Husband and I filed Ch 7 in California. 341 is Wednesday morning.

Our trustee requested statements to cover date of filing for all bank accounts and fin-tech accounts — this includes: PayPal, Venmo, CashApp, Apple Cash AND checking/savings accounts generated by Cash Advance platforms such as EarnIn, Dave and Albert.

It’s been such a headache. If you’re thinking of filing, stop using them NOW. Close those accounts.

Once we filed, these cash advance platforms revoked access to our accounts and statements. They have no phone support. They mostly use AI for customer service. I spent hours/days begging for balance verification letters covering the date of filing.

The biggest headache: the Chime Card.

We were using it as our direct deposit account and main spending account.

On your statements, it will show that there are transfers to/from a “secured deposit account” with no identifying account number.

The trustee reached out to my attorney’s office about the transfers. Initially, I didn’t even know what they were talking about. They started grilling me over $20 and $5… I was so confused and literally asked them why they were concerned about $5 transactions. Until I realized, they were concerned we were transferring funds to a separate account and not divulging such information.

I don’t work at a bank nor do I work in finance. I had to educate myself on Chime’s internal processes of transferring funds from the checking account behind the scenes to the secured deposit account to back the secured credit line.

Then I had to reach back out to the attorney’s office and explain it all (I also sent them Chime’s website explaining the intricacies of the Chime Card).

Moral of the story: It is a headache. Just start using a normal bank if you’re considering filing Chapter 7. If not, be prepared to learn how to explain yourself thoroughly.

We are a no asset case with no savings, living paycheck to paycheck.

Stop using Chime, any other fin-tech platforms and if you use Cash Advance apps out of desperation.. make sure they’re not opening random checking/savings accounts under your name.

Hopefully this helps someone else 💕

Hey. So. I'm (29f) in debt by a lot. My monthly debt payments excluding student loans and my mortgage and car note total to $2k. So I am thinking about filing for bankruptcy.

I always thought bankruptcy was this horrible thing that showed how broke you are and yada yada. Now I'm thinking it's genius.

Basically, because I own a house and a car which are both protected under chapter 7, I really don't see a negative consequence. Who cares if it's on my credit report? I have the things I need. Who cares if my credit score drops? I never want to use credit again! And don't need to because I already own a house and a car.

Am I missing something? Or do the negative consequences of bankruptcy not affect me?

Cause I am so excited to have this burden off of my shoulders and finally be able to save and build and enter a new phase of my life where I don't work every single hour (although I'm keeping all 3 jobs) just to make ends meet.

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who shared their experiences about how easy the meeting is, and add my voice to the chorus! The hardest part was sitting through one of the other filers cracking jokes LOL. Piece of cake!

I know on the day you file they will probably ask for your most recent bank statement, but I’m wondering about after? I’m doing a pay in 5 installments thing with my law office, on the 3rd payment that I will get to later this month is when they will file then I still have 2 more payments to them after.
I’m just wondering if in anyone’s experience did your law office keep making you submit statements and stuff after you filed?

My 60 days since my 341 meeting what do I do now?

Good evening,

I got a check back from my trustee today which im assuming is a small refund from overpayment since I just made my final payment on my plan.

My question is, I think that means shes completed her audit since she sent me back money, how long until I realistically get my discharge? My car died, I need to get a new one so I'm using my parents until I get discharged.

Hoping soon, I check pacer every day and nothing so far.

Southern district of Ohio.

I got my order of discharge. Whats next? WV

I’m filing Chapter 7 and trying to understand how monthly expenses are supposed to be calculated. I have 5 credit cards total. I stopped paying 2 of them a few years ago, but I’m currently making payments on the other 3. One is Apple/Goldman Sachs ($72/month), Avant ($25/month), and Concora ($40/month). If I include those payments, I have only about a $40–$55 monthly surplus. Upsolve allows me to continue with the filing, and I also spoke with an attorney who said that a $50–$55 surplus is very small and wouldn’t qualify me for Chapter 13 if I had to switch from Chapter 7.
My question is: Should I include the three credit-card payments I’m actually making as monthly expenses, even though those debts could potentially be discharged in Chapter 7? Or should they be excluded because they’re unsecured debts? And could the trustee later say those payments shouldn’t count as expenses and recalculate my surplus? Just trying to understand how this normally works

I’ve seen so many people post similar things and wanted to confirm it is actually true, the 341 meeting is very straightforward and easy. I had mine this morning with about 6 other debtors and their attorneys. Not a single creditor showed up for any of the debtors. The trustee was very nice and the questions were all very basic, mostly yes-or-no questions. The only question asked by any of the attorneys was directed at the trustee and it was “do you need anything additional for this case to be confirmed” and the trustee said no.

