r/Bankruptcy

edit - im only 22 years old in Missouri and this feels like the only option i refuse to pay money when i was badly hit my car ruined and i was injured😔

i was badly hit in december my car was totaled and my insurance policy had just expired november 4th.
i was broke from christmas shopping said i’d wait one more month to renew boom look at my luck. anyways
i tried to get multiple different lawyers to help me get something out of this case but it was hard to determine fault since no one called the cops i know i know it was my first wreck ever i didnt know what to do i was disoriented and crying sue me i guess

MORAL OF THE STORY

i got a call from this man’s insurance 5 months later telling me they are faulting me for the wreck and i owe $16,000
i have no real job i already pay my mom $100 weekly out of the small amount i do make because of something that happened in the past i owe her $8,000. i have no car nothing no real income i live at home and i have no clue what to do about any of it, i was just in the process of trying to get a loan for a shit box car because i have nothing no way to do anything.
is this bankruptcy valid?

The bankruptcy filing finally hit my credit report and my credit score dropped 103 points.

Will it drop more once I’m actually discharged? How long did it take you to build your credit back up?

ETA: chapter 7 bankruptcy

Just concluded my 341 meeting, assuming everything went well? When will I hear from anybody? Need answers? Just want this gone so I can restart my life TIA

My dad got me a cash car recently it was 10k and it was gifted to me by him also the insurance will be paid by him for now since he saw I needed a car to get to work because I make maybe 200 sometimes a week maybe less depending on what hours they give me.

My last car got repoed due to the lien on it and I was out of work so I couldn't make the payment at that point I told my dad and he has been helping me thankfully get out of the mess I made for myself. He said since I always help them out he wanted to help me which I'm super greatful for.

My lawyer didn't file the bankruptcy yet and I immediately told them as soon as I got the car since its in my name. I do have the bank recipient to show it was from his bank and not mines as I'm too poor to have just 10k laying around.

I'm worried now if I file chp7 since I still make less then what I can pay back they would take the car and I really need it because I would be starting an apprenticeship job that would help me gain more certifications in tech also pay me but I need to drive around the city.

Would they take this car? I'm stressed thinking about it. It has 0 payments on it since it was paid in full by my dad.

I am 26, have been living in my car for the last year and a half traveling the country, and do gig work. I’ll try to make it short and with bullet points

Bought Kia forte July 2024 been doing gig work ever since Even at that point I could hardly get a credit card and my credit score (actual not the ones you would see on credit karma) was something ridiculous like 550 due to not paying a gym like $200 and a bike from affirm like $200 nothing even crazy at all. Had a payday loan but made all the payments up to that point for about a year. Got car 28k owed with 11% APR. I pay $486/month on it. After 2 years I still owe 23k. I realize I will never come out on top. Car has 80k miles now, getting scared something may happen but that paranoia will always be there regardless

Have 21k saved No rent, credit card payments equal $100/month give or take Making 5.5k -6.5k/month When gas was lower I was saving like $1,000/week after expenses now maybe $700

My credit was already screwed even before, I’ve been living in my damn car and I don’t want to settle down ever really because every time I do I just get stuck in bad situations I need the freedom to go wherever and whenever at least for a while longer maybe even a couple years

So why am I paying $500/month on a damn car that I know I’m not going to come out on top of?

I have 21k and hopefully praying that I have a good amount more before anything were to happen but if it does, even now? Should I just file for bankruptcy? Why give in to a system that has me living in my car just to save up? Why get myself stuck somewhere to fix my credit that was screwed before I ever got a credit card anyway?

39 years old and trying to decide whether Chapter 13 bankruptcy makes sense. I make about $100k/year but currently have about $38k IRS tax debt, $30k credit card debt, $4k payday loans, $5k medical debt, and $30k student loans. I already have an IRS installment agreement but the overall debt feels unmanageable. Credit score is under 600.

I don’t really have assets to sell. I rent, and my car is too beat up to be worth much.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation? Did Chapter 13 actually improve your life long term, or do you regret filing?

The biggest problem that I'm having is that I need to move out of this apartment. I went through something very traumatizing here about 4 years ago and I still live very close to The person who traumatized me. But my credit score has sync over the last 4 years. Most of this debt is because of the last 4 years. I am so scared that I'm going to be stuck here because it's so hard to find another place to live with such a bad credit score. And I'm worried that if I file for bankruptcy it's going to be even worse.

I currently live in Missouri, but I'm thinking of moving to another state.

Filed ch 7 today. Haven’t paid my car since end of February. How long until Santander comes to take the car ? Decided to surrender the car because the payments have become overwhelming.
Trying to figure out when to go out and get another vehicle as my commute everyday is 45 min.
Went looking last week and was quoted at 25% 😳 stating my credit score was low & they’re taking a risk seeing the other car on my credit still.
Wondering if a letter from my attorney would help?

As the titles says, my car was illegally seized from my house on 05/13. I filed for chapter 7 on 02/19, I had my 341 meeting in 03/27 and my discharge date is 05/26/26.

