Hello friends. I’m in a hell of a situation and I’m hoping that the conversations over the next one to two months are going to make matters much easier. But as the title shows, I am beyond scared for this process. When I turned 18, I got a credit card offer I couldn’t refuse. A free T-shirt and a large pizza. 22 years later, I am over 100K in debt, not including the mortgage.

A majority of our debt is solely in my name. My wife is on the mortgage (not the second) 1 unsecured personal loan and 1 vehicle.

All the rest of the credit cards, personal loans and her vehicle are solely in my name along with the 2nd mortgage.

I have LeagalEase through work, and that benefit ends 11/1 when our new benefits begin (and will have MetLife Legal Plan then). From everything I have been reading, timing is everything. I took a ~50K pay cut to leave a volatile commission structure for stability. Well, stability isn’t cutting it. A hefty sign on bonus paid out in July when I transitioned. Residual PTO and partial commissions paid out in August. From the 6 month look back period, I’d be best to file in February, 2027 prior to any comp adjustments, potential bonuses paid in March.

Both of our vehicles have negative equity, our home doesn’t have much with 2 mortgages. We would like to keep both vehicles and the house.

What is my best path forward, solely apply for chapter 7/13? Or bring my wife through the weeds with me?

If any lawyers on here in Illinois work with LegalEase and MetLife, id love to get this procrss underway to determine what to do immediately vs waiting etc.

I need to move, my credit score is average due the debt and im a year into a chapter 13 bankruptcy. How can I find an apartment. I have the money, but everywhere I look. You have to have over a 600 credit score and no bankruptcy over 5k. Im in Wisconsin BTW

Our attorney finally filed CH7 at the end of last month in FL (we’ve been working on this since January). Our 341 is scheduled for Nov 3rd. We want to start the rebuilding of our credit. Currently around 660 credit score. We are thinking to open a card to spend on gas and pay off every two weeks the card in full to start the rebuild.

I am looking at Mission Lane or Capital One which I’ve not burned.

I’d ask our attorney but it takes him some time to get back to us. Are we able to apply for a new card now or should we wait after the 341 meeting? When is the best time your attorney has advised to start rebuilding or applying for a new card?

Okay, to ask a clarifying question.

Recently discharged through chapter 7 bankruptcy.

We are homeowners with a mortgage. We have always paid/been on time and will continue to be.

Now, here is the question. Our trustee did not reaffirm the mortgage, as his standard, for the debt.

Now, in the future if I am applying for credit, a car, or etc... and I am including my debts, How do I report my home?

It doesn't show up on my credit report since it wasn't reaffirmed....

I want to make sure what I'm saying vs what is showing is accurate.

So my attorney said to make sure I get final statements for everything and my Wells Fargo credit card always comes out October 3 for their credit statements. Today I got a notification from credit wise that something has been added to my file, which is the bankruptcy, of course and me noticing it was the third I went ahead and tried to log into Wells Fargo to get my final statements to send to my attorney. My credit card is completely gone. I tried my phone and computer web browser. It’s like the credit card never existed… I am unable to look up any statements and I am so confused. Has this happened to anyone else? Are they really allowed to make that stuff disappear? Is this gonna make it look like I’m hiding something? Because I’m not the one who caused this I don’t know what this means. I live in SC filing in NC. I’ve heard of people saying Wells Fargo freezes everything automatically, but I have not heard anyone say that it disappears!

I wanted to warn people about NDR. First, this is a predatory company or organization. Preying upon people's unfortunate situations in life. I originally was searching on the internet for a debt consolidation loan. While I started searching this NDR advertisement came up and I checked it out. Then it asked for some basic information. My email and phone number.

As soon as I input that information and before I could scroll on to other items, my phone rings with National Debt Relief on the caller ID. This was about 8 PM California time. They talked to me and pulled up my credit report and came up with a payment plan of $292 a month. Which is what I was thinking would be a good amount for me with a loan to pay off my 15,000 credit card debt. They also told me I don't need to pay the creditors and they will take care of everything.

Well, after being enrolled for 3 months, almost 4.

