Can You Choose the Type Of Bankruptcy Filling?

In general, you can choose the type of bankruptcy for filling, under certain circumstances you may only eligible for certain type of bankruptcy filling. In most cases, debtors will choose chapter 7 for filling because it's fast, effective, easy to file, and doesn't require payments over time. Chapter 7 bankruptcy usually takes the least time to complete. Other common types of bankruptcy filling include chapter 12 and chapter 13.

Yes, you can choose the type of bankrupt filling but you may not eligible for it. Let see the criteria of filling for a few common bankruptcy types.

Bankruptcy - Chapter 12

If you are a farmer or a fisherman, for instance, you may consider chapter 12 filing. Chapter 12 bankruptcy filling is tailored for "family farmers" or "family fishermen" with "regular annual income". It is more streamlined, less complicated, and less expensive than chapter 11 (bankruptcy filling for large corporate reorganization).

Chapter 12 has allowance for situations in which family farmers or fishermen have income that is seasonal in nature. Thus, debtors with seasonal income will find it to be advantageous to file their bankruptcy under chapter 12. In additional, Relief under chapter 12 is voluntary, and only the debtor may file a petition under the chapter.

Bankruptcy - Chapter 7

Beside the farmer and fishermen, most ordinary debtors will choose chapter 7 as their bankruptcy filling type. The key factors of the popularity of this bankruptcy type are it does not need payments over time, easy to file and less expensive. However not every persons who are seeking of getting debt free by filling bankruptcy will be eligible to file under chapter 7. To be eligible for chapter 7 bankruptcy filling, you must meet the below criteria:

• You must pass the median income test:

  You calculated average income must not more than the median income for your state (You can find the median income by state information from www .usdoj.gov/ust; click the Mean Testing Information).

• If you failed the median income test, you second chance for chapter 7 filling is on mean test:

  Mean test is calculated based on your disposable income. To get your disposable income, calculate your average monthly income as describe in above paragraph. From that amount, subtract your allowed expenses (stated in IRS) and monthly payments you will have to make on secured and priority debts. If your monthly disposable income after subtracting these amounts is less than $100, you pass the means test, and will be allowed to file for Chapter 7.

Bankruptcy - Chapter 13

You will be forced to file your bankruptcy under chapter 13 if you are not eligible for chapter 7. Or if you have file bankruptcy before under chapter 7, then you need to go for chapter 13 for second bankruptcy filling.

Chapter 13, which has also been known as a wage earner's plan, is an interest-free repayment plan where a debtor repays at least some of his or her unsecured debts with regular payments over five years.

In chapter 7 filling, debtors need to liquidate their assets to pay to their creditors (creditors will share the amount from the liquidation); whereas, the debtor generally can continue to live in his or her home so long as the debtor complies with the terms of the Chapter 13 arrangement. This is one of the advantages of chapter 13 over chapter 7 bankruptcy filling.

In Summary

If bankruptcy is your ultimate option to get out of debts, you can choose the bankruptcy type to be file against, but you may not eligible for the bankruptcy type of your choice if you do not meet the required criteria. The best way to confirm it is check with bankruptcy attorney on which bankruptcy type you are eligible for.

About the Author
Cornie Herring is the Author from http://www.StudyKiosk.com. "StudyKiosk-Credit Basics" is an informational website on credit basics, debt consolidation and bankruptcy.

Do Bankruptcy Alternatives Work?

Bankruptcy should always be a last resort to debt relief and many people could avoid this with a few bankruptcy alternatives. Before you make the tough decision to declare personal bankruptcy, you may first want to think about a few bankruptcy alternatives.

Avoiding bankruptcy will not only save your credit rating but it allows you to recover from a bad credit history much quicker. Here are a few bankruptcy alternatives that provide financial relief that can get you out of your financial bind.

Get On A Budget

The first thing you should do before making any major decision is take a hard look at your financial situation. Write out a budget and include details on monthly household income versus monthly household expenses.

