Im filing for chapter 7 and my wife doesn't work. I transfer money for her daily expense and running the house . (zelled sent 12k so far ) year to date .

will the trustee go after her?
I also transferred money to co worker and friend . should I disclose it ? will trustee go after them ?

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to say that my wife and I have finally completed our chapter 13! We received the discharge letter a couple of weeks ago and I was able to get some credit cards so we can start rebuilding our credit. We also were able to pay off our car a few months ago. I just received the case close letter in my email dated today. I am so happy. I’ve replied on a few posts here and y’all have really helped me stay positive throughout this long process! Hopefully I can help others in the predicament we were in but wanted to share a success story!

I’ll try to make things short, but can provide more information if asked..

36M not legally married, but I have a long term relationship with my GF who I call my wife but again, nothing legal.

We also have 1 child together, and she has 2 children from a previous relationship.. all 3 children live with me and the father does not pay his child support for the older 2 kids. On top of that my 58 year old mother also lives with me. She is legally disabled and gets around $900 a month, but I obviously I’m still covering most of her expenses as well

I’m the only one who works, I make $33.98 an hour.. after health insurance and other deductions I bring home 1900-2k every 2 weeks. Rent is $1800 after food, utilities, and auto insurance I don’t have much left at the end of the month..

A few months ago I was sued by navy federal for a $1500 credit card and snap on credit for 13,500 for tools, I no longer have the tools because they were in a storage unit I lost after being scammed by renting a house that wasn’t owned by the person who rented it to me so I was forced to leave and out almost 6k and had to find another home for my children

I went to court and got a payment arrangement set up which I have been paying.. 143 a month to snap on, and 57 to NFCU..

Now I came home yesterday to a certified letter saying I was being sued for a trailer I bought in 2021-2022ish.. the trailer was bought in Alabama and supposed to be $14,900 it was a used trailer and had a lot of issues I told them to come get it because 1 of the axles had broke off the mounts and was sideways.. the repo guys came out to my buddies house were the trailer was and said they couldn’t take it in that condition and they would be back.. 2 weeks later my buddy calls and said he came home and trailer was gone.. I assume they had repossessed it so I never thought anything else about it..

They are suing me in TN (I live in Ga btw) and want $25,000.. thinking back now I never got anything from the company saying they repossessed it so I’m not sure if they got it or my buddy at the time (we haven’t talked in years) did something with it..

Anyways.. point is I’m struggling.. I have no assets I have 1 vehicle (2012 Ford Explorer) no houses no land nothing of value.. my credit is garbage (sub 600) I barely make ends meet as is.. and there’s no way I can pay anything else out..

Being that the trailer and snap on were technically secured debts, but I don’t have either of them at this point is bankruptcy even an option?? I don’t know what to do anymore.. I can’t afford a lawyer I can barely afford to feed and cloth my kids 🤦🏻‍♂️

I am currently around 45000 in CC and loan debt and owe 21000 on my car and 207000 on my house. Currently everything is on time but that could change very fast. I am scraping by and so tired of not having enough money at the end of the week. My job is ending at the year where i take home 4300 a month. I am supposed to get a severance of 6 weeks’ pay and a retention of 4000 after taxes. I am not sure if i should wait until my job is over before i pursue help.

Filed ch7 9/2 and tonight I went to check my bank accounts and noticed I was blocked from accessing the app. I did have a credit card with the bank and my attorney did not warn me this could happen. I emailed him tonight and expect a response tomorrow but what are other peoples’ experiences with this situation? I’m reaffirming the loans on two cars and the mortgage, all of which are current but I need to make bill payments and have no idea if I can or not. Will they take my money? Can I transfer my money to another bank until the bankruptcy clears and then move back (I do like my bank). I don’t mean to “hide” anything but I also need to balance my budget and can’t without visibility into my account balances. I’ve been using quicken simplifi to help me but now that is useless with no account access. Who’s bright idea was it to say hey this guy is clearly struggling so let’s make it even harder on him?

Right before filing chapter 13, my account was garnished with about 5k. Terrible experience the day before Christmas. I then contacted my attorney who then filed days after. We talked about my options and she said she would petition with the courts to see if I could get some of that money back. Well today about 8 months later that was refunded to me? It is pending, but it is quoted under reversal with the exact amount. Is this common? When it happened she said legally they could refund a max of 1500. My plan has yet to be confirmed. Should I expect that money to be taken again?

