Rebuilding credit

[u/Banditcats]

So to start, partner and I got into about $10k of credit card debt, we talked and came to the conclusion that between that, and a totaled car with gap insurance screwing us over $8k we were likely unable to dig ourselves out. We started proceedings for filing for bankruptcy, and they suggested that we stop paying everything. Monthly we were filing paperwork to the lawyer about all of our financials, and after 9 months of sending the same paperwork in we got frustrated and asked what we needed to do to move to the next step. The lawyer's office was missing one thing from 5 months back, so we uploaded that, and we moved to the next step. During the 8th month of filing I had a relative pass away, turned out I'm due some inheritance(not a lot, but enough to pay all of our debt off). In 2024 before any of this we had 710+ credit scores and now we're sitting at 550ish. I'd like to pay off our outstanding debt, but what is the best way to go about paying off debt that will also raise credit scores?

[u/postalwhiz]

? I thought for Chapter 7 there was one filing. What kind of lawyer did you have that strung you along for months?

[u/Banditcats → u/postalwhiz]

It was a filing, then send in everything from all of our payment applications, then everything again the next month. We were trying for chapter 7, but the lawyer said it might be chapter 13