I woke up and my car was gone, I called the local sheriffs office, confirmed there was no repo order out, called the financial company and they said they towed the vehicle because I never signed my reaffirmation agreement. I didn’t sign it but I still had time to sign it according to my attorney. I let my attorney know that the vehicle was taken by the finance company, we called them together and to quote exactly what she said on the phone, “we set a deadline for the reaffirmation, you didn’t sign by the deadline, we went to a judge in 3/22 and they granted a Relief of stay. However after looking at PACER, none of that is true, it shows none of that on the docket. Like I mentioned before I still had time to sign the agreement.

My lawyer and paralegal cannot get ahold of the company anymore, they aren’t returning calls. However when they took the car they took my only way to and from work along with my work tools (company paid for) that was in it, and the only way to get that stuff back is to make an appointment with the tow yard and I must bring them my keys and such for the car, but the tow yard closes at 4pm and I work on a military base and I can’t call before 4pm to make an appointment to pick the tools up. I’m also being threatened to lost my job because I can’t drive to the required sites to work.

I’m really lost idk what to do, if I would have known they were gonna take the car, I wouldn’t have paid the last 3 months and attempted to find a beater until I was able to finance. I just spent $2000 on the lawyer for chapter 7, I don’t have a disposal income to drop money like that.

Even if my lawyer fights it and brings sanctions against the lien holder it could be months before I get the car, on top of that because the car is gone, I’ll have no income with no family near me to let me borrow their car, so I’m pretty much out of money and ideas, should I file a police report and insurance claim for a stolen car?

Edit: My car loan is fully paid up and current, I haven’t missed a payment

Hi All. As of right now, I'm under the means for Chapter 7, but I just accepted a new job and start next week which will bring me OVER the means by 2k (as trustees evaluate my new steady income). I'm going to have a really hard time hitting that disposable income # and don't want to file a Chapter 13. Do I just clear out my 401 to pay half my debt and pay the rest as normal? Any hope out there from experience? I'm sick right now, I thought I was going to be in the clear. There are so many choices to make.

Yesterday, my husband and I signed our petition for Ch. 7 bankruptcy at our attorneys office. Our attorney initially said that we qualified for chapter 7 and we paid him in full. I had listed in our initial paperwork that my husband and I had done 2 withdrawals from his 401k in the last 6 months in order to try to stay afloat. (Learning this was a VERY stupid decision but alas here we are). What got us in this situation was my husband got laid off from his job making around 120k a year unexpectedly and then started a new job making 45k. We got very behind on bills leading us to bankruptcy. Each 401k withdrawal we received around 8k net which we used to catch up on rent, credit cards, car payments, etc. Fast forward to our signing and the attorney said that he accidentally left out the 401k withdrawals and so it put us over the means test because the 401k withdrawals increases our 6 month look back. The attorney said that we could go ahead and file with the presumption of abuse and then he could explain that the 401k withdrawals were one-time events that should not be included in our normal income which would put us under the means test. He feels that this will likely not be an issue but worse case scenario it would go to a judge and then if that didn't go well we could be forced out of bankruptcy or into a chapter 13. Just nervous about this whole process and wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar and what the outcome was? I'm trying to trust the process and trust the attorney but it's unsettling to not know how it will play out in the long run.

Hi, like many of you I’ve made poor decisions and have put myself at the end of my financial rope. I have about 80k in unsecured debt, most credit cards and 1 personal loan.

Some or half of my debt is due to gambling and the rest is just life expenses.

I’m reading all sorts of stuff on how the gambling may affect which route my BK goes.

My wife and I make around 90k combined after taxes, so not bad but okay for Oregon.

My debt is all owned by me so I’m filling alone. What has me worried is the means test. I’m reading the gambling winnings are included In your 6 month calculation, and well if that’s the case that throws me way way over. We have heavy mandatory bills( mortgage, daycare, car, utilities) almost around 5500. That’s not including living expenses.

If the winnings are added how the heck would anyone qualify for a ch7? It doesn’t make sense.

On top of that I’m a disabled veteran so I receive compensation for my service disability. This also adds to my worry. Also in haste and worry I withdrew from my retirement in hope of paying stuff off but nope messed that up to. My minimums a month total almost 2k.

Can anyone provide insight?

Also my gambling was recent and I’m just so out of my mind and body I can’t find any ground.

I’m just at a loss.
28, 34k debt in unsecured debts, on 38k income.
Basically, I’m paying 1100$ a month in debt repayment on 2.4k income. Because of this, I have familial support.
I don’t buy food, I just eat the leftovers of what my family makes. I rent a room in the house, pay WiFi and a portion of utilities.
No assets of value.

Basically he said currently since I’ve condensed my expenses to afford the debt, and that I need to ‘redistribute’ my expenses, IE I need to be paying more than net income in basic living expenses before any of the debt payments.

How does this work though if I’m receiving informal support?