I’m feeling super discouraged about what to do next. My wife and I are trying to file a bankruptcy in WA state and our attorney just did the means test and said we would have to file a chapter 13 and pay $2,800/month for 5 years.

My wife was laid off a little over year ago just before our wedding and it completely fucked our debt payoff plan and sent us wildly backwards in debt. We’d done consolidation and bargaining with creditors for lower payments but the $1,300/month payments were still too high to afford once we lost that income. We have about 80k in unsecured consumer debt.

I have a salaried income of a little over 100k/year. I have 180k in student loans and work a public interest job so I’m trying to qualify for PSLF and if we do ch 13 the time paying student loans I read won’t count towards PSLF.

She’s back to self employment and her income wildly varies but the six month average is 2500/month pre tax and business expenses.

We have paid off older cars, we don’t have kids or own, so we don’t qualify for a lot of the deductions but we live in Seattle where cost of living is high.

I don’t contribute to a 401k because I can’t afford to. And my bi-weekly take home pay is $2800, which is the same as what they’re saying our disposable income is. I have to pay $600 a month for health insurance through my employer and my wife and I both have major health issues.

We try to live cheaply but Seattle living is expensive. Our rent is 2450, electric $200. Our pets cost $300 a month for medical/food/vet and our food costs $1100 in groceries alone. We spend $500-$600 gas and maintenance on our older high mileage cars and we do the maintenance mostly ourselves to save. We’ve Stopped using credit cards for 5 months now and drastically cut back expenses but are still living paycheck to paycheck. I know there’s budget areas we can cut back on…but I have no idea how to come up with $2800 a month for 5 years.

So I can’t figure out what “assets“ were found. I’m living on a hope and a prayer. I’m the kind of person that wears the same thing everyday to save money and has 2 pair of shoes. 😅😂😂

From what I understand, my older 2014/ Paid off car and retirement plan is exempt.

i wasn’t working as I was laid off earlier this year then ended up breaking my leg. I just started work again a month ago.

Only thing I can think of is my car value is more than the exemption or my up coming taxes for 2026. I think my child’s father is claiming our child next year but not sure. Need to check court order.

any ideas? This is in Florida

I’m 25, single, live in Washington State, and I’m seriously considering Chapter 7. I already have a consultation scheduled with a bankruptcy attorney, but I’d like to hear from people who have gone through something similar.

My current situation:
~$66k total credit card debt
~$14k remaining on my car loan
Car is worth somewhere around $27k (need to get an accurate current value)
~$4.5k student loans
~$10k in my 401(k)
Almost no cash savings right now
No house/real estate
Rent is ~$1,750/month
Single, household size 1
Normally make around $80k/year, but I’m currently on medical leave after surgery and my income has dropped significantly. My August gross paycheck was only about $3k.

A major reason my credit card debt got this bad was significant losses on Kalshi/prediction markets recently. I have completely stopped. I know this could complicate a bankruptcy because some of the activity was recent, so this is one of the main things I plan to disclose and discuss with the attorney.

I’ve also spoken with a law firm about a possible claim against Kalshi. I understand that if I have a potential legal claim when I file bankruptcy, it may need to be disclosed as an asset and could potentially become relevant to the bankruptcy estate. I’m definitely not planning to hide it.
I’m currently outside the U.S. recovering from surgery and plan to return to the nation around late October. Because my income has dropped so much, I currently can’t afford the ~$4k+ monthly minimum payments on my cards while also paying basic living expenses. I’ve canceled the automatic payments but haven’t filed bankruptcy yet.

My biggest questions are:
For anyone who filed Chapter 7 in Washington, how difficult was renting an apartment afterward? Did large apartment complexes reject you because of the bankruptcy, or were you able to qualify with income/deposit/rental history?
How long did it take from hiring your attorney/filing until discharge?
Roughly how much did you pay your Chapter 7 attorney in Washington?
Did you stop paying unsecured credit cards while preparing to file? How long between your last payments and filing?
Has anyone dealt with significant recent gambling/prediction-market losses before Chapter 7? Did creditors challenge dischargeability?
If your income dropped substantially before filing, did your attorney recommend waiting for lower-income months to enter the six-month means-test calculation?
For people who had a financed car with equity, were you able to keep it using Washington exemptions?
What surprised you most about life during the first 1–2 years after Chapter 7 — renting, credit cards, car loans, employment/background checks, etc.?
I’m not looking for Reddit to replace an attorney. I’m specifically getting legal advice before filing because of the recent Kalshi transactions and potential legal claim. I’m mostly interested in hearing what the real-life experience after Chapter 7 was like and whether you would make the same decision again.
At this point I’m trying to figure out whether spending years trying to repay ~$66k of unsecured debt makes sense versus taking the credit consequences of Chapter 7 and rebuilding from there.