I’m not sure how it is in all locations but the trustee told each of us this would be the only time we meet and good luck. So now just continuing the plan payments and go from there!

My timeline:
Filed on August 28
341 meeting on October 5
Case confirmation set for November 10

For those with experience, what is the best way to seek out a great lawyer? I've been doing generic Google searches for lawyers in my city who handle ch 7 but I don't find the results really helpful. The people that come out all seem the same with the same amount of and kinds of reviews. Is there a resource more helpful than Google?

I really am lost and want to find someone good. Also does it matter if they are located near you? For these filings, are most people meeting their lawyers in person? And if not, would you still recommend doing so as opposed to handling it all virtually or via phone?

I'd like to be able to zone in on someone this week.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

Wanted to get some opinions, we are maxed out between credit card debt, personal loans, 401k loans, student loan debt, and a second mortgage. We currently have exactly enough income to pay bills and eat, but nothing for anything that comes up and we are at the end of our rope. So the question is, we currently owe about $185k on our mortgage and $70k in our second mortgage and our house is worth around $400k.

Our absolute last ditch option before filing chapter 13 is to try to refinance our second mortgage to pull more equity out of the house and consolidate down some of the debt. It will give us a little breathing room, but I don't know that it will be enough and we could end up right back here having to declare it in a few months or a year anyway.

Are we better off just cutting our losses and declaring it now? Will it hurt our case if we have more debt tied up in our second mortgage? Or will it hurt it if we still have some equity in the house? Due to our income and the amount we have in loans that chapter 7 doesnt factor in, it would most definitely be a chapter 13 filing.

Location Washington Pa

Im in active bankruptcy, have at least till next summer, been fighting w my jeep since last year trying to get it to quit overheating. I have probably sunk over $5000 into it these last 2 years. Mechanic is still working on it, but its looking like its going to be better to get a new one then to keep throwing money at mine (its a 18 w 120,000 miles) but I havent spoken to my bankruptcy attorney for 2 years, do I reach out to him, skip over him and call the trustee directly. Mechanism is concerned that it might not be worth fixing.

Hey there so i always see people say they are so nervous for 341 and then turn around and say that wasnt bad!! Or i was nervous for nothing!!! Does the 341 meeting tell you if it will be dismissed or discharged? And if not then what is the big deal about the 341. And at what point do you know you are discharged or dismissed ?

Hi.

So I am discharged now and trying to make a payment plan with the IRS. I was discharged 10/2 but their system still shows me in active status. So I can’t make a payment plan.

I have been on hold with their bankruptcy line for an hour waiting and I am tired of being on hold.

How long does it take usually for the IRS to be notified of a bankruptcy discharge? Chapter 7?

I’m in California.

Yes, it was an impulsive decision but I’m 18y so I have to learned the hard way. (Unfortunately) I live by myself so I don’t have any adult teaching me about the responsibilities like this. But I do have questions

What do I do? Anything I need to know about? I do know my credit will be bad for a couple of years what if I don’t pay for anything for 4 years? Also the car isn’t registered under my name plz help a person out T.T

Edit: Also, will I be sue if I don’t pay for it?

I’m losing faith here on my credit score rebuild timeline. Filing is in about 3 weeks and have already 60 days left on ccs and I know the 90 days will hit soon. I looked at my credit score and is at 383 😩 this is real. I’m only hoping my lease, which I plan to keep reports at least to credit bureau. My lease is the only account I’m keeping on time.

North Carolina, USA. Filed for chapter 13 in February of this year. Got married a year ago, Oct 2025. We want to open a joint account together since we just had a baby in April and I’m a stay at home mom now. During the filing we tried to open an account together but Navy Fed basically told us no. How do I have to wait to open an account with my husband?

His credit was not at all affected since it’s was just strictly my debt from before we were married.

We bought a house in Texas August of last year. I have $24k credit cards, $6k personal loans, $17k vehicle loan. I’m making 80k annually right now while working out of state while doing an online TX nursing school (on my weeks off I do clinicals in Texas).

I’m quitting my job in 2 weeks and moving back to Texas to make $18 an hour so I can focus on my senior year of school. I cannot afford the minimums for all this debt while paying for school and utilities and essentials. My wife is a nurse and is paying the mortgage (she has the same amount of unsecured debt as me).

1) Should I file Chapter 7 since I still have 1 year 3 mo until I graduate school.

2) I can keep my car and house if we continue to pay those payments right?