The debt came from getting a loan to help family get out of an apartment and into a house; my soul dog got cancer and then had to be put to sleep, I got a second dog that had to have emergency surgery and went to the ER three times, and then I started using credit for daily transactions.(Fell into a dark depression)

My family is trying to tell me I don’t have to wait the six months of stopping debt payments, starting living expenses payments instead and I can file now but I don’t understand that.

Any advice is appreciated, I’m rightly confused and not sure what to do.

Yesterday was my last day to dispute on my chapter 7 bankruptcy, I checked PACER this morning and there it was! The weight that has been lifted off my shoulders that I carried for so long is unexplainable. My only regret is waiting as long as I did. Filed January 2026, 341 in March 2026, discharged May 2026. Thank you to everyone who answered any questions I had along the way, it has been a tremendous help to have a community that understands!

I am in such student loans debt that I’m basically paying a mortgage or a 1 BR apartment with the amount that I pay a month. I’ve been consistent with my payments, and I’ve been lucky to have a SO to handle the rent. Well now our relationship is over and I need a place to live. I cannot afford more than $400-$600 a month…and that’s just living paycheck to paycheck.
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Is there a way I can consolidate all of my student loan debt into one bank account and file for bankruptcy? I know they don’t typically do student loans, but is there a trick I could do to get that approved? Has anyone done this before? If so, how?

I did go through a law firm, but I’m still nervous something will go wrong. It’s such a detailed process, and also such a numbers game.

I’m worried they will question my expenses, at least the ones that are higher than IRS averages, even though I have good justification/documentation of them.

And I’m worried because I’m a contractor and although the last six months put me under the median, the coming months won’t. But I know they only look at the last six months..

I’m just scared I’ll be in the small percentage that gets dismissed. I’m in IL, 74k in debt, no assets. $5939 monthly combined income.

My husband and I filed chapter 13 in October of 2025 in TX. We are high income earners and had business debts which has resulted in a $4,795/month payment for 60 months. Our 341 meeting went smoothly with only 1 creditor showing up. Our 1st confirmation was denied (which I see from this thread isn’t uncommon) we’ve since been denied two more times. We have a hearing scheduled in the morning. Our attorney called yesterday to let us know we WOULD need to be present. This will be our first one to attend, and our first time to ever appear in court…
I’m nervous for how it will go. I don’t know what to wear, nor what to say if prompted. I am a worrier so the last minute throwing it on us has me in a spiral.
I’m assuming we were asked to be present so we could be questioned about the things they are denying us for? Our attorney does not seem very tentative now that we are in the thick of it.. we feel out of the loop on a lot of things and unprepared for this! Has anyone else attended a confirmation hearing after being denying several times? What should we expect?
My last question, could they raise our payment amount? We are both small businesses owners so our yearly/monthly income fluctuates. Something I prematurely worry about. Thank you!

My insurance lady called me today and said that she was told to cancel insurance on the house that was included in my bankruptcy because it is a liability for them as they know it is vacant, she said that the mortgage company paid the insurance and when she cancels I will get a refund check for around 3000 dollars, my case has been discharged and closed for some time now but the house hasn’t been fully foreclosed yet, if I receive this refund check will I get in trouble for it or what should I expect?

I have a consultation with a bankruptcy attorney tomorrow and a second one with an attorney on Friday, but i am having anxiety because one of the paralegals i spoke with said that even if I am under the median, I still have to pass the means test.

My concern is I have been putting off major dental work (extractions of broken teeth, a few cavities, and dentures) that I received an estimate of 8k for because I couldn't afford it due to the costs of paying on my debts (41k in credit card debt and 1 unsecured personal loan for 13k)

I was hoping the bankruptcy would free up money for me to start saving for this dental work, but if thats just going to be taken for a chapter 13, I dont know what I will be able to do.

Can I include the future dental work in a chapter 7 means test? I am 10k below my states median. I also live in PA if that matters.

As the title states, I had about a month of garnishments before I was able to file, I was under the assumption that I would only get garnishments returned for payments taken after I filed. I received my pay and noticed my employer returned every cent taken even before the bankruptcy was filed. Do I mention this to my lawyer ? Did someone at my job mess up?

I’m about $15,000 in debt. 1 card 5k, another 4k, 1k, 800, 500, 100 etc etc: like 9 cards idk … I was so stupid I know.

I have a letter from midland stating they’re going to be Sending to an attorney and I’ll be served and taken to court; I’m so scared: I have a car in financing that I sleep in and have been for 3 years, it’s too expensive to life in Orange County ca. I’ve received like 5 letters, all escalating each time, and another letter from midland for another 1k debt: so midland bought 2 of my debts. And I have mail going to my crazy aunts so i may have more at her place. Idk: anyways, I pay my car on time never late since 2022. I have little job. I want to keep car obviously or I’m really really homeless. I can’t afford 3k for bankruptcy filing and lawyer etc. how can I file for cheaper? Can I represent myself or is it that hard?’ Please spare the poopoo talk cause I know I’m a dumbass, I was immature. Please help though: I’m in Orange County, can do LA too.