Sometimes when you get so much debt it is easy to turn to the thought of bankruptcy.
You sit down and all you can think about is you have credit card debt, your car loan, your school loan and your mortgage.
Above that some people even have child support to deal with and you are supposed to stay current with all these companies somehow.
You probably have collectors calling you and telling you they are going to sue you and garnish your wages.
They cannot garnish your wages until after you have been sued and you have not been sued until you have been served papers by the sheriff or some other server.
It depends on how much the debt is.
If you have a large amount of money, like over 40,000 dollars, then you may move a little faster on suing you.
The important thing is that you provide for your family first then take care of these collectors later.
So the order of importance is food then shelter, then utilities then clothing.
Make sure you have all these taken care of before you start to worry about paying any of your bills.
Some other things you need to know is that it is way better to have your credit score dinged up because you aren't paying your bills then to file bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy will harm your credit score way more than neglecting your credit cards for a while.
Filing bankruptcy will also not take care of your student loans for you so pretty much if you file then you will just get rid of your credit card debt but you will still be left with the other side of the equation, the income side.
You have to get up your income in order to sustain your level of living because you cannot continue to live off of your credit cards.
You will need to start to discipline yourself to save up, create a budget and stick to it.
You need to pay cash for things.
While you are trying to get back on your feet it is going to be very hard.
You need to find extra jobs and work as much as you can and save up large sums of money so you when one of the credit card companies calls you, you can offer them a settlement.
When you offer them the settlement be sure and get it in writing that the debt will be paid in full.
You then overnight them a money order and get return receipt requested so you have proof they received it.
Put that along with the letter you got from them and put it in a file for the rest of your life because chances are that debt will get sold to someone and they will try and collect it once again so you need that proof.