching for a job (in a high unemployment area)- our income is down to hubby's pension and social security. We can no longer pay everything. I have tried to negotiate with mortgage companies and credit cards- they won't even talk until we are 90 days late, CC companies are just as unhelpful- the cars were easy temporarily- we were allowed to defer payments for 2 months, so a bit of breathing space on those. After a week of sleepless nights, we began looking into bankruptcy. Done a lot of research and we've made an appointment with a lawyer next week- during the process our emotions have gone from horror, shame, embarrassment to 'we should have done it 2 years ago'.
We are hoping to file Chapter 7.

[TJR70]

Lack of paying bills, doing payday loans every month to make ends meet to support 3 kids. Being sued by capital one and decided to file for Ch 7 no asset. Want a fresh start to do things the right way..