Finally bit the bullet on bankruptcy.

[mcdanielak]

After trying to repair our credit for years and getting kicked down in the mud every time I turned around with bills/collections/judgements popping up years later, my husband and I decided to file for bankruptcy. We turned in all the creditors we knew about and our lawyer said all the creditors we don’t know about are still covered in the bankruptcy so it doesn’t matter if there is one we didn’t know about or forgot about. If we find there is one that we forgot about, how do we fix that? Also, when everything gets discharged, how long should it take to appear on our credit reports. I’ve read a lot of info that said after discharge, everything should be reporting as current. I guess I’m just trying to figure out the next steps if things get wonky on the credit reports.

[Anonymous]

The way my lawyer explained it to me was the same as yours did - the bankruptcy removes any obligation to every creditor that you owed as of the filing date, and presentation of the discharge paperwork to someone you forgot to list would be sufficient proof that you’re no longer liable for that debt if it ever popped up. (You can also amend a filing to include additional creditors, but I don’t know anything about that process though; what it costs, if it can be done anytime before or after discharge - maybe someone else can chime in here.)

My notice of discharge appeared on my credit reports within a few days. After the discharge, every account should be reporting with a $0 balance and noted that it was IIBK. If you had late payments *prior* to filing BK those can (and often do) stay on your credit report unfortunately, but they can’t report any new late payments that are after your filing date. You’ll want to wait a few weeks after you receive your discharge before going through your credit reports to make sure they’re all reporting correctly (the BK7 to 700 thread has some very helpful info about this!). I watched mine closely before and after filing and they were all over the place as accounts were updating, a couple even disappeared entirely, but were all pretty much reporting correctly a few weeks after discharge.

[Anonymous]

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@mcdanielak wrote:
If we find there is one that we forgot about, how do we fix that? 

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Just send them a copy of your discharge letter and it will go away.

[Anonymous]

+1 ^ I had to do this for Macys and USAA and they updated their system.