Bankruptcy or Not?

[Anonymous]

Hello all...been a while since ive been on here (was just putting all the great advice into practice)

Anyway i had great credit and started a business after i got out of the military with my cousin.

A year later my cousin screws me and now i have tons of Chargebacks from merchant accounts, tons of credit card debt because he failed to use business funds (as per our agreement, which is confimed in many emails) to pay back everything that i have owed.

I got an attorney but to no avail. so that was a waste.

Anyway im now getting back on my feet, slowly but surely, and i need some advice and im talking from a pure credit standpoint as i dont really care/ nor do i think that i would get sued, which im not worried about either way.

I know it will be 10 years for a bankruptcy to fall off from the date of file. The thing is, it will take me an additonal year to save the money in order to file because since it has to do with "business problems" as well, it is a different price than just plain old bankruptcy (according to the lawyer).

My questions is should i save for the year and then file for bankruptcy or just let everything go deliquent and wait the 7.5 years for the bad stuff to start falling off?

Which would look better and which would be better from a pure credit standpoint.

Thanks for all your wonderful advice.

[Anonymous]

anyone?

[Anonymous]

Hi jdp,

You'll get your best advice from someone who knows the BK laws and your personal situation.  Now that you've had time to ponder what the first BK attorney offered you, it may be time to go in for another consultation with a second BK attorney.  It's always great to hear two professional opinions.  Get together as much financial info as you can in a succinct one page financial overview and walk it in.  You'll really want to hear from an attorney on how this will potentially impact you either way.  I've yet to hear of a BK attorney that understood the FICO impact of filing, or not filing, but they will be able to clarify some questions and they might give you a piece or two of information that will help you as you make a decision.

BK's are difficult, however, you can have a FICO of up to 760 with a BK still on your report.  That being said, it will take some significant age on that BK before your scores will potentially go up that high.  Which decision are you currently leaning toward?

[sports1965]

just save and file

[carolina98]

Your creditors may well sue you if you don't pay them. If that happens, BK may be too late for you, but not sure. I didn't have that issue, but my BK attorney said it was a good thing I didn't because if you're already in collections or being sued it can be extra messy.