Hi all,
I'm new to the forum and have been browsing all morning. Some quick background on myself, I have recently finished reading the NOLO book on filing Chapter 7 after considering filing bankruptcy. I plan on filing pro se because I have a fairly straight forward case. None of my debts are business-related, I do not own a home or car, I do not have any savings, I have a retirement account from when I was employeed with less than $2000 in it, I am low income after being laid off in 2011, I have about 30K (originally 10k plus fees, etc.) in dischargeable debt, and I expect that all of my property would be covered by exemptions.
I had considered filing in the past, but ultimately decided to try and pay off my debts with a payment plan. It was more than I could handle so I ceased paying on everything except my student loans, rent, phone, utilities, and daily needs in 2008. I have been lucky until now that no creditors or collections have come after me with a civil suit. I now have a creditor threatening me with a civil suit and say they will pursue a judgement against me to garnish my wages (a couple of months shy of when the debt would no longer be collectable). I make minimum wage at this point and any garnishment would probably push me into homelessness. I think that this is a very good opportunity for me to file for bankruptcy because of my low income status (I fall within 150% of the poverty line) and my clear inability to pay these debts, I can barely pay for day to day life.
Most of the process seems very clear to me. I have gotten all three of my credit reports. I am working on a list of my property. I just want to make sure that I am very thorough in Schedule E. How have others dealt with piecing together their list of creditors and collectors? Because of shame and avoidance related to this debt, which I am sure a lot of posters here can relate to, I have thrown out most of the correspondence I've received about these debts. (I definitely know how bad of an idea this was.)
So what did/do you do? Contact the original creditor and ask what collection agency the debt was sold to? Contact the collection agency to see if they sold it to anyone else? I will be hanging on to any correspondence from creditors I receive from now on, for sure.
I tried to find a similar thread about this subject, but wasn't able to find anything. My apologies if this is something that has already been covered extensively.
I'm new to the forum and have been browsing all morning. Some quick background on myself, I have recently finished reading the NOLO book on filing Chapter 7 after considering filing bankruptcy. I plan on filing pro se because I have a fairly straight forward case. None of my debts are business-related, I do not own a home or car, I do not have any savings, I have a retirement account from when I was employeed with less than $2000 in it, I am low income after being laid off in 2011, I have about 30K (originally 10k plus fees, etc.) in dischargeable debt, and I expect that all of my property would be covered by exemptions.
I had considered filing in the past, but ultimately decided to try and pay off my debts with a payment plan. It was more than I could handle so I ceased paying on everything except my student loans, rent, phone, utilities, and daily needs in 2008. I have been lucky until now that no creditors or collections have come after me with a civil suit. I now have a creditor threatening me with a civil suit and say they will pursue a judgement against me to garnish my wages (a couple of months shy of when the debt would no longer be collectable). I make minimum wage at this point and any garnishment would probably push me into homelessness. I think that this is a very good opportunity for me to file for bankruptcy because of my low income status (I fall within 150% of the poverty line) and my clear inability to pay these debts, I can barely pay for day to day life.
Most of the process seems very clear to me. I have gotten all three of my credit reports. I am working on a list of my property. I just want to make sure that I am very thorough in Schedule E. How have others dealt with piecing together their list of creditors and collectors? Because of shame and avoidance related to this debt, which I am sure a lot of posters here can relate to, I have thrown out most of the correspondence I've received about these debts. (I definitely know how bad of an idea this was.)
So what did/do you do? Contact the original creditor and ask what collection agency the debt was sold to? Contact the collection agency to see if they sold it to anyone else? I will be hanging on to any correspondence from creditors I receive from now on, for sure.
I tried to find a similar thread about this subject, but wasn't able to find anything. My apologies if this is something that has already been covered extensively.
Comment