Twelve reasons to file bankruptcy

1) You get a fresh financial start. Filing for bankruptcy is powerful and useful tool which allows you to discharge all or most of your debts and usually keep all of your assets. This is one of the twelve reasons to file for bankruptcy. You get a “fresh start” with your life and you can begin again financially without the burden of being in debt and being caught in the never ending debt trapIt will no longer affect your everyday life and you will no longer live in fear and you can put your life back together quickly.

2) Usually your credit score will improve over and above what your credit score would be if you didn’t discharge these debts. By the time most people file bankruptcy they are so far behind in their credit card payments that bankruptcy will actually help improve their credit score. Since most people are unlikely to pay their debts off this results in a permanently low credit score.  Your credit score will decrease immediately upon the filing of the case but when your bankruptcy is finished your debts will appear as “discharged in bankruptcy”. Those debts discharged in bankruptcy will then no longer negatively impact your credit score.  You can now begin to rebuild your credit score with new credit. You will get credit card offers after the bankruptcy discharge so use them wisely to increase your credit score.  These are 2 of the twelve reasons to file bankruptcy.

3) You get freedom – Shakespeare said “never a borrower or lender be” because as a borrower you become a slave to the lender. If you owe credit card debts then you are slave to those big banks to whom you owe money. You pay huge amounts of interests to these big banks every month to service your debt. These interest payments only serve to enrich very large corporations at your expense. Filing bankruptcy can serve to free you permanently from both the worry and the financial strain of continual and unrelenting debt and the stress of the collection actions.

4) You can keep all or almost all of your assets. Most people can retain all of their assets in a bankruptcy. That includes your house and your cars and everything else that you own. Many people think they will lose everything. We have very generous exemptions in Massachusetts that allow most people to keep everything they own including your house retirement accounts and cars.

5) You will get peace back in your life. When you file bankruptcy your creditors must stop calling you on the phone. Most of my clients have not answered their phone for some time before they actually consider bankruptcy. Filing a bankruptcy will stop all of these collection efforts with the miracle of the “automatic stay” that is put in place once you file bankruptcy. This automatic stay stops all creditors from contacting you in any way once they get notice from the Bankruptcy Court.

6) No one needs to know. Many people are afraid of bankruptcy because they think that their landlord or their employer will find out about their bankruptcy and they believe they can be evicted or lose their job. This is not true and you will still have anonymity if you file. You don’t have to tell anyone that you filed bankruptcy and probably no one will know unless you tell them. It is unlikely that this will happen though so your secret should remain safe.  Your landlord will probably not be notified especially if you are on a month to month lease. Your employer need not know unless you already have a wage garnishment that needs to be stopped. You cannot be fired from your job or thrown out of your apartment or home because you filed bankruptcy if your employer or lenders or landlord do find out. Discrimination of this sort based upon a bankruptcy filing is illegal.

7) You have other things to do with your money- If you are like most people then you need the money you earn from working to pay for your own personal bills and pay for your family and their needs. You don’t need to give this money to these large banks. You don’t need to spend this money to enrich large banks for money you borrowed from them a long time ago.
If you earn less than is allowed in the means test then you can probably file chapter 7 bankruptcy and discharge your debts.

8) You have already paid the credit card companies back at least what you borrowed if not 2 or 3 times more than that.  If you are like most of my clients then the debts that you owe are probably very old. You have probably been making payments on these debts for years. If that is true then you have already paid back the creditors their money. By the time most people file a bankruptcy they have already paid back all of the money they borrowed plus a lot of interest. Don’t make the mistake of feeling that you need to keep paying these companies when you cannot afford to do so and your quality of life keeps dropping.  These are 8 of the twelve reasons to file bankruptcy.

9) Times are very tough and many people need to file more now than ever. The price of food and gas has gone up and up and inflation is taking a toll on household budgets. Times are very tough in this economy and it does not look like it will get better soon so explore the possibilities that bankruptcy offers you.

10) Personal bankruptcy is your bailout – Corporations file bankruptcies all the time including the credit card companies that you owe money to. They bail out with bankruptcy so why not you? In addition many banks have received government bailout money to keep them going. They then turn around and bother you for money. That is your money they are receiving from the government but they are not giving you any breaks.

11) The creditors absolutely will not stop trying to collect from you until you pay or you are dead or you file bankruptcy. They only know one thing and that is to collect your debt with all of the interest and penalties that they can add. They will continue to sell the debt to other collectors and these collection agents have a nationwide network. They buy, sell, and trade these debts but they keep trying to collect. They simply will not just go away but rather they wait until you have something they can take from you.

12) Your situation will probably continue to get worse and worse if you don’t file bankruptcy or pay these creditors. The collection efforts will increase in intensity and eventually the creditors will file a law suit. Many people try to put their heads in the sand and hope the debts will disappear. This is not the case though as the situation will only get worse. The debts will grow in size as interest and fees grow. Eventually some creditors will file suit and serve these on you.  If you do not file at this point then you could get a default judgment against you and they will use this judgment to collect money from you. They can now lien your house and file a lien against you personally or garnish your pay check. Most liens can be removed in bankruptcy.  You should contact a bankruptcy lawyer for filing chapter 7 or filing chapter 13 with an experienced bankruptcy law firm or bankruptcy attorney.  Above are the twelve reasons to file bankruptcy.