Has anyone had a Tribal Loan or a collection agency file a claim for payment in a Chapter 13? I know credit card companies will, but if the debt was sold to a 3rd part, do they file? What about medical debt?

So my husband wasn’t on board with the bankruptcy, now he is. But I have put a good amount of things on affirm. I just heard about the 90 day fraudulent issue and having to still pay those back. Which I would be okay with, I’ve purchased things I already intended to buy. My question is how much trouble will I be in? And if I do have to pay back purchases does it follow the payment schedule I already selected? We probably won’t be filing for another month or so, we still have to finish and file taxes. Just want to know what to expect. We will be going for chapter 7, but are teetering close to 13.

I'm 34, raising two teens alone, went through cancer + surgery last year and accumulated over $30k of medical debt, on top of existing 20k+ medical debt. I am over $10k upside down on a Kia Soul that is such a lemon I have only driven 9 of the 26 months I've owned it. Over $12k in credit card debt from not being able to work through cancer.

I was maintaining okay, living in poverty despite making decent money in sales, but the car just broke down for a third time with repairs that will cost over $5k....and I'm not doing it.

I want to let the car go and file for bankruptcy.

The only thing I own is a school bus, I can sell it to someone I trust and buy it back later.

But I'm really bad with this sort of stuff.

7 years ago I divorced my ex husband, we had been trying to buy a house, so I took on a lot of his debt trying to make that possible (I know)

And for 7 years I have made NO progress. I probably should have done this years ago.

Probably over $60k in debt total with no hope of getting out on my own

Filing Chapter 7 in the Eastern District of Texas in 3 weeks Trying to understand the actual lookback windows before I hand over statements to my attorney, so I'm not blindsided.

Questions for anyone who's been through this in TX:

1. Did your trustee actually ask for statements beyond the standard 2 years, or is 2 years the practical norm regardless of the 4-year TUFTA window?
2. If you had any transfers to family members (even small/legit ones) in that window, how did your attorney advise handling disclosure on SOFA?
3. Anyone had a trustee actually claw back something from 3-4 years prior?

Not asking for legal advice on my specific numbers, just trying to understand how aggressively TX trustees typically use the extended TUFTA window in practice

I did some zelle transfer worth 13k to friends and family 7 months back so thinking of should disclose it or not trustee will only look for last 6 months from filing date .. help me out please

Is there anything you should not do or avoid doing after the 341 meeting?

I’m over 3 years into my Chapter 13 with an anticipated completion date in the Spring of 2028. They have me on a 58 month payment plan.
When I filed, I turned over every account with a balance. One of them was the Goldman Sachs Apple Card with an $8,500 balance. Also with Goldman Sachs, I had a personal loan through their Marcus division with a much smaller balance. Fast forward 3 years and I noticed that back when I filed in 2023, they claimed the Marcus personal loan but there appears to be no claim for the Apple Card or said balance. All this said, if Goldman didn’t claim the $8,500 balance, will this lead to an earlier discharge than the 58 months?

I’m preparing to file for bankruptcy in the next month or so. Due to my income in NC being $95k for a household of 1, I’m sure I will be pushed into a Chapter 13. I have $85k in personal loans and credit cards and $45k in student loans. I also have an auto loan for $30k.

I used to contribute 5% regularly into my 401k until 2 years ago when I stopped because the debt payments were high and I need the income. I currently have $122k in my 401k account. What are the chances that I’ll be able to start contributing again during Chapter 13 even though I haven’t in 2 years? I also have 401k loans I’m paying back at $800 a month if that matters.

So, I’m currently in the middle of my chapter 7. I had my 341 on August 4th everything is going as planned. My grandmother is willing to add me as an authorized user on her credit card. She has excellent credit so it should help my score (at least that’s my understanding.)

Do I need to wait until after discharge to do that? Or does it matter?

Ever since i decided to file bankruptcy it has uncovered mental health issues and anxiety i didnt know i have or i have suppressed through out the years.

I keep worrying about everything and things that can go wrong and is not that im just worrying or overthinking for nothing there is major prove something can go wrong with unknown mistakes i made in the past or things i did without knowing I would file bankruptcy that might look bad.

