First of all, you will want to sit down with the local phone book and write down the names of any bankruptcy attorneys you find. Be careful to select only those attorneys who work exclusively in bankruptcy; you want someone who is an expert in the field. Once you’ve made your list, you can do some research online. Read online reviews and, if possible, find out if the attorney offers reduced cost or pro bono services based on income. If you cannot find this information yourself, you can simply call the attorney’s office and ask. If the lawyer does provide reduced cost services or free services, you will want to be sure and ask what the procedure is for securing this kind of aid.

Doing these things should help you to narrow down your list quite a bit. Once it is manageable, you will want to set up free consultations with each attorney. Any attorney who does not offer free consultations should be disregarded and taken off your list, as this is usually a good indication that his or her services will be overpriced and that the attorney will not be readily available to you when needed. During your consultation, explain your financial troubles and ask the attorney what he or she thinks would be the best course of action. You will want to select an attorney that you can afford, of course, but this is not the most important criteria. You should also choose an attorney who proposes a plan that sounds doable to you, who is very knowledgeable and experienced, and who makes you feel comfortable.

If you are still dead set on going through the process on your own, you’ll definitely need to take some time researching bankruptcy. Look at all of the different types and decide which form of bankruptcy is the best solution to you. If you’re not sure, speaking to a financial advisor can be a good idea. Once you have decided, you will need to get the necessary filing forms. You can purchase a bankruptcy kit designed for use by Arizona residents online or you can find one at your local courthouse. This will have all the forms you need and instructions for completing them. However, be very careful as you complete the forms and, if possible, have a financial advisor or other knowledgeable professional help you. Making even a small mistake can have dire consequences.

If you have little or no equity in your home, losing it in a foreclosure will not have a big financial impact, and, indeed, the best option may be to just walk away from it.

If you have nonexempt equity in your home, then the bankruptcy trustee will probably oppose the foreclosure in court, so that the trustee can sell it to pay creditors. In this case, the lender will be paid in full, you will get your exemption amount, then junior lien-holders of the property will get paid, and the rest, after deducting the trustee’s commission, will be used to pay unsecured creditors. In most cases, it will better for the trustee to sell the property, because the trustee is paid a commission of what she can pay unsecured creditors, and, thus, will seek the highest price for the home, whereas the lender will mainly be concerned about getting the amount of the loan back.

If you do have equity that is not exempt, then the main benefit of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in a judicial foreclosure is that it may give you enough time to either sell the home, or redeem it. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy lasts 4 to 6 months, so most of the your debts will be discharged, giving you more disposable income that can be applied toward a possible redemption of the property, to refinance the loan, or to sell it, especially in a hot real estate market.

A Chapter 7 discharge will also help you to negotiate with the lender to spread out missed payments, or refinance. A lender is more likely to renegotiate if you seem likely to be able to follow through on the renegotiated deal, especially with your other debts discharged. Because a nonjudicial foreclosure is completed quickly, Chapter 7 will probably not be beneficial.

You can prevent foreclosure by filing Chapter 13, but you must pass the means test, meaning you must have enough disposable income to pay all priority and secured debts, and to pay at least 25% of your unsecured debt or the value of your nonexempt property, whichever is greater, over a 5 year period. If you cannot do this, the judge will probably not approve your repayment plan, and you will have no choice but to file under Chapter 7, or simply dismiss your case.

If you do not have enough disposable income to fund your repayment plan, you may be able to use the equity of your home to refinance and use the money to help pay for your repayment plan. Your plan must be approved by the judge, and you must have the money at that time, or soon afterward.

Similar to Chapter 13, but with higher debt limits, Chapter 12 can allow family farmers or family fishermen to prevent foreclosure on their homestead and their business property. Chapter 11 is also available to debtors with debts larger than those allowed for Chapter 13, and can prevent foreclosure with the approval of a repayment plan.

1.  Greatly Reduce Personal Stress and Anxiety

Many who are considering bankruptcy in Phoenix are not doing so lightly. Being in debt can cause great stress and strain on many areas of your life, including your personal and professional lives. You will receive comprehensive guidance from attorneys well-versed on Arizona bankruptcy law when you turn your bankruptcy concerns over to them. An attorney can assist you greatly with the process of filing for bankruptcy. Filling out paperwork, getting you your court dates, etc. are all things that your attorney will become responsible for. Hiring an attorney to handle this will also greatly reduce the amount of time you have to spend worrying about every detail. A bankruptcy attorney worries for you.

2. Alleviate the Fear of Creditor Harassment

Tired of hearing pushy guys over the phone trying to threaten and shame you over past due bills? For many who owe many creditors, calls from debt collectors can be an extremely unfortunate hassle. Many times, creditors employ debt collectors who use questionable practices to get you to pay them back. Dealing with constant calls from creditors and debt collectors end when you hire a Phoenix bankruptcy attorney, who can see to it that the calls stop in the process of filing for bankruptcy. Most of the time, just informing harassing creditors that you have an attorney will cause them to think twice before calling and harassing you again. An attorney will be looking out for you.

3.  Protection

Creditors and debt collectors are not out to legally help you. It is important to be aware of this. They do not know the law therefore they will not know what is in your best interests. A bankruptcy attorney does know the law, and how to apply it to your specific bankruptcy case to help you. Only an attorney will know which of your debts apply to your case, for example. This could potentially save you money compared to going through the process yourself. You have an obligation to protect your legal rights and interests; a bankruptcy attorney is the way to go.

4. Knowing Your Best Options

Only a bankruptcy lawyer will know to handle your legal inquiries. Hiring a bankruptcy attorney means hiring someone who will know whether or not you should file for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Only a bankruptcy attorney will know whether or not you should sell your assets or not.  Getting an attorney to help you with the often complex processes involved in filing for bankruptcy is perhaps one of your best options

First of all, the ease with which you can get a credit card will depend somewhat on the type of bankruptcy for which you have filed. Chapter 7 Bankruptcy often looks worse on your credit report and can cause you to have a more difficult time securing credit cards and other forms of credit. This type of bankruptcy remains on your credit for a period of ten years and, during that time, you may have to work extra hard to secure credit. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, on the other hand, is often regarded more positively by creditors. While not every credit card company will overlook a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, some will. Furthermore, this type of proceeding only remains on your credit for a period of seven years.

Regardless of which type of bankruptcy you have filed, you can still take certain steps toward rebuilding your credit and increasing your chances of qualifying for a credit card. If you have filed for a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, be sure that you consistently meet the repayment terms of your bankruptcy plan if it is still in effect. With either type of bankruptcy, pay your bills on time and in full whenever possible. You should also try to secure stable housing and a steady job at all times. Having these assets working for you shows creditors that you have changed since the bankruptcy proceedings and that you are deserving of a credit card once again.

If you can’t get a credit card with the big companies, such as Visa or MasterCard, don’t be afraid to start small. Go with a lesser known credit card company or with one that specializes in granting credit to high risk individuals. While these cards will often have lower limits or not be as widely accepted as other cards, handling them correctly and responsibly can rebuild your credit and cause you to qualify for a major credit card in the near future.

It can take some time to get back on your feet after filing for bankruptcy, but don’t despair. Use this as a learning experience. Take the time to educate yourself on better budgeting and money management techniques and work hard to rebuild your credit. Before you know it, you’ll be able to qualify for any credit card or for any type of credit that you want or need.

First of all, the ease with which you can get a credit card will depend somewhat on the type of bankruptcy for which you have filed. Chapter 7 Bankruptcy often looks worse on your credit report and can cause you to have a more difficult time securing credit cards and other forms of credit. This type of bankruptcy remains on your credit for a period of ten years and, during that time, you may have to work extra hard to secure credit. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, on the other hand, is often regarded more positively by creditors. While not every credit card company will overlook a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, some will. Furthermore, this type of proceeding only remains on your credit for a period of seven years.

