I've been meaning to post this for a while, but what conditions would you have to be living in to file for bankruptcy?

For myself, I don't think I could ever do it.  The fact, is, when you file for bankruptcy, somebody is losing money.  My feelings towards the matter is that if I made the decision to take on debt, I need to live up to my obligation.

Now I have no problem with bankruptcy as a way to get a bit of a breather, but even if you do file for bankruptcy it seems as if you should still pay your debts.

Thoughts?

Yeah ok, If I feel the need to file then guess what i'm going to file. Some of the decisions i made were stupid on my part and they mostly came from when i was younger. If im incapable of paying off my debt and it pretty much is impossible then im filing.

heres my take,

I am going into chapter 7 bankruptcy shortly.

The reasoning being over 250,000 in medical debt because my wife got very sick and needed multiple treatments.

Origionally she should have been insured by the company she worked for, she signed up for insurance but the insurance deal fell through between the company she worked for and the insurance company. Because in a questionaire they sent out while people signed up, it was found that a lot of the other workers had preexisting conditions such as heart trouble etc.

Bottom line, we wanted insurance, she signed up for insurance, but it was short coming. Well then she became sick and over the course of time and multiple times in intensive care (very expensive) she recovered but now we have this huge bill.

Along the way there were 2 hospitals and 2 surgeons that refused to treat so they sent her home to die with pain pills twice!

If I paid everything I took home for the next ten years it wouldnt cover that ammount. Bankruptcy is our only real choice.

Do I feel bad I cant pay it all? Partly, but do I want to live again and try to build something of a life up and even a business someday? YES

Right now I cant get a loan, cant get a mortgage, cant do anything but work and pay bills as much as I can. It has been quite some time since I bought something nice for myself.

Now in this area I have seen people go bankrupt for less than $20K total debt. That to me is a little over the top, but maybe they have their reasons, and sure, there are people out there who abuse their rights to bankruptcy, but I have no real other option.

I have been living like this for 2 years and now I have been sued once and others are starting up. (an employer only has to cater for 1 garnisment) If you get more than one garnisment an employer can fire you!).

So you try to make little payments to all bills, because in this case there were many parties of interest, each doctor, each hospital, the guy who read an x-ray and his nurse etc etc. well some of them refuse the small token payments and sue you. What can you do?

Plus the stream of debt collection calls and methods is driving us nuts.
Calls from lawyers and the sherrif's deputy turning up on our doorstep etc.

I have to throw the towel in, its over. I am totally stuck in life at this point, you cant get another car, you cant get a mortgage, you cant get anything really, and have no future of doing so either.

This is where bankruptcy will save us.


Dan

There are different types of bankruptcy.  One type discharges all your debts.  Another type has you pay a certain amount per month to a conservator type person, who then distributes your payment among your debtors.

I'm not sure what the considerations are for each.  The judge who makes the final decision looks at your income and your debt and your circumstances before the make any decision.

well I can tell you that at around $300,000 I am carrying more debt than allowed under a chapter 11 or 13 (repayment plan) bankruptcy. I will need to go chapter 7 (liquidation).

Last edited by AliasXR (2007-07-04 23:55:56)

As someone who has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy, I have very mixed feelings about that process. I was a young, naive and freshly out of college professional, living paycheck to paycheck. (Not much has changed, except I'm a little older, and hopefully, a little wiser, if not jaded!) I got caught up in the hype of easy, plastic money, signed up for every credit card that was offered to me---charged EVERYTHING on the card: rent, groceries, medical bills....it became too much. I realized how horrible things were when I started juggling lawyers, hoping to have them deal with the menacing and CONSTANT harassing phone calls. Yet, I was in denial and kept hemming and hawing about whether or not to file. I tried calling those debt consolidation companies and when I realized that I would also have to pay them a fee too, I went back to thoughts of bankruptcy. When one of the lawyers finally called me and said that I needed to agree to work with her saying she couldn't deal with the volume of calls from the creditors, I knew I had to make a decision. I opened up the yellow pages and called the lawyer with the biggest ad. As promised, he made those calls stop.
But now, in retrospect, I wish I had just sat down and followed through with a debt program. My debt wasn't even all that bad: barely $20K, (if even that)--yet, at that time, I felt it was more than I could bear.
I feel that there are too many people like me who file for bankruptcy---those, who have more legitimate reasons: ie, inability to work, family to feed, mounting medical bills: those possibly should file.
Today, when I checked out my credit score and realized that if I had waited and sweated things through, I wouldn't have such a horrible credit score now. I now regret what I did.
Nearly 5 years later, I am making better decisions, but I have to say, old habits die hard. Once I realized that it wasn't about the credit cards, but how I used these cards, I started to discipline myself. (also having to support my parents and sister for 4 years also put things into perspective.)
In all, I think bankruptcy is a tough thing---credit card companies need to be held liable for those slick ways they get young people into debt. (dumb college students like me) There needs to be better education in the school systems about proper money management. It's horrible that this is such a widespread problem. People don't start dealing with money and how to perceive it until later in life. The attitude really needs to be cultivated earlier on.

There are some people who, once they have filed for bankruptcy, are likely to do it again. I remember reading that. When I went to bankruptcy court, I recall all those faces looking at me. Some were there for their second or third plus time. One of the women said to me, "why? you're so young. Isn't there another way?" and I said, "no". At that time, I felt there wasn't. Now I wish I had waited and duked it out.

I'm very much aware that deciding to file for bankruptcy is a very painful decision. It's just sometimes it reach to a point where we don't have any choice. We are force to do it inoeder to protect yourself and your business. I remembered my Aunt. It's too painful for her to give up her own business. I can't even imagined that she was admitted in a hospital for how many months when her business fall down. It took how many years for her to recover.

Wow...what fantastic responses.

AliasXR, I can definitely see where you are coming from.  I DO think that there is a legitimate purpose for bankruptcy, and your case sounds to me like it could be a legit case.

I do wonder, however, about those people who file multiple times over their life - especially when their debts usually amount to poor decision making.  I think so many people fail to recognize that on the other end of that bankruptcy is usually someone who has performed some service thinking they were going to get paid.  We often like to hide those people behind a giant corporation who we think has more money than they know what to do with, but so often that will go back down to the low-level employees.

I'm not trying to scold anyone - again, there are legit times to use bankruptcy.  I'm just looking for some insight from others.

I have friends that have filed for bankruptcy simply because of stupid decision's they have made. Buying that new car when the old one was just fine or running up credit card debt to furnish an apartment, things like that. Medical expenses are a whole different ball game as far as I am concerned. I don't think many of us realize how close we are to financial ruin if we are forced to partake of medical services for an extended period of time.

I, for one, am hanging in there as long as possible.  For the most part, we got ourselves in, and we are responsible for getting ourselves out.  As long as you have food and shelter, bankruptcy should not be an option. 

However, when "the system" deals you an unfair hand, like not helping in times of medical need, etc, the situation in my mind is very different.  Some of our debt is because of healthcare costs that we could not control, so I know how this could happen. 

Basically, in depends on how your incurred your debt.