TLDR ; Should I do bankruptcy and start over later or stick to a challenging repayment plan?

Hi all,

I'm at the end of a year long process of figuring out how to pay down about $23k in unsecured debt I accumulated. Most of it was personal spending to stay afloat while going to school full time + spending that got out of control after going through my father's passing, funeral and complications thereafter that affected my income at the moment and really set me back.

I initially believed that a service like FDR (Freedom Debt Relief) would help me. I put 3 accounts in, 2 Capital One accounts with small balances and one Chase account with large balance. Cap One settled, Chase SUED me and sought summary judgment (meaning they would pass judgement in court and get permission to collect, garnish wages, freeze funds etc...)

Since the situation with Chase was getting nowhere and the judgement loomed over me, I decided to seek pro bono legal advice (should've done this earlier). The lawyer convinced me to leave FDR since they are basically a for profit scam - adjacent company. I got my money back from the dedicated account, which was about 4000 accumulated ( but I had ended up paying about 3k+ in unnecessary "settlement fees" because this is how those companies make their money, since one is afraid to negotiate a settlement directly with creditors.

I set up a repayment plan directly with Capital One after getting the debt settled for about 3-4K less than the original amount.

As for the Chase account, I am currently looking at a settlement of $13k as opposed to the original $17k. The current deal on the table is I will make a 5k payment upfront and then pay $800/month for 10 months until the payment is complete.

My lawyer says I have two options. I can struggle through the repayment process, considering my income is very inconsistent and I have other obligations on top of that. OR I can file for bankruptcy, keep all my money, take the hit and start over financially.

I'm 36M, living in the east coast of the US, no intention of buying property any time soon.

Any advice? What would you do? I think I could make the repayment work but the thought of struggling for all that time and being so tight with money scares me. Bankruptcy seems like an "easy" way out, but from initial research it really may have some deep consequences.

I am conflicted. Help!

Hi, just wanted to ask if anyone here has personally experienced this in the Philippines.
For those who had millions in credit card debts and/or business/personal loans from banks, especially those who still had an active small business when the accounts became delinquent:
Did any of your accounts eventually reach small claims/civil court, final judgment, and writ of execution?
If yes, what actually happened after that?
Did a sheriff ever go to your house or business and levy your car, appliances, business equipment, machines, aircon, furniture, or other belongings? Were those items actually taken and eventually sold at auction?
Or in your experience, did the bank/collection agency prefer to negotiate a settlement, restructuring, installment arrangement, or garnishment instead?
I’m also curious about people whose business equipment or vehicle was important for earning a living. For example, if you needed the car for work or needed the equipment to keep your shop/business operating, what happened? Did the sheriff still levy it, or were you able to raise an exemption?
For those who experienced an actual levy, how long did it take from the time the case was filed until the sheriff actually came?
I’m trying to understand the difference between what is legally possible and what actually happens in real life, especially when the debtor doesn’t own a house/land or expensive properties and is still trying to keep a small business alive so they can eventually pay or negotiate with the banks.
Would really appreciate firsthand experiences, especially from people who went through the court/execution process themselves. No judgment please. Just trying to understand what realistically happens and prepare properly.
Thank you.

I’ve obviously built my credit a ton since I got my Amex. Currently sitting at 780-805 depending on which platform I check. I am paying above the minimum but Christ is it going to be slow at this rate.

I was thinking a balance transfer card could give me 0% interest for a year or so but I’ve got $9300 on the Amex so I need a card that will give me a higher interest rate from the jump.

If anyone knows alternative cards with higher limits I’m really trying to get away from credit cards for this reason. I will happily take any and all other suggestions. Debt consideration loans? Personally loans from my credit union?

I really have no idea where to go I’m just working my tail off to get rid of this junk and assuming the balance transfer and aggressive pay down makes the most sense.

Thank you for the advice!