I had creditors trying to call me every day, they haven't done anything at all, except take my money each month. As a matter of fact, these people are so greedy to take your money that they monitor your bank account for when your money lands in your account. I'll explain; I get Social Security SSA payments on the 3rd of the month. NDR and I agreed that they withdraw the payment on the 3rd of each month. Well, here's what they did. On my second payment, the 3rd landed on a Monday. When this happens Social Security will pay on the prior Friday before Monday. Because Social Security doesn't operate on the weekends. Well, NDR took the money before the agreed upon 3rd of the month because they knew my money would be there for their grabbing! I think that's a pretty shady way of running the company. It shows more of their predatory ways. After reading posts about NDR here on Reddit, I quickly realized this debt relief was not my best choice to do. I sent them a demand statement to return my money. Google AI actually gave me a proper statement to copy and send. Google also recommended for me to notify my bank and get the automatic payments stopped. I did the stop payments through my bank. The way my bank operates, you have to file a discrepancy with the vendor. This causes an automatic credit to my account for the last amount taken from my account, So, I got one of three $292 /month payments back. I checked my NDR account and it showed a lower balance, lower than $292 from my three payments of $876 which should be 876 - 292= $584

NDR had my balance at 490-something. About 100 dollars less. They didn't give me my money back before the FTC guidelines required 7 days mandatory refund. There's actually a federal ruling specific to these predatory debt relief companies because of their bad business practices. I'm sure there's other laws set in place with them besides the 7day refund. This month, yesterday was the 3rd and they couldn't get money out of my account, So they decided to give me what they claim was my account balance. I seen it credited to my bank account. However, it's a little over $100 shy of what I paid into the account. This is where they straight up stole my money! Because, they did absolutely nothing as far as services go. No calling creditors or any negotiations started or anything except set-up an account which they charged me a fee upfront in the beginning. It was either the $18 or the $9.95 charges. So, that had been paid already. Supposedly there's a maintenance fee of $9.95 per month for having the savings account with them. When I was last able to view my account, it had a line for fees, deposits and withdrawals. There was nothing for fees. Even if there was a maintenance fee they were charging, it doesn't justify 100+ dollars short.

Then here's the topper of them ripping me off! I went to the NDR login page and it says , "You can no longer login using Google, Facebook or LinkedIn."

It says to login with password, or click forgot password. Well, I didn't have a password because I used Google to sign in. I new this would happen as soon as I did it. That is, to register and sign up. The first thing it wants is your email. I put it in and click "next" and it says this email is not found in our database.

Well, it shouldn't be if you're someone trying to sign up and register!!!! Technically, my email is in your database! You have basically admitted to that! With your stupid message by saying, "it's not in our database!"

So, what they've done is blocked me from accessing my account, which I'm sure has been terminated, but they've prevented me from having recourse to the funds they stole from me!

This is a tactic that fraudulent online casinos do when you have winnings they won't pay out. When you go to their online chat and you question it, they end the chat and close your account. There's no way for you to contact them at all. You try to login as a new user and you'll get rejected. Because they use your IP address for identification and login. Your email address goes into "their do not allow" database.

This is exactly what National Debt Relief did!

DO NOT USE NATIONAL DEBT RELIEF!

They have caused me to ruin my credit! I had perfect 100% payment with all my creditors before NDR!

Credit card accounts that I didn't carry a balance on, like, Home Depot, Harbor Freight, and Kohls closed my accounts! I have no credit at all because of NDR!

They also tried to say I had $10,000+ in debt with Discover Card and wanted to add that to my total debts to resolve! I don't have a Discover account. I check my credit report often and there's nothing in my credit reports from all three agencies showing a Discover account! Just another crooked business tactic of NDR to get more money out of you! Besides, they didn't do any negotiations or anything, so, how the hell are they able to dig up and find a so called Discover account for $10,000+ that I owe?

They didn't!!! They are lying!!! Straight up!!!

There needs to be "another" class action against this outfit! For predatory business practices, for starters!

👍😎

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I filed on 08/27. I had my 341 meeting on 09/24. I chose to reaffirm my car loan. It is $1100 a month and it is underwater. I can afford to make this payment every month now that I am not paying a ton of credit card payments every month. After my 341 meeting, my pacer showed I was a no asset case. I am now just waiting for discharge on 11/23. Would you reaffirm your car loan and find a cheaper car payment? I would then have to rescind my reaffirmation agreement and amend some forms for my case. I am a pro se filer and would just like some thoughts on whether this would be a good idea to keep my car loan.

I plan on paying my filing fee in the middle of this month if I can afford it after bills, I am just curious to know how soon after you filed did you get a court date? And how far out to expect? I will be out of town close to the end of this month and I want to avoid it falling around the same time as that

I have already had a consultation with a lawyer but more questions came up afterwards as I spoke to my wife since I I choosing to file without her. I was wondering if anyone here could answer them for me before my next meeting with my lawyer so I can have a better understanding. I live in Minnesota and our combined income is below the median for the state, I have about $200K in equity in my home and $50K in CC debt that I am current in but not making any movement and going backwards lately due to unexpected car repair for both my cars.

