Finally filed Chapter 7 on 8/22

[securingourfuture]

My debts have been racking up since I had a baby in 2015, extended bout of medical/hospital issues in 2016, and car issues and a divorce in 2017.  Then my house needed MAJOR repairs earlier this year, and that drove the nail in my back. I held on as long as I could, but my unsecured debts got up to $128K+ and I couldn't keep up $3500 per month minimums. So I did my research, retained a lawyer last month, and filed yesterday.  I began getting updates from my credit monitoring service with "credit file changes" and I knew the public record was probably posted.  It was on both EQ and EXP.  I'm not sure about TU.

My EXP score before my first 30-day late in June was 627.  After the 1st late, it dropped 85 points to 542.  From there, I had 12 30-day lates post with no score changes while I was saving to pay the lawyer.  I'm really bummed about that because my last late payment was in 11/2013 and the last before that was 1 back in 04/2009.  With the BK7 posting today, my EXP dropped an addition 52 points to 490.  It really sucks; I am embarrassed and ashamed. I wanted to try to pay down the smaller ones, but my lawyer was concerned about preferential payments.

Now I need to focus on where I start to rebuild.  I'm burning A LOT of creditors in this BK:  

Discover $500 (reporting 30 days)

Macy's $600 (reporting 30 days)

AMEX $2,500 across 2 cards

BOA $8,000 (reporting 30 days)

Chase $6,500 across 2 cards (both reporting 30 days)

Synchrony $75,000 - Ebates/Gap (30D)/Amazon/Walmart/Sam's (30D)/Lowes (30D)/Marvel/Paypal (30D)/JC Penney

Cabela's $3K (reporting 30 days)

PenFed $2K (reporting 30 days)

Capital One $29K - QuickSilver and (2) Venture Ones  (1 reporting 30 days)

Target - $300  (reporting 30 days)

Local CU - $2,500

The good thing is that I am current on my student loans, car, and mortgage. My car still has $37K, and I am not sure I will reaffirm.  I am about $10K upside down because I had to roll my beat up car's loan before this one into the loan.  If I don't reaffirm, I will be burning DCU for $37K on a car loan with a low 4.99% APR. So I don't know what to do there because my note is $650 per month.

So any advice?  Who should I start with because I'm burning a bunch of folks?  Should I reaffirm my car?  How favorable is the reporting of the student loans and mortgage with regards to rebuilding?  Do I need to wait for discharge to start the rebuilding process?

Thanks in advance.

[securingourfuture]

Checked PACER and Synchrony filed a Notice of Appearance and Request for Notice.  Does anyone know what that is?

[Lurker22]

I believe (but I'm not a lawyer) that their laywer just went on record of representing them and wishing to receive all notices, regardless I wouldn't be concerned about it

[securingourfuture]

Thank you - whew. I am burning Synchrony for a lot, so I was worried at first.

[cartwrna]

I wouldn’t reaffirm, especially being that upside doen. Your the first other person I’ve seen in the bankruptcy section burning DCU. I am burning them on a 5k maxed card, as well as an auto loan that I still owe 11k on with 1.49% rate, loan is about halfway upside down due to the car lost a lot of its value FAST, and they added their fancy $1300 coverage when I dropped full 6 months ago and just slapped liability on it to cover me. I have not paid on the auto for a year next month, and have heard nothing from them which is weird. It could be that I’m 1200 or so miles from their location idk?. No calls, emails, or letters LOL.

[securingourfuture]

Thank you for your post. I was hoping to hear from someone with a DCU auto loan. It is a bit weird how they don’t seem to worry too much about retrieving the vehicle. When I knew I was going to file, the bankruptcy representative there said “we’d love to work with you on keeping the car - we aren’t in the car business, so it’s not ideal for us to have to take the car”. I figured it was lip service, but it seems to be the case 😂.

So have you purchased another vehicle yet? I read about someone who was waiting a year for DCU to pick up the car. I think he/she stopped paying on the car, but no bankruptcy.

Have they reported your lates to the credit bureau?

[FireMedic1]

Dont be ashamed. Obstacles happen in life. Get through the first steps with the BK. Dont worry about who to get cards with yet. You have 3 things working in your favor after BK. Your house is #1, student loans, and the car. Keep the current, dump the burdens. Its been argued a lot to reaffirm or not. I dont know how your lender behaves with BK's. I reaffirmed because thats all I had in my favor. It was the only thing on my reports for 10 years. Few months later the same lender gave me credit cards. Yes Cap1. Probably due to perfect payments for 3 years on a 4 yr loan. Once the discharge happens and all the debts go to 0 and say IIB. You'll might see a small bump up in scores. It will get better down the road. Nowhere to go but up from here. GL! The stress will be toast soon.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t reaffirm because I wanted a lower monthly payment and I was upside down would wind up overpaying at the end of the day. The car was the hardest for me to give up. It is the biggest and most obvious sign to outsiders of my financial issues. Also I didn’t know what to expect as far as financing. My credit union (not DCU), and I think almost all credit unions force you to reaffirm and do not allow payments until an agreement is in place.
My car was repo’d with no notice the same week I was discharged. I had a rental so I was ok. Wound up getting financed with cap 1 for 4.91% and I was approved for Wells Fargo for something in the teens.
All in all, I’m happy it’s over! I kind of wish I could have kept the car but the payment isn’t practical for my new goals.

And I agree the student loan and Home reporting will give you a nice score bump. One of my student loans didn’t report again until a couple of months post discharge.

[securingourfuture]

4.91%? That’s a really good rate. I love my car, but I have no qualms about giving it up. But, like you, I know that it will look off when I ‘trade’ an Acura for a Kia. But whatever. The bankruptcy lawyer gave me the business card of a dealer with late model cars who offers competitive rates for the bankrupt. I think their main customers are those who generally paid their bills, but got overwhelmed vs those who show very little positive payment history. I hope that my years of good payments plus mortgage and student loans get me where I need to be. I’m really burning Cap 1, so I’m not sure about any car offers from them. However, I did have a loan from them about 9 years ago and never had a late payment. So we’ll see.

Speaking of student loans...I heard that they are also part of the automatic stay. I am on an auto pay system with them (Income based repayment). Do you know if that stops?

[Anonymous]

My auto pay stopped but I was able to manually make payments for my student loans