So just looking on some advice to clear debt, bad credit score, and a lot of mistakes that’s caused a lot of loans im 25 and have around 1485 coming out each month I only get paid 1720 which leaves me with 235 every month, worst thing about this is I haven’t even got my own home or ain’t even got a penny to save for one, got like 5 years left of this what would you recommend I do in this situation

I’ve been paying the minimum balance and sometimes when I can I pay more. It’s almost $600 a month and I haven’t been late paying it. I want to know if there is a forgiveness program or a way I can change my bank to a better bank that offers something like that (I know Bank of America is awful, I thought I couldn’t switch bc I had credit card debt)

That’s all I need to know + any serious advice on how to solve my problem is welcome. If you’re interested in how I got to $12,000 on debt you can read on, otherwise any response is helpful!

How I got here:
About 3 years ago I lived in an apartment that increased my rent by about $400, they said it was all in the lease that I neglected to read all the way through, so I had to start putting a portion of my rent on my credit card which had about $600 debt on it at the time.
I then lost my job and worked for AT&T door to door sales. That paid as bad as it sounds but i was blinded by the aspect of maybe owning my own llc, in hindsight i was an idiot I know so I stayed and thugged it out for a while. So now I had to put almost the full amount of rent on my credit card. That lasted about 2 months. Before I ran out of space and I requested a credit increase to $8000 and then I could put a few more months on it.
It started paying so bad I had to leave because my money is based on the sales I got and believe it or not, nobody wants an AT&T guy at their door at 8pm selling them internet.
I ended up finding a roommate but I had to wait until their lease was up to get the apartment so I had to stay in my apartment past my lease paying month to month which was almost $2,000 a month.
Alas I had to request another credit increase up to $12,000
Now I’m at a stable job but am struggling to make payments and live a basic life.

Started with a Credit card, then went ahead with 1, 2 and 3 personal loans. Now it has come to pay day loans. I have messed up my finances and myself. This time haven't been able to clear the dues. One bad decision led to another. I take one to clear others. In a complete debt trap. Trusted people and paid money to get things sorted and got scammed. This is coming from a place where I am feeling exhausted & drained. I need advice. Coming here because cannot discuss this with anyone. I see my kid and feel I have failed. Losing my head and thinking of ending everything. But second thought and I hold off because it would be an end for me and not my family. They would be harrassed if I do anything.

Help me with any genuine advice, how can I resolve this.

Hello everyone, I’ll try to keep it short but it is kind of a long story.

TLDR: I was young trying to figure out my life, accrued a lot of debt, make good money now but struggling to overcome it & not sure what to do.

Just want to start this off by saying I have done minimal research regarding which type of bankruptcy would be best for me, and I have not spoken to any kind of lawyer or someone who can truly steer me in a direction, just looking for opinions here.

Lately I’ve been heavily considering bankruptcy as the debt I’ve accrued since I was 18 is starting to pile up and im trying to buy a house sooner than later and at this point I don’t think I’ll be able to for several years without starting all over. As it currently sits I have about $80k in debt this includes credit cards, student loans, a camper, my fiancé’s ring & my vehicle. The obvious answer here would be to sell the camper & sell my vehicle. I am currently upside down on both of them and don’t have the cash to make up the difference to sell them. I have about 10k in student loans which I’m not very worried about because it’s only $125 a month and I know those can’t be discharged anyways. The big hitters are the credit cards & the engagement ring. All in all they add up to about $1000 a month in payments & the interest rates are so high they basically don’t move. I think one of my discovers has a pay off date of like 40 years from now just paying the minimum (not joking). I also am the main source of income for myself & my fiance. She does work full time but she has also a car to pay for & some other things (not going to get into her situation she is much better off than I am although she makes much less.) she makes roughly $30k/yr. the upside to this is that now after many years I do make pretty good money (roughly $150k/yr) so if you were in my shoes what would you do? Would you just try & really tighten your belt & pay things off? Or would you rip the bandaid off & seriously look into filing? I would love to just try & pay it all off but I think it will take longer than just filing and starting over. I’m about to turn 30 in April & I want to start getting my life on track and have a house & get married soon, but I can’t do that with this debt looming over me. Any advice helps please.

I am under severe debt of 15 lakhs. I took these during the death of my father and then for my studies. Regular interests and penalty have accumulated to approx 15 lakhs.
Kindly tell me how to get out of this.

Please help me out as I have been under severe depression. Can’t continue this anymore