I don't know who I owe money to!

[bobbonew]

Hey everyone. I'm going to be starting my bankruptcy process in about a week with an attorney. I know from research they will ask me to prepare a list of all my debts.

The scary thing about all this is I have no idea who I owe money to. I'm only 23 years old and made really bad financial mistakes when I was 18-21 and for the past two years just tried to regain my life again, trying to forget all the horrible stuff in my life at that time.

The last step is filing bankruptcy. Much of my debt comes from an apartment that I was evicted from, and many many utilities and credit cards attached.

Will printing out my credit report be sufficient? What if there is a debt or two that I was not aware I had and never reported, will I still be released from that debt? I honestly have had no lines of credit or debt in the past two years, one would think all debts would be included on that list.

This part really scares me. I don't have any records of anything when I moved home. Any help is appreciated.

[mtngirl47]

Yep, the credit report should do it. Find out from your attorney which one they want...mine was specific and wanted a certain one. You're young...your memory can't be that bad...make a list of everyone you think you might owe and compare it to the credit report. When you get a total--come back to the forums and lay it out...experienced folks may have some good recommendations for you.

[justbaby]

I was in the same boat! I had NO IDEA what I owed. My atty pulled a credit report of her own which is a requirement. I pulled my own report and it was some items not even listed that she had. Apparently some creditors don't report to all 3 bureaus....check with the attys, they may do their own.

[BKOnce]

You don't volunteer 2 owe nobody on no report yet!

[ccsjoe]

1. Pull your 3 credit reports (one per bureau) since not all creditors report to all 3, and
2. Try to remember if you have medical bills outstanding since those do not report to bureaus.

[packerfan]

I'd start by first making a list of what you do know, who you owe it to and contact information a landlord, utility payment may not show up on your credit report..Even with this I knew who and what I owed but the challenge was finding out who had the accounts ie accounts in collection have changed hands multiple times. Then get your credit reports..report EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY you may owe money even if your not sure..i

[researchnerd]

Will printing out my credit report be sufficient? What if there is a debt or two that I was not aware I had and never reported, will I still be released from that debt? I honestly have had no lines of credit or debt in the past two years, one would think all debts would be included on that list.

Nope. You can't get legal protection from debts that are not listed specifically in the BK. That's why it's really important to list them all. It's worth spending some time on to be sure you get every single one; you don't want a zombie debt coming back to bite you in the a$$ a couple of years down the road.

[angles]

anyone have a web site to go to in order to request a free report from one of the three?

[ccsjoe]

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp