If your Indiana debt situation has gotten entirely out of hand and you are thinking seriously about filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy so as to rid yourself of many of your debts, you need to know that, by law, you must undergo credit counseling sometime within the six-month period before you file bankruptcy. Since such counseling is mandatory prior to bankruptcy, you may wish to consider enrolling in a valid credit counseling course now as opposed to later.
The results of a study conducted jointly by the Management International Financial Education Foundation and the National Bankruptcy Research Center shows that credit counseling can benefit you in the following four ways:
- It can help you reduce your credit card balances.
- It can help you reduce the number of delinquent accounts you have.
- It can teach you how to better handle and manage credit.
- It can help you forestall bankruptcy or perhaps even prevent it.
Major bankruptcy factors
Unfortunately, the astronomical rise in health care costs over the past decade has placed many people in a completely untenable financial position. You may even find yourself having to choose between buying groceries and making the co-pays on your doctors’ visits and the prescriptions you need. During the same time period, your employer may have laid you off or reduced your hours. This is especially true if you work in construction or another field related to real estate. The housing crash of 2008 sent the country into a dizzying downward spiral from which far too many people never recovered. You may be one for whom a full-time well-paying job with benefits now represents only a memory.
Together these two factors combined to form a perfect storm resulting in your need for excessive credit card usage which then caused you even greater debt and the inability to pay your bills with your limited income. Not surprisingly, the number of Chapter 7 bankruptcies has likewise spiked. While you should feel no shame if you ultimately must declare bankruptcy, getting the credit counseling you need while you still have time to prevent it may well be the best financial decision you make.
This is general educational information and not intended to provide legal advice.
