Most of my clients come into my New York City Bankruptcy office and say “I should have done this a while ago and saved myself thousands of dollars.” They say this and I believe what they’re saying is completely accurate. The reason is this: Many people view filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in New York as a completely emotional decision. They figured that they would “never find themselves in this situation:. Or some other clients would say that they felt guilty about discharrging credit card debts when they believed they owed money. While some others mistankanely believed that they would lose their house, car, jobs, pets (yes im serious), you name it. The truth is that had they made the step to file for Bankruptcy months earlier, they would saved hundreds and likely thousands of dollars in minimum payments to credit card companies (when mathematically speaking they wouldnt have been able to pay off the balances for decades (yes im serious). They would have also realized that they could keep their property in almost all instances. And finally, and I think most importantly, they would start rebuilding their credit almost immediately. Because thats what bankruptcy allows a client to do.
Look, no one ever thinks they are going to be the ones sitting in a Bankruptcy meeting and having their debts discharged. Its clearly not a life goal. But that doesn’t mean that once you are in a situation like this, that you should do everything you can to avoid it, even at your emotional and financial peril. had clients who weren’t sleeping for months prior to filing. Clients who refused to use their own checking accounts for fear of having it frozen, or having their wages garnished. What I’m saying is that Bankruptcy affords you a way out of this financial mess with a very straightforward procedure. it allows you to restart your financial life, and in all honesty, your entire life, all over again. So before you fork over your next minimum payment of several hundred dollar to a credit card that you know you’ll never be able to pay Ive off, at least speak to a Bankruptcy attorney as one of your options.