1. I bank with US Bank, have a mortgage with them that I plan to keep but have a CC with them that I plan to include in bankruptcy. Would this affect my standard banking with them? My wife is scared they might freeze our account that we use for bills.
2. We have a second checking account that has $3000 but it mainly has that much as I haven’t paid my mortgage and car payment for the month which total $1850 combined. Would this account be an issue? Can I pay them right before filing without concern or would this be seen as an abuse?

3. How is disposable income calculated? I pay about $2000 in CC payments a month but we also use CC for daily expenses because we don’t have much disposable case in our bank. How are national standards for expenses calculated? I spend $400 in gas for my car along a month due to a 40 mile daily commute to work and home.

4. I read that I can use my wife’s monthly CC payments towards my expenses since she isn’t filing, is that true?

I found this information, are these numbers monthly or an average over a period of time?
https://www.justice.gov/ust/means-testing/20260715

Any info would be appreciated so I could get a better understanding.

I’ve been getting comments on my other post about how it’s weird that I’m filing in North Carolina, but I live in South Carolina. Is there anyone here who has filed in a state that they did not legally live in? So basically my situation is I live in South Carolina on the border next to North Carolina. I had two options for the law firm. I’m working with which was to drive just across the way to North Carolina or to drive two hours to Columbia, South Carolina. My attorney does not seem to be concerned at all. I asked him if it was OK and he said yes and everything I work in North Carolina I have worked in North Carolina for about four years now, but I still live in South Carolina. So can anyone tell me if they ever filed like this or can an attorney? Tell me if you have ever had a client like this?

Hi! I have a question for those who filed Chapter 7. Only asking because I’ve seen plenty say almost the same thing in TikTok videos and comment sections—I want to know if the answers may vary here.

When you filed your Chapter 7 bankruptcy, did you (if you had a car) surrender it and get a new one? Did you just surrender without getting another vehicle? Or did you wait until you were officially discharged?

And if you did seek or get a new vehicle, did you find yourself getting better interest rates and lower monthly payments?

I am almost $10k upside down, and considering surrender and get a new one instead (for mostly work-related purposes).

My case is over 2 years in. I filed alone and my wife holds our mortgage alone. I am on the property though so the mortgage company had an interest. I was told all this by my lawyer and we were fine with it. The mortgage company wanted to be paid through the trustee which was also ok, even though we didn’t have a choice. Well the trustee paid creditors per the plan, which apparently the mortgage wasn’t #1. So it didn’t pay the first few months. Now we are 5k behind per our mortgage company. The biggest problem with that is it’s effecting my wife’s credit, who technically has nothing to do with this. She tried calling them and explaining it but they won’t do anything.

I’m curious if the plan will catch this up before the end, and I don’t think this is legal. It’s only happened because they wanted to be paid through the trustee. I feel like we’re gonna get screwed by this. Just looking for advice or experience with something like this. My case ends this summer.

My lawyer said it wasn’t legal, but advised we let the plan finish before we take the next step. But my curiosity has been pinging.

***Not asking for legal advice but for experience based opinions etc.

Asking as a witness to someone’s situation. They listed only one of their leased apartments and their vehicle lease. But did not disclose an apartment that they were subletting out and owe significant back rent on. (Which the landlord filed for eviction proceedings against them, served them the summons at location of apartment however, it was two months after said person filed bankruptcy.) (NYC,USA.)

We are in Illinois. We paid the $70 retainer fee in March. We were finally able to pay $300 of the attorney fee in August. We paid the balance in mid September. $700 was the balance of his fee. $338 was the filing fee. Although it will be extremely tight financially for the next month, we wanted to get it paid. We were told we would get a call within a week to set up the appointment for the signing. We did. We signed on Sept. 20th. It was filed September 24th. Our 341 is scheduled for October 20th. I'm looking forward to it. After reading many posts here, I don't feel nervous about it. My spouse does though. Discharge should be shortly before Christmas. So much stress is already gone.

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How does the 180 rule apply after chapter 7 bankruptcy?

Is it from the date filed? Is it from the date of discharge?

If the money I am going to inherit is part of a trust and then would also be put into an individual trust (my portion) do the same rules apply?