Why wait to file?

[downwardspiral]

I've read posts about people who stopped paying their credit cards and they waited months to file BK. Why do you wait? We are thinking about not paying this month. We are also hoping to file this month. I don't think I could take months of harrassing calls.

Also, when you file for BK are the creditors allowed to call?

[Cali]

I would suggest reading the stickies on this board, they are filled with a wealth of knowledge.

As to your questions, if you file inside 70 days on a cash advance or, 90 days on luxury cc purchases then, the creditor has the presumption of abuse. So that is why it is suggested to wait as long as you can so creditors won't assume that.

And once the BK is filed the creditors shouldn't call you.

[HHM]

Yeah, as Cali mentioned, waiting to file often times has to do with ageing recent large purchases or cash advances so as to minimize the chance that a creditor would object to having their debt discharged. Also, sometimes, it can take many months for a person to save up enough money to pay their attorney.

[woeisme]

I really wanted to file right away once I made the decision, but it took a while to save up for my attorney fees, and then I wanted to wait because I got a 1-time stipend at work for doing an extra project that would have shown up in my 6-month lookback for salary and would have made my monthly payments higher (CH 13) if they had included that amount. But it was a real balancing act because waiting too long would have meant including a possible pay-raise into my lookback, although I wasn't sure if I was going to get the raise or not but wanted to file before I knew for sure so I could honestly say that I didn't know of any changes of income that were upcoming. I decided to file in June, and didn't actually file until Sept, and just now found out about my raise which will become effective at the end of this summer, so it all worked out ok in the end. But in some ways I wish I had waited a few more months so I could have had that $1100 a month I am now sending to the trustee for a few months to save up a buffer before filing, but oh well, I'll be done with the plan quicker this way I guess!

[Phillymanhere]

I stopped paying creditors at the beginning of April .... I am waiting until July because my attorney believes I should put 90 days between my last charge of any type and my date of filing for bk.

My attorney is a trustee, and he was pretty thorough ... His guidance sounded good; I figured he knows the legal quirks of our jurisdiction. So I'm waiting.

Plus ... as others have said, I'm saving the money to pay the attorney. I am using my tax refund and my stimulus check to pay for most of the attorney's fee.

Finally, I took an 8K cash advance in October 07, and waiting will make it less likely that a creditor will challenge me and ask for that money back.

I've gotten a couple of calls already from one creditor ... I expect the volume of calls to pick up in May and certainly by June. But I'm just quickly telling them, "I filing for bankruptcy. bye-bye." click.
Good luck.

[justplaintired]

We are putting space between all credit card usage. We thought filing asap would be best, but according to both attorney's that wasn't right. So we waited and now we are waiting on our stimulus check, so the waiting continues....

[downwardspiral]

We haven't used our cards in over 6 months, with the exception our American Express card. That we used for monthly expenses like gas, grocerries...etc. No luxury items. We have not used the Amex card in a month

[tay666]

We stopped paying in March of last year, and still haven't filed yet.
We stopped paying because we just couldn't afford it anymore. Wife couldn't work due to a medical condition.

We didn't file because,
(A) we didn't have the money for a laywer
(B) it wouldn't have helped

You should only file if things will improve after filing.
For us things won't be improving for another month or so. My wife just finished school, and is doing her unpaid externship. After that, she will hopefully be able to find a paying job.

IF we would have filed last year, we would have avoided all the harrassing phone calls.
But we would have racked up more new debt also.
In the past year we have probably accumulated another $20,000-30,000 in medical bills. This is actual co-pays, deductables and things not coverd by my insurance at work. Because we waited, we will be able to roll those into our filing. Which is huge since our total household income last year was only $23,000.

[One Half Full]

I have absolutely no money left over each month to pay a lawyer. I had to stop paying the CCs and car so I could save. Even so, it will take many months to file. A lot of people are so poor they don't have 1,500.00 in spare cash laying around. That is more than I make in a month (net). I still have to pay the bills, save the house, and then save this money for the lawyer. That's why I haven't filed right away.

[Cali]

I stopped paying the majority of CC's in January.

Paid the attorney in full in March and won't be filing until June.

[JollyGG]

We were one of the few people who filed within the month of realizing we needed. I couldn't take the stress of being in limbo.

It ended up being a good thing. We filed in October. In April I had had a baby and been on maternity leave from mid April until mid June. Then in July I had a paycheck that was short because they changed our pay period from the first to the first to the 21st to the 21st. Our income was pretty close to the median and my husband was job hunting for a better paying and more satisfying job (found something the month after our discharge). So the two short paychecks in our lookback kept us under the median.

However, because we didn't wait to file we did have a few minor bumps in the road. We had a Wells Fargo credit card linked to our checking as overdraft protection that we used very very frequently. Those were considered cash advances. Additionally, we had just transfered the balance on our American Express card to a Discover card for lower interest rate. Well both Wells Fargo and Discover sent us letters requesting that we reafirm and threatening to object. They never actually did object, but that was because both amounts were relatively small (under 1500). Our trustee went after the balance transfer with American Express and got that payment back making us an asset case. Which made a couple of hundread dollars we couldn't protect of our tax return appealing and the trustee took that as well. So after a year and a half we are really close to closing.

I'd do it the same way again given the same circumstances.

However, I honestly would have been better of waiting had we been less close to the median and had my husband not been quite as actively job searching.