A reaffirmation agreement is a legally binding document filed with the bankruptcy court in which you agree to keep making payments on a debt. For example, you are required to sign a reaffirmation agreement if you would like to retain personal property, such as an automobile, and keep making payments after filing your bankruptcy.
Anyone who tells you that bankruptcy won’t hurt your credit is lying to you. Bankruptcy will hurt your credit initially. However, if you are interested in filing bankruptcy your credit is probably already damaged quite a bit or is well on its way to being damaged. One of the nice things about bankruptcy is it allows you to hit the “refresh” button to start over. The question on whether a bankruptcy will hurt my credit is an easy one to answer. Yes. The more important question we should really be asking is: Can you rebuild your credit after filing bankruptcy and, if so, how? Yes, you can rebuild your credit after filing bankruptcy.
These are common questions that many people have about bankruptcy. In an effort to provide you with information we have provided these frequent questions. However, it is important to realize that each state has different rules and these answers are not meant to be legal advice. Contact a bankruptcy attorney to learn more.
This is a general and approximate timeline. Each and every case will be different depending upon your individual situation. Some cases may take less time and others may take more time. To get a more definitive timeline, review the contract you sign with an attorney at Duncan Law at the time of your free initial bankruptcy consultation.
Although, it’s important to keep statements that you receive in the mail regarding your debts, you should also consider obtaining a credit report.
For many people, it is difficult to remember original creditors, collections agencies, amounts owed, and so on from years past. A credit report is a great way to visually see all of your debts listed out for you, especially if you did not keep statements. Our recommendation would be to look at your statements first, then back it up with a credit report. For many people, this will cover your bases in regards to who you owe, but remember this does not guarantee to be all of your creditors. This is why it’s important to keep up with your statements and also view your free credit report yearly. By doing this, it allows you to see whom you owe, if it’s accurate, and when and where the debt was incurred.
You are entitled to a free credit report every 12 months from www.AnnualCreditReport.com. It is one of the only legitimately free places to obtain a credit report. It will not, however, give you your actual credit score. Use this website, if you have not already done so in the past 12 months, to view your debts and names of your creditors. We recommend checking this annually so you can be sure the creditors on your report are accurate. When filing bankruptcy, it is essential that all of your creditors are listed, so be sure to use both statements and a credit report to back up what you already know regarding your debt.
It’s also a good idea to be sure you get your free credit report again a few months after you file bankruptcy. It will help you rebuild your credit after bankruptcy.
The court may dismiss your Chapter 13 bankruptcy if you fail to make payments to the Trustee or if your debts exceed your ability to pay. If your bankruptcy is dismissed by the court you will be responsible for all your debts and the creditors may proceed with collection actions against you as well as proceed with foreclosure and/or repossession.
These are common questions that many people have about bankruptcy. In an effort to provide you with information we have provided these frequent questions. However, it is important to realize that each state has different rules and these answers are not meant to be legal advice. Contact a bankruptcy attorney to learn more.
Now I know most people will look at this question like, “why in the world would I want to keep my cards if I’m eliminating my debt?!” But occasionally, you will have one company in which you are still in good standing and will want to keep that card in hopes of somewhat holding on to what bit of credit that you have left. It’s just not as simple as that.
Have you ever been in a wreck? The next few days following the wreck, you will be bombarded with advertisements from attorneys claiming that they can help you in whatever service you may need from being in the accident. Many wonder how they even knew about the wreck in the first place! Well filing bankruptcy is a similar situation, once you file it is public knowledge and your creditors, whether they were included in the bankruptcy or not, will likely find out about the bankruptcy and will cut the usage of your account off. Most creditors’ fear violating the bankruptcy’s automatic stay so they will discontinue usage of the credit card. So in the situation of a credit card in which you wish to keep, you may have never missed a payment and have been in good standing and they will still cut the usage of the card off, which is why we recommend that you list ALL of your debts.
Should you wish to try to keep a credit card out of the bankruptcy and wish to continue making the payment, then you need to contact that credit card company and give them a heads up on what your intentions are and ask for permission to have that card be kept out of the bankruptcy filing. It will be completely and solely the discretion of the company whether or not they allow you to keep the card out of the bankruptcy and continue to make the payments, and report the standing to the credit reporting agencies.
If you don’t list down a credit card, with the hopes of keeping it, and then after filing the bankruptcy they shut it down anyways, you are still responsible for the debt. For example, if you have a Visa credit card with Wal-Mart and you talk with Visa and explain you are filing bankruptcy and they say they will allow you to keep the card but, after filing, they still shut it down, you are responsible for any remaining balance on the card. You may still be able to go back and amend the bankruptcy after the credit card company refuses to allow you to keep the card but there will be court costs involved in amending the bankruptcy.
Again, we always encourage our clients to list down all of their debts. You can rebuild your credit after bankruptcy and in order to get your fresh financial start it usually means wiping out all of your debts.
You must disclose all of your assets when you file bankruptcy, regardless of whether you file Chapter 7 bankruptcy or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. If you do not disclose all of your assets, they cannot be protected from the bankruptcy court and your creditors.
If you have received a discharge in a previous Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you are not eligible to file another Chapter 7 bankruptcy for eight years. The eligibility is eight years from the date of the filing of the first bankruptcy. If you have received a discharge in a previous Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you are generally not eligible to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy for six years; however, there are some exceptions. You can refer to Title 11, Section 727 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code for the exceptions.
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Winston-Salem: (336) 245-4294
