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Our Ch13/Ch7 Story

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Anonymous
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Our Ch13/Ch7 Story

I do want to say I appreciate this forum and the chance to talk through all of this. It is difficult to share with the people you work with and your friends a bankruptcy journey, at least it is for me. Seeing the positive stories of recovery on this forum is very inspirational to me and I hope to be there with some of you: fully recovered post-bankruptcy.

 

My story began much before we even considered BK. Our credit was never great, we never budgeted and always seemed to end up strapped financially at the end of the month. We eventually did well enough to where we could open a few low CL credit cards and eventually qualify to buy a house. It was beautiful and was the place we wanted to be.

 

My career was doing ok, financially we were making more than we ever had, but we wanted more. I had the opportunity to leave a job that, while wouldn't make us rich, was definitely paying the bills, and join a startup. The problem was, it never started up. It was always 1 more week, 2 more weeks. WIth the prospect of it starting soon, I didn't want to take another job, but it drug on...for over 2 years. All of our cushion and savings were gone and we were now way behind on our mortgage and CCs.

 

I got a job in sales...commission only and we entered our first Ch 13 in April 2012. We were able to keep it going for a little while, but my commission only job was barely keeping the lights on. The first BK was dismissed for non payment in January 2013. 

 

We wanted to keep our house, so we kept trying and entered Ch13 again in Dec 2013. Once again, we were unable to complete it and it was dismissed in June of 2014.

 

By the time November 2014 rolled around, we had no other option than to file a Ch7 and give up the house. We filed in November, was Dischared in March.  It wasn't exactly a happy time, but it does have an interesting twist....

 

The end of September 2014, our son and his gf were on his way at 4:30am to his job. Someone crossed the line and hit them head on in his gfs car. They were injured pretty severely, but have both recovered and both received a substantial settlement. As such, they decided to buy the house at the Trustees auction...for $35k less than we payed for it and $65k less than what we owed including all of the late/lawyer fees. It's amazing how things can work out.

 

Anyway, we are in the process of putting our lives back together. 2 months ago, I was promoted from a commission only position into a salaried one. Less potential $$s but steady income at this point is what was needed.

 

I applied and received the OpenSky secured Visa in June. They don't pull credit, so it is the easiest card to get if you have a couple hundred dollars you can send them for the security account. Opened it at $200, increased it to a $400 limit.

 

With the encouragement of the folks on this board, I applied and was approved for 2 Cap1 cards the end of July '15. Was approved for $3000 Platinum and $2000 QS. Wife was approved for $500 Platinum with them, all unsecured.

 

The next step is to get our own place again. Moving into an apartment and leaving the kids to the house. That and another car so my wife can get back to work again.

 

There is light at the end of the tunnel. Keep at it, do what's right, and learn from your mistakes. We will live by a more structured budget now, and learn to live within our means. Included below are the CC's I burned in BK. I hope a couple of them will allow me back in at some point, but most of them were bottom feeders anyway:

 

CitiMortgage

AmEx $3178

Barclays $1815

Cap1 $846

Cap1 $820

FNB $1146

CreditOne $1392

Discover $3531

HSBC $663

HSBC $813

Macys $778

Merrick $2368

Finance Co $1200

 

Thanks again for this forum. I hope my story will help others.

 

 

 

Message 1 of 4
3 REPLIES 3
padme
Established Contributor

Re: Our Ch13/Ch7 Story

This thread made  me so sad, but im happy things worked out for you... keep up the good work and everything will come full circle again soon!

Message 2 of 4
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Our Ch13/Ch7 Story

The circumstances were tough, but we have learned a lot. 

 

On the plus side...we basically lived rent/payment free in our house for 4+ years and our son was able to get an incredible deal on the house and has kept it in the family and we are still living there for the time being.

 

We also got a fresh start that we needed. My wife and I are now empty nesters and don't need the size house we had anyway, so we get to start over with everything that we learned.

 

I could definitely focus on all of the negative things during this journey, but instead prefer to focus on what we have learned and where we are now.

Message 3 of 4
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Our Ch13/Ch7 Story

Thank you for sharing. I am happy you are in a better spot now and good luck from this point on!
Message 4 of 4
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