Regardless of which type of bankruptcy you have filed, you can still take certain steps toward rebuilding your credit and increasing your chances of qualifying for a credit card. If you have filed for a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, be sure that you consistently meet the repayment terms of your bankruptcy plan if it is still in effect. With either type of bankruptcy, pay your bills on time and in full whenever possible. You should also try to secure stable housing and a steady job at all times. Having these assets working for you shows creditors that you have changed since the bankruptcy proceedings and that you are deserving of a credit card once again.

If you can’t get a credit card with the big companies, such as Visa or MasterCard, don’t be afraid to start small. Go with a lesser known credit card company or with one that specializes in granting credit to high risk individuals. While these cards will often have lower limits or not be as widely accepted as other cards, handling them correctly and responsibly can rebuild your credit and cause you to qualify for a major credit card in the near future.

It can take some time to get back on your feet after filing for bankruptcy, but don’t despair. Use this as a learning experience. Take the time to educate yourself on better budgeting and money management techniques and work hard to rebuild your credit. Before you know it, you’ll be able to qualify for any credit card or for any type of credit that you want or need.

Most people in the United States who file for bankruptcy will file for a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy if they are eligible. When people are deemed ineligible for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, it is most often because their disposable income is too high. If you live in Phoenix, you will need to locate the average current monthly income chart for the state of Arizona. This can easily be found online or by talking to your financial advisor or attorney. When looking at this chart, you will need to compare your current monthly income to the average current monthly income of a family of the same size. If your income is higher than this amount, you will not be eligible for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, but, in most cases, you will be eligible for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy.

The only real eligibility requirement for a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy is that you are able to prove that you have enough disposable income or that you will have enough disposable income to meet the conditions of your bankruptcy plan. You must also prove that your creditors will receive just as much or more money than they would have if you had filed for a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy instead. If your plan meets all of these terms and is approved by a bankruptcy court, then you are deemed eligible for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. It is much easier to qualify for a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy than it is to qualify for a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. However, be advised that you will almost definitely need to work with a bankruptcy attorney in order to come up with a bankruptcy plan that will be approved and that is formatted correctly and meets all necessary standards.

There are also a couple of factors that could stop you from being eligible for both Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. If you are found guilty of defrauding your creditors in some way, such as spending a great deal of money right before filing for bankruptcy or providing false information on a credit card application, you will not be eligible for either type of bankruptcy. Additionally, if you currently have any type of bankruptcy pending or if you have filed for bankruptcy in the past, you will not be eligible. If this is the case in your circumstance, you can talk to your attorney about other options for resolving your debts.

The idea behind debt settlement is that in at least some cases, creditors might be willing to forgive or write off some portion of the debtor’s debt in exchange for a quick payment of the majority of it. The idea being that it is better to get at least some money immediately and lose the rest than to waiting indefinitely for most of the money.  A debt settlement has to be freely agreed to by both parties, so any debt settlement proposal has to have the creditor’s interests in mind as if the offer does not represent the best option available to the creditor, the creditor will not accept it. More often than not, debt settlement involves making one large lump sum payment immediately, or a series of large payments over a short period of time in return for the creditor writing off a certain percentage of the debt. So as an example: if the debtor promises to pay off seventy-five percent of the debt over the next month, the creditor will simply forgive the remaining twenty-five percent (as opposed to waiting forever for any repayment of any amount).

Since debt settlement usually involves having the ability to make large payments over a short period of time, usually if debt settlement is an option, then bankruptcy is not. Since 2005 there has been a means test associated with bankruptcy, so anyone that has the money available to make a reasonable debt settlement offer is not likely to qualify for bankruptcy protection at all. Further, again since 2005, before a debtor can file for bankruptcy they have to undergo credit counseling with a government approved credit counseling agency. If this agency determines that debt settlement is an option they can also notify the debtor that he will not qualify for basic Chapter 7 bankruptcy at all.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy is what most people think of when they think of bankruptcy and involves liquidating the debtor’s non-exempt property to pay off the creditors and then discharging a lot of the remaining debt. As noted above, Chapter 7 bankruptcy requires credit counseling and a means test, so it is unlikely that anyone able to make debt settlement offers will qualify. The second option is Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which is significantly different and results in a court order debt restructuring. Chapter 13 bankruptcy is usually far easier to file for (means test notwithstanding), but also only works for people with a regular income and does not result in much debt being actually eliminated. It is possible that Chapter 13 bankruptcy might be an option for people in a strong enough financial situation to offer a realistic debt settlement option; therefore it is important to weigh the pros and cons of each option before choosing a course of action.

