Get Out Of Debt

You see, making a decision about which path to pursue depends on your evaluation of your individual situation.

Bankruptcy:

Pros:

o Chapter 7 Eliminates Debt and allows you to keep any equity in your home. If your problem is primarily consumer debt, this may be the best option for you – if you qualify.

o Chapter 13 restructures debt allowing you to pay off the amount in a way that makes sense for your family.

o Filing for bankruptcy stops the foreclosure action on your home.

o If you lose the home during bankruptcy, you will be able to qualify for a new mortgage in as little as two years as long as you keep your credit clean after discharge.

o Many people find that their credit scores actually rise slightly after bankruptcy because there is new money available for purchases.

Cons:

o Many people who file for Chapter 13 fall out of bankruptcy and lose the court protection provided. This means that they often not only have the bankruptcy on their record, they also face foreclosure proceedings once again.

o If you abuse the system – doing a “face filing” bankruptcy for the sole purpose of delaying the foreclosure, you may face fines from the court.

o Bankruptcy stays on your credit report for ten full years – longer than just about any other negative credit mark.

Foreclosure:

Pros:

o Stays on your record for just 7 years

o Won’t risk falling out of foreclosure and having both a bankruptcy and foreclosure on your record

Cons:

o You lose your home and any equity in it

o Generally cannot get a new mortgage for at least 4 years.

o Possibility of a deficiency judgment against you which will require a bankruptcy filing anyway

Medical bankruptcy is one of the most misunderstood terms in medical finance. There is actually no “medical bankruptcy”. That being said, medical problems have consistently been one the 3 leading causes of bankruptcy in the United States.

Although there is technically no medical bankruptcy a medical problem can certainly cause you to find yourself in bankruptcy court. Medical problems can be a double whammy; they reduce or eliminate your income and cause you to incur massive debt. In many cases you have virtually no chance of ever repaying this debt, it’s just too large. Many people find themselves in a position of losing their homes and other valuable possessions in an attempt to repay their huge medical bills.

Often, seeking the protection of bankruptcy isn’t something desirable but it’s seen as the only way out. You may think that having health insurance will provide protection against such a financial calamity, however almost 50% of all bankruptcies are caused by people facing massive amounts of medical debt even though they had medical insurance at the time of their accident or illness.

Sadly, there are also a significant percentage of medical related bankruptcies that are filed by people that aren’t really facing huge medical bills. Almost 40% of medically related bankruptcies were filed by people who owed $5,000 or less in medical bills. In many cases this is due to the medical industry being much more aggressive in collection actions than they once were. In other cases people are just not educated about how to proceed in such cases. Once the collection letters begin arriving, fear sets in, and many people just don’t look at all their options.

Yes, filing a chapter 7 bankruptcy can protect your assets and allow you to keep your primary residence if your home falls within state guidelines. These vary by state. Filing for bankruptcy protection however, is can present you with huge problems down the road and will essentially destroy your credit rating. You should carefully consider your other options before considering using bankruptcy as a shield to protect you from medical bills.

You might consider calling an attorney in your state that specializes in such matters. Your first call however should be to your creditors. The first line of defense should be making arrangements for some sort of alternate payment plan. Bankruptcy is a messy business and most creditors would rather avoid is almost as much as you would.

Any person in their right mind does not want to file for bankruptcy protection. Having a root canal is several levels about that in terms of “things I want to do”. One of the big problems is that when someone finally gets around to admitting that their financial situation is so far down the wrong road that it is out of control, it’s almost too late. The decision to file bankruptcy or consider bankruptcy should have been made, with any foresight at all, at least 2-3 years earlier in most cases.

Sometimes the financial burden may have come about very suddenly, like a major medical expense that was not unexpected, or a job layoff with trouble finding a replacement job for an extended period of time.

There is no hard and fast rule about when a person should file bankruptcy. It varies from individual to individual, and every situation has its own specific quirks, so that one can say definitely that “one size does not fit all”. But one of the problems that happens when one starts looking to bankruptcy as a way out of their financial difficulties is that very traditional thinking starts to set in.

Traditional thinking about bankruptcy says that bankruptcy is an “easy way out” of one’s financial difficulties and overloaded burden of debt. You just file, the slate is wiped clean, and then life goes on, right? Dead wrong, especially with the new bankruptcy laws, which still vary widely from state to state. The new bankruptcy laws make it much more difficult to file for bankruptcy than it ever was in past years, and it is no longer just a quick trip to the courthouse with a couple signatures.

Today’s bankruptcy laws make filing bankruptcy a much more invasive procedure, where they look at every nook and cranny of your life and your finances to determine why this happened and what type of bankruptcy you are required to file. Bankruptcy used to be something that you could, with a good deal of study and patience, do yourself without the assistance of a bankruptcy lawyer, but that is no longer the case. The laws are now so complex that attempting bankruptcy without an attorney’s help would be foolish, as well as probably taking almost twice as long to accomplish, since if you incorrectly file one of the mountain of forms, you get sent back to square zero to start from scratch.

But is bankruptcy really necessary? In other words, what alternatives and options have you thoroughly looked into? Oh, you haven’t? Shame on you. Filing for bankruptcy protection is going to have long lasting negative effects on you. For example, it will appear as a huge red flag on your credit report for 7 years or more. Credit will be hard to come by, and when you are granted credit, the interest rate will be much higher than you have ever seen it before, because now you are labeled as a high credit risk.

One of the very viable bankruptcy alternatives is a debt consolidation loan. They don’t actually hand the money to you though. Rather, they take your outstanding and overdue accounts, and you pay one monthly payment to them, which they in turn divide up to send to your creditors. Your creditors are happier than they’ve been in years because now timely payments are being made, and you credit rating does not hit the skids, at least not completely, because you were able to avoid bankruptcy.

Check your alternatives and options before making such a critically important decision as filing for bankruptcy. You always have options, and the key to successful living is to acquire the knack for choosing the right one.