Understanding how you are spending your money may help you get a handle on your finances and avoid bankruptcy. You'll be able to see areas where you can decrease your spending, such as eliminating the premium channels from your cable TV or taking your lunches to work from home.

Negotiating With Creditors

What ever you do, don't hide from your creditors because it becomes worse. Most often your creditors can help you if you call them and explain that you're having trouble with your finances. If you explain that you are thinking about bankruptcy, they may be willing to give you an alternative payment plan to help you avoid bankruptcy.

If you already have a credit card with a low interest rate, you might consider transferring the balance from a high rate credit card to the lower rate one. You may also be able to negotiate a lower interest rate with credit card companies. Call your credit card company and ask them.

Some will probably say no but others may say yes and this can be a huge monthly savings for you. It's worth a call because even if a few say yes, it's a big help to your monthly budget. Small gains like this can add up to more than what you think and may even balance your monthly expenses.

Get a Debt Consolidation Loan

Other good bankruptcy alternatives might involve getting a debt consolidation loan to pay off your high interest credit cards. A debt consolidation loan lowers your monthly payments and this could be a great way to avoid bankruptcy.

Borrow Money From Savings

Depending on your situation, it may be an option for you to borrow against your IRA or 401k to pay off credit cards or debts that have a higher interest rate. Before borrowing against or using your savings, you should consider any penalties carefully so you'll know if this is a smart option for you.

Credit Assistance

Credit assistance programs may also be bankruptcy alternatives that may work to help you. Credit assistance organizations manage your unsecured debt through a debt management program to help you avoid bankruptcy.

Working through debt management programs, creditors may offer benefits that can help you with your unsecured debts, by lowering your monthly payments, reducing interest rates and eliminating late fees. Depending on your past credit history, creditors may even re-age your account and show it in a current status.

Make sure you look into bankruptcy alternatives before you make the decision to change your financial life forever. Look at these bankruptcy alternatives to consider if they may be a better choice for you.


About the Author
This article is supplied by http://www.credit-repair-facts.com where you will find debt elimination programs and credit information to correct your own credit report. For more credit articles go to: http://www.credit-repair-facts.com/articles_1.html

What are your alternatives for filing bankruptcy?

The term 'bankruptcy' conjures up an image of someone publicly disgraced and broke. When in deep debts, one might feel that bankruptcy is their only hope. But bankruptcy alternative can help you eliminate debt without encountering any negative publicity.

Why should you consider bankruptcy alternative?

Bankruptcy has many undesirable consequences that will trail your life for long. It will remain on your credit report for nearly 10 years due to which no reputed lender will consider you as a borrower. There is a lot of negative publicity involved with a bankruptcy as well.

The advent of technology has made available information and help for a debtor who is considering bankruptcy alternative with a simple click. The debtors must research before they choose a bankruptcy alternative to ensure that it does not have much worse consequences.

Bankruptcy Alternatives:

•Consolidation loans: You can consolidate all your debts into one affordable and easy to manage monthly payment with consolidation loans. These loans speed up paying time and reduce your monthly bills to a great extent. Consolidation loans will also help get harassing creditors off your back and help you avoid bankruptcy.

•Out-of-Court Settlement: The debtor can also opt to settle his/her unsecured debt at a reduced amount through an out-of-court settlement. Independent advisors who work with various companies will help negotiate an out-of-court settlement with your creditor.

•Individual Voluntary Agreement (IVA): IVA stands for Individual Voluntary Agreement. It was introduced as a part of the Insolvency Act of 1986 and is a legally approved debt solution. When you opt for an IVA as a debt solution, you enter in to an agreement with your creditors. An Insolvency Practitioner helps to formulate your IVA. It will help freeze your high interest debts and ensure that you are debt free in five years or less without any negative publicity.

•Credit Counseling: Credit counseling agencies will deal with your creditors. They will negotiate lower interest rates and comfortable repayment options to suit your pocket. Credit counseling will offer all the information and help you need to deal with your debts.

Whatever you choose as an alternative to bankruptcy, act fast! There are a number of online services which can help you with your queries. They will be able to achieve the results that you were unable to achieve on your own. Apart from avoiding bankruptcy right now, it is important to understand how you can avoid the pitfalls of debt in the future.

Log on to Bankruptcy Alternative for information and support on bankruptcy alternative


About the Author
Reethi R Expert content developer for Bankruptcy Alternative

Are You Allow To Keep Your Credit Cards In A Bankruptcy?

Many bankruptcy filers are wondering whether they are entitled to keep one or several credit cards for emergencies backup. In general, you may not because your credit cards will be cancelled regardless, since you file the bankruptcy. The credit card issuers tend to punish their card holders for filling any kind of bankruptcy; in most cases, the credit cards of bankruptcy filers will be terminated once they file for a bankruptcy. But there are some exemptions where terms and conditions will be applied to enable the bankruptcy filers to continue holding their credit cards.

There are some exceptions applicable only to chapter 7 bankruptcy filers. Some credit card's issuers will allow you to keep your credit card but with a sized down credit limit, and in return you need to repay them for some of your debts. In fact, some companies will automatically send you or your attorney a proposed reaffirmation agreement, a contract between you and your creditor that you will pay all or a portion of the money owed, despite the bankruptcy filing, in exchange for a minimal amount of new credit.

Beside the sized down credit limit, a chapter 7 bankruptcy filers may allow to keep their credit cards by some of their card issuers but the interest rate will be revised to a higher than the normal interest rate. But, if you can always pay your credit balance in full each month, you will never incur a finance charge, and the high interest rate won't hurt you.

Other than chapter 7 bankruptcy filers, all credit cards must be given up at the filling of bankruptcy. However, there are credit card holders who have maintained their credit cards at zero balance for a long period of time do not report their credit cards during the filing. This action can be considered illegal since in effect your preference on one creditor (your credit card issuer) over other creditors, because repayment ordination is a trustee job.

If you are not eligible to file under chapter 7 or even you are filling under chapter 7 but you didn't manage to get approval from your credit card issuers to keep your credit cards, the best thing is report all your credit cards and give them up. In most cases, your need to wait until the bankruptcy filing has cleared and then work with a debt management consultant to rebuilt your credit step by step. Of course, in the months and years after the bankruptcy filling, you may not be eligible for top-tier or even middle-tier credit cards.

But with some efforts and fiscal strategy such pay your monthly credit balance in full and on schedule will help you to rebuilt your good credit record and you can begin to erase the stigma of the bankruptcy; and eventually put you back in the realm of good to high credit score.

In Summary

In most cases, bankruptcy filers need to give up their credit cards. But, there are exceptions for bankruptcy filers in chapter 7, the debtors who file their bankruptcy under chapter 7 may allow to keep their credit cards with some terms and conditions.

About the Author
Cornie Herring is the Author from http://www.StudyKiosk.com. "StudyKiosk-Credit Basics" is an informational website on credit basics, debt consolidation and bankruptcy. To see recommended bankruptcy attorneys, visit: Recommended Bankruptcy Attorneys.

Smart debt recovery with alternatives to bankruptcy!

Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability to pay back all your lenders. One can seek out for a creditor in filing bankruptcy, in order to recoup a portion of what you owe. It is carried out by a bankruptcy attorney in a legal manner. Basically gives a borrower indebted, a new lease of life. As it helps relieve the debtor off his pending debts and enables him to repay the creditor systematically, he only pays what he can afford to pay.