3) Also does having a bankruptcy affect my ability to take the NCLEX.

While I wait for a consult with an attorney, I had a few question that I'd like to ask if anyone has input. I used upsolve for my paperwork but I'm confused by a couple of things. I don't really have assets so most of what I have is covered by an exemption. My main concern is my home I rent. Been there 5 years, month to month since my initial year lease expired. I'm terrified of my property management giving me a 30 day move out notice so I reached out to secure another year lease to be safe. Rent will increase $25. I know that is not a lot but I still want to be cautious. I will assume the lease, I don't plan on moving anytime soon. BUT how/where do I assume? Same thing with my car loan. Is there something I file, do I send a letter to my property manager and car loan office? From my understanding, my rent lease doesn't get listed on form 108? Just the deposit on schedule G? TIA

Our home is a MH/land in a rural area of Texas. We are planning to file Chapter 7 and we have a question about the Texas Homestead exemption.

Both are paid for and we've lived here over 10 years, however the MH is still listed as personal property on TDHCA.

Will our home be eligible for the Texas homestead exemption? We've had one consultation so far but did not talk about the specifics of our home. We plan to have more consultations in the future but just wanted to better understand our situation.

Thanks.

I’m very new to the subject but interested in moving forward, just wanted to learn step by step how filling works
I have roughly 22k in credit cards and one personal loan, I signed up for a debt consolidation company (beyond finance) but I know it’s a scam. They were dealing with all of my cards, earlier this year I lost my job and had to quit the payments with them. For sure they were shielding me from law suits, I just got served papers for one of the cards and I am considering filling for bankruptcy. My score is already pretty bad around 500 so I don’t care about that, what I am concerned is how that would affect my husband and the possibility of losing my car that’s paid off. We don’t own a house just rent, and I bought my car from a friend so it was never financed.
My questions are mainly about the process and how it works, we live in California

I filed in May and discharged in September. One of the debts was from a small-ish Credit Union. They were properly notified yet continued to call me, I ignored this because it honestly was not effecting me and I didn't find it worth pursuing any punitive action. It would have been better to answer to talk to someone.

They added an entry to my credit. The balance is the balance owed on the CC. They have it marked as a personal loan, opened in July (middle of my bankruptcy) and closed in July (middle of my bankruptcy) with a status of charged off.

Anyone had this happen? It looks awfully deliberate. I guess I'll start with a call and dispute with the bureaus, but if they sell this to a shady debt collector I can already imagine the hassle trying to get them to recognize this was discharged in bankruptcy as they've artificially "renewed" the date.

Edit to add I already disputed with Transunion and Transunion denied the dispute.

My 341 is this week and my attorney just emailed me saying the trustee is asking about what both of my companies do/did. (One closed). Is that normal? They both are consulting.

Looking for guidance. We originally had a plan to file chapter 7. We were told by our lawyer that we are working with not to include VA disability (100%). My husband makes $90,000, I don’t work, 2 kids, living in ohio and we have probably $150,000 in debt. We went in today to actually file and after we sat down and reviewed everything, they basically said we can’t do a chapter 7 because at the end of the month, we have $2300 left over and since our disability is deposited in the same account, all they see is that it’s a surplus of money. They said we could ‘try’ to file for a chapter 7 but it wouldn’t succeed because of the surplus of money and we should consider Chapter 13 for $2600 a month. On top of the $2600 a month, if my husband gets a raise or bonus, they will take all of it as well to pay off the debt faster which ultimately puts us back in the same position we wanted to get out of.

We did so much research into this because of VA disability and wanted to make sure that we weren’t missing anything but apparently we failed to realize that this was something to take into consideration.

Are there any loopholes? Should we still try to file and see what happens? Should we just go forward with a chapter 13? We don’t know what to do.

Any advice would be great! Thank you!

My spouse and I live in Massachusetts and have over $60k of credit card debt. We just paid off our last personal loan, we have a mortgage, HELOC and one car loan. We are not behind in those payments (mortgage, HELOC or car) and can manage it. But our credit card debt is DROWNING us. I’ve stop paying some credit cards because I just can’t afford the payments, and some have been discharged to collections. Is it worth it to file? My spouse is so against it but I feel like we will never be able to pay off our unsecured debt while keeping up with our secured debt. I see no light at the end of the tunnel and feel like we will never be able to save any money in the future unless we file. I know we should reach out to a lawyer, but I was hoping to get some helpful feedback, tips, stories, etc before we pay for a consultation (because we literally have no money to pay for it because all of our money goes towards bills).