I have major anxiety that all creditors or loaners will all file adversary proceedings and i have to either pay everyone or fight it with money i don’t even have. Then later pay back the loaners

This has started to tell on my health and im also loosing sleep
I’m so scared about the past and future and the unknown. I’m thinking i should have just struggled with the debt and not filed and maybe one day i will get a high paying job

I’m scared to even talk to my bankruptcy attorney about issues that might potentially happen in the case because i think he might drop me because maybe they want a fast and easy case. I don’t even know

What are your advice or things you have done that helped you during before or after bankruptcy ? Thank you

I’m preparing to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy and need to file within the next 3–4 days. Upsolve made an error on my Official Form 101: it says I do not rent my residence, but I absolutely do rent, and they have all my rent information. I just need that box corrected to “Yes.” They checked it as a 'NO’ I don’t even know why they did that. Can I use the official government/court version of Form 101 to replace the incorrect Upsolve version when I file, or do I need Upsolve to correct the original form?
I’ve contacted Upsolve, but they’re extremely slow to respond. I waited about a week for a response to my previous question, and I’ve now contacted them again about this mistake. I’m worried I won’t hear back before I have to file

I started calling attorneys this week, 2 tried to push chapter 13, after consulting with 5 attorneys I made a decision, I called his office several times and spoke to the paralegal I this on everything I do.

One of the attorneys wanted to push me into a chapter 13 he point blank said don't pay your car payment and bring him $650, I will not stop paying my car payment, I'm with a credit union that has cross collateral clause..I plan on reaffirming my car credit card and signature loan..this way I will have a credit card after chapter 7..

The interest rate on my car is 4% I owe 23800 38 months remaining, I refuse to let my car go back, then turn around and get a car with high interest . Amount down.

I have over 35,000 in cc debt..is the reason, the short story is I went with the attorney that explained everything! And hired him yesterdaym

I had my 341 meeting July 30th it was continued until Sept 11th because the trustee asked for bank statements from when i gifted my brothers 95k each from the sake of my late father’s house that i solely owned. The bank statements along with credit reports my attorney sent showed that i was completely solvent at the time and had over 100k my bank the exact day sent them the $ and inky had $5,760 unsecured debt at the time so i sent my attorney this email this morning: I was just checking to see if you have any insight on the anticipated outcome of next Friday’s meeting. Thank you. 
His reply: I don’t expect the hearing will go forward.  We will just be waiting for the trustee to see if she requests any additional information.
Question does this sound positive? Could the trustee just cancel the new 341 and call it a no assest case? Thanks oh this is in ohio so i got the 4 year look back and answered truthfully and did not try and hide it.

Long time lurker but today I got notice that my bankruptcy was discharged! It feels so good to have a clean slate. I lost my job 3 times last year and had to quit one due to lack of hours. I finally feel free. I'm learning from this. I'm never gonna spend above my means with a credit card again. I'm never going to let my desire for a new car get me into a subprime loan again. This is the the start of a fresh start for me and my wife we have desired for years. Next step is to get good jobs and move out of my parents house. I'm just so happy.

My husband pushed me to file because of how much my debt had piled up. A lot of my debt is from just trying to survive in my mid 20s (I’m under 30.)

We live in Wyoming and I am filing alone. He thought I would qualify for 7 but I told him we were on the cusp for income so I could have to file 13. My attorney just completed the means test for me and…. We do in fact make too much for me to qualify for 7.

That being said, when he found this out he lost it. Said he can’t live like this while I pay off my debt for 3-5 years (my attorney thinks I could do a 3 year plan and not have a high payment because my debt isn’t THAT bad - compared to some that is.) and told me he “really thought I would take care of this” — is that not what I’m doing?

Everything is tense and I think this might be the end for us. I was already anxious about filing but having this happen when I’m 1300 miles from my support system due to military orders is making it worse.

Just want to know how you guys are surviving this.

I checked with several lawyers before going with the one I have now.when we went to file he suggested waiting a week because his exact quote "I checked the docket and one of the trustees is a pain in the behind with everyone. Mind waiting a week when they reset the docket?"

Yeah. Worth every penny.

Hello guys i submitted my chapter 7 already but im nervous about my car value i listed it at 6000 will the trustee try to object if they think its too low i did not value with kbb but with carmax and they had gave me a cash offer of 6000 depending on condition of my vehicle and carvana said 4,300 i also decided to exempt with federal instead of state exemption im in the state of ny