Basic purpose of filing bankruptcy:
Gives a new lease of life to all those debtors trapped badly in debts
Stops creditors from taking any legal action against debtors
Relieves the debtor off his debts
Repay only what you can afford
Repay in a systematic manner
Commonly personal bankruptcy is of two kinds:
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is when you discharge all your debts with the help of a court. To discharge all your debts you will in turn give up your property. It can also include items that are already paid off. However, not all debts can be discharged under this. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy helps you to get rid of debt by obtaining a court approved plan to repay back. It is usually stretched over 3-5 year period and lets you pay back your debts in an orderly manner. You get to keep your personal property and pay only what you can afford to pay till that date. So your creditor generally accepts less than the whole amount. Unfortunately, filing bankruptcy can cause adverse credit problems for roughly around 7-10 years. It will also reflect badly on your credit history and is not favourable in terms of credit worthiness. After bankruptcy, you might be doing exceptionally well on your financial front, but you will still face problems. Every time you apply for a personal loan or home loan you will either be denied of loans or are subjected to unusually high rate of interest.

Consider bankruptcy alternatives:

Debt consolidation
Seek help to consolidate or pool together your existing debts into one single new loan, with a lower monthly repayment. The payments being lower for two main reasons:
(a) The loan is spread over a longer period of time than your existing debts
(b) The interest rate being charged is less than the average rate on your current debts. Whilst this is not the answer for many people, it can be a useful tool during a period of low interest rates, or when there is sufficient equity built up in a property so that a second mortgage or remortgage can be arranged.
IVA
A true alternative to using a debt consolidation and bankruptcy is IVA. IVA helps you to make an agreement between you and your creditor, wherein you agree to pay back a certain amount of your loan within a period of 60 months or so, beyond which your debts are written off. Your IVA can be arranged only by an insolvency practitioner to get you out of unsecured debts of £15,000 or more. In addition to this, your interest charges and court proceedings will stop. You wipe off up to 80% of your debts.
Bankruptcy is the last option to be considered. But once you are declared bankrupt you are likely to be trapped in it for many years. The long-term ramifications of which include being unable to access credit, be in certain types of business or open a bank current account.
For an alternative to bankruptcy visit : Apply for A Loan


About the Author

Content Developer for finance sites
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/author-articles/5195/1.html

Personal insolvencies are at record levels across the UK: Which way for the debtor?

In the UK, when a debtor owes a sum of money in excess of £750 to a creditor, he can be made bankrupt by the creditor applying to the court for a bankruptcy order to be granted against him. This sum can comprise of debts that are due to a number of creditors who may petition the court as a group for a bankruptcy order, not necessarily a single creditor.

Bankruptcy is an option that can be considered when a debtor cannot pay their debts as they become due and their financial affairs become untenable. Although bankruptcy has a bad stigma and is publicly advertised, it should always be considered, even as a last resort and a debtor can apply for a bankruptcy order on his own behalf, even if creditors are not willing to do so. Debtors who are made bankrupt will usually remain bankrupt for one year, after which any debts relating to the bankruptcy are removed.

Many debtors now enter into 'Individual Voluntary Agreements' (or IVAs) as an alternative to bankruptcy. If a debtor's financial difficulties are temporary and he is likely in the future to be in receipt of funds which may pay all or most of his debts, he can talk to an insolvency practitioner with a view to obtaining such an agreement.

Through an IVA, proposals of repayment of debts are put forward to creditors, which can include banks, building societies, credit card companies and debt collection agencies, such as the CapQuest Group. Mostly these proposals involve either a lower monthly repayment or in some cases, a reduced final settlement amount. In order to succeed, however, the arrangement must be supported by at least 75% of all creditors affected by the IVA.

Despite the 'softening' of bankruptcy laws by the Enterprise Act 2002, the popularity of IVAs has grown in recent years. The Enterprise Act 2002 effected changes in bankruptcy law which many experts thought would see the end of IVAs, as it was generally regarded that bankruptcy would be seen as an easy way out for many debtors. However, even after a debtor is discharged from bankruptcy, many banks and other financial institutions will be aware of the debtor's financial history and this may affect any borrowing capabilities in the future.