One of the first things you should do as soon as your bankruptcy cases has concluded is go and clean up your credit report. Although the court may have discharged your outstanding debt, this does not mean that these debts have been removed from your credit report and they probably never will be unless you take positive action to ensure that this is done. Remember that you have three distinctive credit reports, one from EquiFax, one from Experian and one from TransUnion and they all obtain their information from their own unique sources and maintain their own separate databases. Therefore, in order to clean up your credit report you have to get all three of them and methodically provide evidence of every debt that has been discharged by the bankruptcy to have it removed. Failure to clean up your credit report after a bankruptcy can result in you continuing to have far worse credit scores than is actually warranted and many people over look this fact.

Another important way to help build back your credit after a bankruptcy is to avoid the unsecured credit card offers you receive and get a secured credit card instead. The idea behind all the unsecured credit card offers you receive after a bankruptcy is to trap you into a new debt cycle. Predatory lenders know that many people that have to file for bankruptcy ended up in that position through their own bad decision making and they also know that once a bankruptcy is discharged, the same person cannot file again for eight years. So, they offer these unsecured credit cards to people that probably should not have them specifically to put them into debt again and gradually extract as much money as they can from them until the eight years pass and they can file for bankruptcy again. In general these cards have absolutely horrible terms and are specifically designed to put you in debt and keep you there.

Instead, you can get a secured credit, which actively rebuilds your credit while giving you reasonable terms. A secured credit card works very much like a debit card, except that there is a small finance charge which you will be expected to pay despite the fact that every penny on the card is secured by a penny in the account. Nevertheless, if you get a secured credit card and pay your monthly bill on time and in full, it actively rebuilds your credit much quicker than would otherwise be the case.

Bankruptcy is a major financial decision that is likely to have a long lasting impact on your creditworthiness and general financial position, so it should be considered carefully. Since 2005 there has been a requirement that all people (there are some exceptions to the rule) have to undergo credit counselling with a government approved credit counselling agency within six months (180 days) of filing a petition in a bankruptcy court. The ostensible purpose of this new provision is to help debtors find alternatives to bankruptcy and help them with other money management matters prior to filing their case. However, many consumer advocates feel that this measure was actually implements to further complicate – thereby discouraging – people from filing bankruptcy at all.

In most cases, the debtor has to pay a fifty dollar fee to receive the credit counselling session, after which the counselling agency issues a certificate that has to be filed with all the initial filings to the bankruptcy court. Failure to receive this certificate and file it with the bankruptcy petition will usually result in the case being immediately dismissed. In some cases, if the debtor cannot pay the fifty dollar fee, it can be waived, but this has to be done by filing separate paperwork with the credit counselling agency prior to arranging the credit counselling session and is generally inconvenient and time consuming.

Although the whole credit counselling concept was probably introduced to discourage bankruptcy filings, the fact of the matter is that this can be quite helpful in many respects. For example, if your financial situation is really not bad enough to warrant a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the credit counsellors are very likely to point this out before you waste your time (and money) filing for a case that is likely to be thrown out by the court. Remember that another part of the 2005 law that imposed the credit counselling also imposed a means test which can be used to deny a person’s right to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy at all.

Therefore, probably the first step to filing for bankruptcy in Phoenix is to find the government approved credit counselling agencies active there. The US Department of Justice’s US Trustee Program makes these approvals in Arizona and as of July 2010 lists more than forty approved credit counselling agencies in Arizona. Once you find a properly approved credit counselling agency, you should go ahead and take the required session to see if there are better options or – if bankruptcy is right for you – what kind of bankruptcy to file for.