Cost of Bankruptcy

[john5527]

I apologize if this question has been answered before. How do you consider filing bankruptcy if you can't afford the cost of it. My friend filed last year and it cost him $2500. I am unemployed and have no source of income. There is no one that I can borrow the money from.

[adviceplease]

We are having the same problem but you need to go to several free consultations and see what the pricing is. The first I went to see is $500 down to retain and the balance of $1500 is due before they will file. The second was $600 to retain and $1000 before filing. The third was $500 to retain, $500 when I drop my forms off, and $500 when filing. So there was a $500 difference between the high and low quote.

If you are caught up on the things you want to reaffirm then when you stop paying the stuff that is going into the BK you can take the money from that to pay the lawyer. We were not current on the stuff we want to keep so we have an extra burden but I keep telling myself if everything goes okay we will be so much better off.

[keepmine]

I apologize if this question has been answered before. How do you consider filing bankruptcy if you can't afford the cost of it. My friend filed last year and it cost him $2500. I am unemployed and have no source of income. There is no one that I can borrow the money from.

If you're unempolyed and have no income, bk should be a backburner issue.
Wait until, your finances are stable. You have to be able to support yourself post bk. You don't want to file today and 6 months from now have some serious medical problem and be unable to discarge those bills.
Focus on finding a job for now. The bk option will always be there.

[OhioFiler]

Keepmine is correct. However, if you insist on filing you can go pro se and even petition the court to waive the filing fees. For $17 you buy the NOLO book and do it yourself.

[needeed]

Shop around. I've been quoted from $850-$1000 + $299 Ch. 7 filing fee, to $1700 all included, to $1500-$2500 depending on Ch./ 7 vs. 13.

Most lawyers will do payment plans, and give you a free initial consultation.

[Annie4]

Keepmine is correct. However, if you insist on filing you can go pro se and even petition the court to waive the filing fees. For $17 you buy the NOLO book and do it yourself.

This is exactly what we just did. We walked right in there and filed it ourselves. Our application to waive the fee was approved, thankfully, and our whole BK7 just cost us the gas to get to the Court house a few times (3 I think) and the amount for copies of our petition and schedules (which we probably didn't have to have, but weren't sure if we'd need them later on).

This forum has tons of info if you want to do it yourself. So many of these good people have been in our situation and we can learn from them and hopefully someone can learn something from us too.

I still can't believe we did it, but we did.

I also got the Nolo book free at the library and also used the Bankruptcy for Dummies book. I had about 5 more books along with those, but those 2 were the best in my opinion.

I didn't do this on my own because I'm just oh so smart, we tried to pay the attorney in payments and just couldn't, we also waited for 2 or 3 months for a free attorney but gave up after one of our creditors started to sue and the place still hadn't found us a free attorney who could take our case.

I finally jumped in and tried it out of pure desperation and thank goodness it looks like it's just about over and went well.

[PdxDavid]

Keepmine is correct. However, if you insist on filing you can go pro se and even petition the court to waive the filing fees. For $17 you buy the NOLO book and do it yourself.

If you are getting the downloadable ebook that is $17.99 you can enter a416 as a coupon code at checkout for $10 off making total of $7.99.

I get nothing for this. It is the standard coupon code. I used it when I bought the book and I just tested it again before posting to verify it is still working.

[soxfan]

I am in the "can't afford bankruptcy" boat-

I came across an interesting website [moderator removed website name and link]

I could find no reviews-good or bad
seems very legitimate and offers great cost savings-however I don't want to be scammed.

Anyone have any info or experience with them?

[lrprn]

Anyone have any info or experience with them?

All of the "I can work miracles for you for almost nothing" websites like the one you posted are scams or they cannot produce the recovery they promise. Don't waste your money. Creditors do not have to agree to the 'deals' offered by these companies, and many don't.

In our case, before we filed we tried using a legitimate CCCS company in our area who asked our creditors to agree to payment plans, but half of our creditors would not agree to a reduction in what we owed, a reduction in APR, or a reduction in payment amounts. We wasted $800/month for nine months ($7200) trying to avoid filing and found we had moved ourselves a whole $900 measely dollars to the good - a loss of $6300 overall. Total waste of time and money. We ended up filing anyway.

The vast majority of our members who tried debt consolidation and debt management companies before filing ended up wasting their time and money without seeing much relief at all, just like us.

There are a very few folks who because of their specific debt types and amounts actually can be helped by debt management from legitimate counseling services, but it's definitely buyer beware. The chances of ending up filing bankruptcy anyway are very high.

[soxfan]

I'm sorry for posting a link. Oops

Irprn-it was not a debt management or debt consolidation firm.

It is an aid with filing bankruptcy site.
They say they are a Federal debt relief agency or Bankruptcy Petitions Preparers (BPP) and thus bound by the Federal Bankruptcy or Code.

I will let you know how I decide.

[lrprn]

Irprn-it was not a debt management or debt consolidation firm.

I took a quick look at the website before I edited the link - their primary business looked more like debt management than help with filing. If I overlooked something, sorry 'bout that - but I still would have deleted the link regardless so unsuspecting members wouldn't think that the BK Forum endorsed it

It is an aid with filing bankruptcy site. They say they are a Federal debt relief agency or Bankruptcy Petitions Preparers (BPP) and thus bound by the Federal Bankruptcy or Code.

All the bankruptcy mills say that. Everyone that helps with filing has to adhere to the law. These statements are no sign of quality or that the company knows the ins and outs of what local trustees and judges will allow. No company that is trying to file for people all across the country can possibly know that. Sure, they may be cheaper.....but there's a reason for that. Bankruptcy is not a time to go for the lowest bidder. You get what you pay for.

I will let you know how I decide.

Hope that you will at least interview 2-3 experienced bk lawyers in your area that have free initial consultations before you decide.

Also there are some good ideas here about ways to pay for a bk lawyer when you don't have much (or any) money -

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/debt/20070615_bankruptcy_cost_lawyer_a1.asp

http://www.************************/...rney/#more-717
http://www.************************/...ptcy-attorney/

[john5527]

Thanks for the responses. I think I will take the advice and wait until I am back to work. I don't think I want to try it on my own.

[AngelinaCat]

Good luck to you and keep us posted with your situation. Ask any questions you like. It helps to have a support community with you--and this one is a great source of support and help.

[adviceplease]

You should contact the Untited Way in your area, they have legal help as part of their program.

This is from my area:

United Way 2-1-1 is a free, easy-to-remember telephone number that connects people with resources that improve their lives. The 2-1-1 call specialists are available 24 hours a day, 7 a days a week, and are ready to provide information about a wide range of community services – including health care, job training, child care, mortgage foreclosure assistance and more.

Ask a 2-1-1 call specialist about resources for:


Rent/Utility Assistance
Food
Legal Assistance
Shelter
Support Groups, and more

[want2save]

My attorney charged $1000. plust the $299 filing fee. When I email him he always responds the same day, usually late at night, even on weekends. Replies are sweet and short, but at least they are replies!!! Guess I am one of the lucky ones. My 60 days are up in TWELVE days.