Personal insolvencies are at record levels across the UK, with just over 26000 bankruptcies and IVAs in the period April to June 2006. These figures represent an increase of 10% on the first quarter of 2006, and 66% over the same quarter in 2005.

However, before any decision is made as to which route to follow, it is vitally important that a debtor seeks advice from a solicitor, insolvency practitioner or local Citizens Advice Bureau. There are also many specialised companies to be found the internet that are available to the debtor who can help to arrange an IVA or provide advice on how best to proceed in dealing with their financial situation.


About the Author
Martin McAllister is a freelance online journalist. He lives in Scotland.

Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/author-articles/10629/1.html

What Are The Consequences of Filing For Bankruptcy?

Bankruptcy may be your quickest way of getting relief from your unbearable debt, but it is also the most damaging action to your credit ratings. Let us review the consequences of filling for a bankruptcy before your make up you decision to go for it.

1. Hard to Obtain Credit

Bankruptcy restrictions apply from the moment the bankruptcy order is made and it is a criminal offence to break them. These restrictions will make it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain credit. If you wish to buy a house in the future, there will be a two-year waiting period after the Chapter 7 case is discharged before you will be deemed eligible for a home loan. When a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case is involved, the waiting period is twenty-four months after the debts are paid off in full. During that two-year period, you will need to have been employed steadily, have no negative entries in your credit file, and kept debt under control.

2. Negative Impacts If You Are In Business

You will not be able to be a director of a company or hold certain offices. You will also have to inform any people you do business with the name in which you were made bankrupt; this may has negative impact on your company's reputation and may discourage your potential customers to do business with you.

3. Lose Your Assets

You may lose your assets which include your home and anything of value. And some percentage of your income will be paid to creditors for 3 years. A poor credit rating due to bankruptcy will follow you for 7 to 10 years. The bad credit stated in your credit report will cause you hard to obtain a mortgage.

4. Family Relationship Impacts

Financial strain alone is enough to break a relationship. The majority of couples failed in their marriage due to money. Bankruptcy may cause negative impacts to your family relationship if your spouse can't accept the fact of bankruptcy.

5. Health Impacts

You may blame yourself on bankruptcy incident and regret on your action. This may affect both your mental and physical conditions. It may cause you to have financial phobia and fear to manage your finances in the futures.

6. Higher Loan's Interest Rate

Bankruptcy filling has the most damage on your credit record if compare to other debt solutions. Your bad credit record will remain on your credit report for 7-10 years and if you are getting any loan after your bankruptcy discharged, your loan's interest rate will be higher than normal.

In Summary

Not all are apparent when considering bankruptcy and not all will apply to you. It is certainly worth familiarizing yourself so that you can make an informed decision when choosing whether or not to go for bankruptcy filling. And it is worth to get consultancies and advices from finance experts to see whether the bankruptcy is your only option; who know, you may find alternatives to this option and bankruptcy can be avoided.

About the Author
Cornie Herring is the Author from http://www.StudyKiosk.com. "StudyKiosk-Credit Basics" is an informational website on credit basics, debt consolidation and bankruptcy.

Get To Know The Bankruptcy Filling Process If This Is Your Option

Filing for bankruptcy is a very personal decision. Heavy debtors may choose to file a bankruptcy if they see no other way out from their heavy debts. By declaring bankruptcy and filing a petition with U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the bankruptcy filer will be protected and relief from debts under the Bankruptcy Code.

Bankruptcy filing should be you last option if there are no better options available, because the consequences of filing a bankruptcy will follow you for 7 to 10 years. If bankruptcy is your only option, then by understanding the process of filing bankruptcy will get you more prepare to face it. Bankruptcy procedure and exemptions may vary from one state to another state. This article will walk through with you the general process of filing a bankruptcy.

The first part of the bankruptcy filing process is collecting your personal financial information. This includes your existing secured and unsecured debts and tax returns for past two years. Prepare all your deed documents which include real estate you own, car title, land title and other loan documents. You may want to order your credit report, it will provides you some helpful information on your past records.

