Can filing for bankruptcy keep creditor sharks away?

Tired of phone calls and voice messages asking you to call a 1 800 number to be reminded? How many payments are you behind? Perhaps you are like me, hesitating to open the mailbox for fear of seeing a notice to appear in court. If so, you’re hoping for a miracle or wondering if filing for bankruptcy can prevent creditors from taking all of your stuff, please read on.

The good news is that, for the most part, creditors don’t want your stuff. They just want your money plus interest. If you give them their money, they will be gone forever. If you don’t pay them, they will be relentless in their efforts to get you to pay. There are times when people are forced to liquidate their assets to help pay off their debts. It depends on the case and the circumstances surrounding the debt.

The bad news is that most creditors have money and time on their side to wait for you to pay. When they get tired of waiting, they can sell the debt to someone else who will patiently but methodically try to make you pay.

Now, to be fair to creditors, they are not sharks. Outside of unscrupulous lenders, most creditors are fair and do not seek to crush you mentally, emotionally, and financially. It just seems that way when you are faced with financial difficulties.

So can filing for bankruptcy stop harassing calls and letters?
Well, to be honest, in most cases you can stop harassing phone calls without filing for bankruptcy. You simply need to do 2 things to make the calls stop. First, tell the calling company that you no longer want them to call you, and if they do, you will file a harassment complaint. Second, write him a letter and reiterate the request that he only contact you in writing. It worked for me and the calls stopped immediately.

Now keep in mind that just because calls stop doesn’t mean your problems are going to go away. It means your phone won’t ring off the hook and you won’t have to listen to endless messages asking you to pay.

Now, what about creditors looking to collect the outstanding debt that you owe? Can filing for bankruptcy stop them? The answer is maybe. It depends on your assets, liabilities, income, and types of debt that you owe. The key is to find out the following;

• The positives and negatives associated with filing for bankruptcy
• How will you present yourself, that is, with or without a lawyer?
• What Options Do You Have If You Don’t File Bankruptcy?
• Is it better to file and eliminate some of your debt or let creditors sue you to collect what you owe them (the problem is, lawsuits can have you in court for more days than you might imagine?
• Ready to travel down the road to filing for bankruptcy?

I know that financial problems are stressful and considering filing for bankruptcy is difficult. In most cases, once you file bankruptcy, creditors go into a wait and see mode. They will wait and see if your case is approved or dismissed. Therefore, the sharks will still be in the water waiting to see if they have a chance to bite you again or if they will be forced to swim away.