Obstacles in Filing for Bankruptcy

When I went bankrupt in 2003, I was lucky to have one of the most qualified El Paso bankruptcy lawyers on my side. Without him, filing for bankruptcy would have been a scary process; but as it turned out, it went really well and I learned some important lessons in personal finance. The following are some of the mistakes I would have made had I not consulted the best El Paso bankruptcy lawyer there is.


Tapping into my retirement to pay off creditors.


Thank goodness I spoke with my lawyer before I forked over my retirement money. It was so much easier just to file bankruptcy to get my creditors off my back. Now, my debt is manageable and I am looking forward to retiring comfortably in about 10 years.


Having a large chunk of money in my savings.


I'm lucky I found out that any money I had in the bank may not be exempt, so I could take the money out the day before I filed. I just put it back in the bank several days later, so it wasn't an inconvenience.


Excluding certain creditors from my bankruptcy paperwork.


When I was thinking about doing this, my attorney asked "what for? Do you not want relief from their debt?" Of course I did, so every creditor I had was included in my case.


Using my credit cards for major purchases.


The benefits of having such a fantastic El Paso bankruptcy attorney seem endless...looking back on the whole process, I could have made so many irreparable mistakes. In one instance, I was glad that my lawyer stopped me from using my credit card to pay for my son's graduation present. He said that any major purchases made within a few months--in some cases, a year--of filing for bankruptcy, could be viewed as fraudulent.


Getting a home equity loan, or simply letting my home go into foreclosure.


Probably the greatest lesson I'm taking away from all of this is that you can't use your home to pay off unsecured debt. While creditors may harass you every night at dinnertime, it's still not worth losing your home to make them leave you alone. My lawyer's colleague is an El Paso foreclosure attorney, and he told me I was better off going bankrupt than letting my home go into foreclosure.

About the Author

Written by Kacy Suther. El Paso bankruptcy lawyers Watson & Maynez specialize in bankruptcy law. Texas residents can find their El Paso bankruptcy attorney or El Paso foreclosure attorney at bankruptcy4elpaso.com .


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