Then, you either assign a bankruptcy attorney or you can choose to file the bankruptcy yourself. If you choose to file the bankruptcy yourself, you need to get the bankruptcy forms (you can get these forms online) and get them fill up. You have to fill in your current financial status and recent financial transactions (within last 2 years) into the bankruptcy forms. At the mean time, you need to decide to file under what type of bankruptcy; there two commons types which are Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, chapter 7 bankruptcy is the preferred one, but not all are eligible to file under chapter 7. If you choose to file under chapter 13, you need to enclose your proposed repayment plan with your petition. Once the bankruptcy petition is completed you will need to file the petition with your local United States bankruptcy court. If you have assigned a bankruptcy attorney to handle your bankruptcy case, the attorney will help you and guide you through the above process.

Once you have submitted your petition to the bankruptcy court, you will be immediately protected under the bankruptcy code. Your creditors are not allowed to make direct contact with you or making a claim to any of your property from the date of filing. About 1 month later, the trustee will call a first meeting with all your creditors and your creditors' lawyer. Objections are typically resolved by negotiation between you as the debtor and your creditors. If there is no challenge raises in the meeting, you should receive a notice from court after 4 to 6 months stated that your bankruptcy has been discharged; otherwise, if compromise can be reached by all parties, a judge will intervene.

In Summary

Bankruptcy filling is a long process, it may takes up 6 months to a few years if a court case involve. You must be prepared to face it and if you have no confidence to get through yourself, it's better to assign an attorney to handle the bankruptcy process.


About the Author
Cornie Herring is the Author from http://www.StudyKiosk.com/creditbasics. "StudyKiosk-Credit Basics" is an informational website on credit basics, debt consolidation and bankruptcy.

Dead People Cannot File Bankruptcy

Training for attorneys, paralegals and virtual assistants working under the direction of attorneys in debtor bankruptcy law.

The other day, an interesting question came into the 713Training.Com office from a paralegal working on a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition. The debtor was a widow who claimed most of the debts were only in her husbands name. The paralegal wanted to know if the debts of a dead person should be listed on the bankruptcy petition. She had asked her attorney and he told her to research the topic and get back to him for a discussion.

But there is no short and sweet answer to this question. Just like everything else in the legal field, there are exceptions to every rule. On the surface you would think that dead people cannot file bankruptcy. Although this is true, we need to first determine if the debts that are in the husbands name are connected to the widow who is filing bankruptcy.

First I asked the paralegal the age of the widow. She was born in 1949 and had been married to her husband for 34 years. Next, I asked how old the debts were. The paralegal said a large majority of them had been established as far back as the 1970s. Next, I asked if the widow had been employed throughout the marriage. She had worked as a housewife and was not employed outside the home.

With the answers to these questions it was easier to reconstruct the life and times this woman lived in. First of all, since the widow had not worked outside the home, it was very likely that any credit accounts she applied for had to have included the husbands income when the credit application had been filled out. Secondly, back in the 1970s it was rare to find a woman with credit in her name alone. Most credit card applications forced a woman to list her husbands income because it was assumed that a husband and wife was one person.

Therefore, I summarized that the debts the widow claimed were solely in her husbands name was not a factual statement. I told the paralegal to have her attorney pull a credit report and compare it with the debts listed on the Client Intake Forms. This way, any debts that were solely in the name of the husband would not show up on the widows credit report. Besides, a credit report would aide in making sure the widow had included all her debts and not just the debts that she could recall.

Next, I asked the paralegal when the husband died. The answer was 2005. Therefore, she needed to find out from the widow how much money she received after her husbands death. This information is then listed under Item 10b of the Statement of Affairs, which states: List all property transferred by the debtor within 10 years immediately preceding the commencement of this case to a self-settled trust or similar device of which the debtor is a beneficiary.

