Yes, bankruptcy is a ten letter word! I use “four letter word” since most people believe a four letter word is bad. It is important for people to know that bankruptcy does not mean they are a bad person. In my experience, people do not call me after they “max” out credit cards and become unable to make the minimum monthly payments. No, people believe there will come a day when they will have more money. They could be working in a lower paying job after a layoff, and expecting higher pay when the job market rebounds. Or, if they are self-employed in a deflated market, perhaps they are holding on to their house and cars and paying the bills with credit cards. Finally, many retired individuals over 62 years of age simply cannot afford medical costs and food, clothing, gas, utilities when their only income is Social Security. In all of these scenarios and others, as no two bankruptcy cases are identical, people use their credit cards to live. Likewise, people do not skip house payments and car payments when they have the money to pay. In fact, it is not uncommon to see people who skip house and car payments to pay the minimums on their credit cards! Why? Because credit card companies use the most inhumane debt collection efforts to get people to pay.
