Has anyone actually filed BK and come out the other side a survivor?

Lots of people come out of BK with a new lease on life, myself included. We had no property liquidated with our chapter 7...cars not worth enough and equity under state limits.

Thanks. I'm just concerned because we live in a fairly upscale suburb and I'm so afraid that the court will take everything if we can't file for chapter 13. I guess the next step would be to talk with an attorney.

You always hear horror stories about BK so I just kind of wanted to hear first hand some experiences some people have had.

What state are you in? You need to look at what your state exemptions are.

you'll be just fine. I think you will feel a lot better after it's over! Good Luck

I'm in Illinois so I'm not sure yet. I'm going to talk to E-limidebt today about settlement. I figure I can always fil for BK if that doesn't work. I'm just concerned about reporting to a trustee for 5 years and having our payments be high.

i filed for bankruptcy in 2006 and did not regret it. my only regret is getting back into debt afterwards.. so please be careful and make sure you really understand how to stay out of debt :)
my parents filed for chapter 7 close to 15 years ago and now have perfect credit.. it was life changing for them, my dad lost his job and they fell behind but now they both retired in their 50s and are enjoying life with savings and the ability to get credit anywhere.
in my experience the bankruptcy did not hurt my credit any more than those accounts being charged off, though i know it stays around longer..

Thanks for all of your comments. I have an appointment with an attorney on Friday....

please keep us posted, you will be fine :)

spoke with the attorney today. He thinks we'll be fine with a 13 because we do have quite a few assets. Now I'm worried we won't qualify. I understand we have to pay back the amount of equity we would have had if we filed a 7 and the attorney confirmed that but then he said based on our income, we would be at about a 20% payback which is considerably less than the equity we have in our home and cars. So which is it? Full equity payback or what we can afford?

Also, does anyone know if it's possible to pay off a 13 early? Say the settlement that we pay back comes to $12,000. Are we able to pay that off early without making 3 years of payments? Forgot to ask the attorney today.

One more question...are we able to include our 2nd mortgage as part of the 13 without including the 1st?

Oh, one more...lol. My son has diabetes and gets his insulin pump supplies from a company we owe money to that would be included in the 13. Can they refuse to service us if we file?

i filed in 2002 ch 7..and all did was file paperwork w/attorney and go to court..and tell court i was bk because and explain..that was it! really only a few minutes in courtroom..now my credit score has suffered ever since..thats the bummer of the whole thing..no one ever went through my personal property and all $ was gone from bank accounts to pay for bills in cash..now i have a cash only way of doing things with no loans, cc, ect. My student loans were not dischargeable so i do have them..but i came out much better than expected...if you have any other questions pleae ask and i will try to answer..it wasn't that bad really-but i wouldn't want to do it again either

My friend filed BK7 and now bk trustee is going after and asking what did he do with his money even 2-4 years priror to filing, even though in that time he has no debt of any kind? Can a trustee do that? I think my friend was blackmailed by his attorney who got paid good money and didn't give him a right advice. My friend just paid to get himself in trouble.

I have a question....I'm considering a Chapter 7. I have a 50K judgement against me and they are looking to garnish my wages. Chapter 7 seems to be the only way out of it. My question is....Can I keep my car if I file Chapter 7? It has a 10K lien on it and is valued around 10K. Can I keep it? What happens to the lien? Do I reaffirm on it?

When we filed chapter 7 back in 2002 we just reaffirmed our vehicles, I had a car and my husband had a pick-up and no problems

Thanks. That helps. I have since been able to negotiate a low monthly payment on the judgement. So I won't have to file for BK after all. But thanks for answering my question.