If the husband had died less than one year before the widow filed bankruptcy, a copy of the probate court documents would need to be provided. The information from these documents is then listed under Item 4a of the Statement of Affairs.

Reviewing the probate court documents will also enable the paralegal to find out exactly what the widow received as the beneficiary. If she has any of these items or money in her possession it is considered an asset and this information is listed under its proper item category on Schedule B.

So you can see that even though it may sound silly to ask if a dead person can file bankruptcy, as a professional working for a bankruptcy attorney, it is your job to do the research. Once you obtain all the facts you then present this information to your attorney so that he or she can make the decision how best to protect and represent the debtor in this case.

To receive more bankruptcy petition drafting tips join The Bankruptcy Club at the 713Training.Com website.

Disclosure: The information contained in this article is solely intended to increase the skills of paralegals and other legal staff who are employed virtually or non-virtually by bankruptcy attorneys. This information is not to be used by non-attorneys to prepare bankruptcy petitions for the general public. The information is solely intended to train legal professionals working under the direction of licensed bankruptcy attorneys.


About the Author
Victoria Ring is a Certified Paralegal and Bankruptcy Specialist. She has developed an entire line of training products and holds several seminars per year in drafting bankruptcy petitions. Her training materials have been approved by NALS for 7 CLE credits. Additionally, Victoria Ring provides speaking and in-house training services for bankruptcy law firms. Visit her website at http://www.713training.com

Five Ways How A Credit Monitoring Service Can Help Post-Bankruptcy Individuals Rebuild Their Credit

If you are bankrupt and rebuilding credit, it will be helpful to monitor your progress as you add more positive information to your credit report. And one way to monitor your progress is by using a credit monitoring service.

When you declared bankrupt, you know how hard it is to raise your credit score again. At this point you know that you should take extra care and precaution in keeping your credit score safe from, or else you might become the next victim of identity theft. Bankrupt or not, you don't want it to happen. But now that you are bankrupt, nothing will undermine your efforts in rebuilding your credit faster than having your identity stolen.

While you can do the monitoring yourself, using a credit monitoring service can be advantageous in helping you recover from bankruptcy and rebuild your credit.
Here are the following reasons.


1. Credit monitoring services usually monitor any inquiry made on your credit report and why. This helps you detect if there are any unauthorized activities being done under your name.

2. Credit monitoring services also monitor if there are any new accounts being opened in your name. One of the ways identity thieves use your information and leave you with debt is by getting a hold of your name, address and Social Security Number for them to open new accounts using your name, run up charges in that account and leave you with more debt. This delinquency will be reported on your credit report, which will hurt your credit score more. But by monitoring closely your credit file, you can protect yourself from the further damages of ID theft if you know once when someone has opened a new account in your name.

3. Credit monitoring services monitor if your mailing address on your credit card account has been changed. Identity thieves can change your mailing address, and have your statement sent to the new address so they can get more of your financial information like your credit card numbers, and run up charges on your account. And because those statements are sent to the new address, it will take long before you become aware of it. Through a credit monitoring service, you will monitor of there were changes to your mailing address.

4. Credit monitoring services monitor if there has been an increase on your credit card limit. Identity thieves can also request for an increase on your credit card and run up charges on your account. This can in turn leave you with large debt and a worse credit score if you cannot pay it on time.

5. Credit monitoring services are very convenient because you are just a mouse click away from accessing your credit report, instead of monitoring your progress yourself. This makes it a time saver as well, especially if you choose to have their email alerts delivered to your inbox on a daily basis whenever a change happens to your credit report. This will make it easier for you to see if there are any inaccurate information being added so you can correct them as soon as possible, which can help improve your credit score.


So you see, using a credit monitoring service offer many benefits to you if you are bankrupt and are rebuilding your credit. Just study what they offer and choose one that suits your needs best.


About the Author
For a comprehensive guide on bankruptcy and rebuilding your credit after bankruptcy, visit http://bankruptcy.onlinemoneytips.info .