How Personal Bankruptcy Affects your Life

When you file for personal bankruptcy, it can affect your life in many ways, both positive and negative.  It can give you a chance for a fresh start with your credit and an opportunity to get out of debt.  It can also make it more difficult for you to get loans for a while, and if you are unable to start rebuilding your credit right away, it may be more difficult to rebuild it later on, especially if you are unable to keep up with the bills you still have as you cannot file again for another 10 years.  On a more personal note, some people feel like failures when they have to file for bankruptcy.

*The positive effects of bankruptcy

When you file for bankruptcy, it gives you an opportunity to start fresh with your credit history.  The bankruptcy itself may stay on your credit report for seven to ten years, but you are often sent new credit offers shortly after filing and if you are ready for them, this can be a good start to improving your credit.  The other positive effects of filing for bankruptcy, and probably the most positive effect of all is that you will no longer be receiving calls from creditors and debt collectors asking you for money that you just don’t have to give them.  Just one word of caution, however.  Don’t take advantage of any credit offer that you cannot afford.

*The negative effects of bankruptcy

Bankruptcy may also have negative effects on your life if you are not careful.  If you take advantage of those credit offers too soon, and don’t have the money to pay your bills, you may wind up back in the same boat you were in before, but this time without a way out because you cannot file bankruptcy again for seven to ten years.  You may also find that getting very much more than a $300 credit limit is difficult if not impossible in many cases, so you may not be able to make any large credit purchases for quite some time.  You still may have to field a few calls from debt collectors who didn’t quite get the message, but at least now you can tell them that you have filed for bankruptcy, and you no longer have to speak to them.

When you file for bankruptcy, it is important to weigh the effects that it is going to have on your life.  Weigh the positives and the negatives and decide if it is right for you.  If it is right, it could be the best thing that ever happened to you.