Bankruptcy Myths vs. Facts: What You Need to Know Before Filing

Myth #1: Bankruptcy ruins your credit forever

Fact: Bankruptcy does impact your credit, but it doesn’t destroy it for life.

Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcies stay on your credit report for up to 10 years, but the damage isn’t permanent. Most credit scoring models weigh your recent credit behavior more heavily than older events.

With smart credit rebuilding strategies, many filers see their score bounce back significantly within 12–24 months of discharge. In fact, many are eligible for FHA or VA home loans just two years after filing.

Shawn’s own experience rebuilding credit post-bankruptcy was made possible by using 3–5 credit cards responsibly and requesting credit limit increases over time.

Myth #2: You’ll lose everything you own

Fact: Most people keep everything they want to keep.

One of the most common fears is that the court will take your house, car, or personal belongings. But bankruptcy exemptions protect essential assets in most states. These vary by location, but they often cover:

• A primary vehicle
• Personal property (like furniture and clothing)
• Retirement accounts
• A portion of home equity

In Shawn’s experience, most people only give up things they no longer want to pay for. If your car payment is crushing your budget or your second property is draining your savings, you can choose to walk away from those debts, but you won’t be forced to surrender your essentials.

Myth #3: Bankruptcy can’t help with IRS or tax debt

Fact: Some tax debt can be eliminated.

Contrary to popular belief, some tax debts are dischargeable in Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcies, as long as they meet a few requirements:

• The debt is at least 3 years old
• Tax returns were filed at least 2 years ago
• The tax wasn’t assessed in the past 240 days

If your tax debt qualifies, it can be wiped out like any other unsecured debt. If it doesn’t, Chapter 13 gives you up to 5 years to repay it without penalties or interest.

Myth #4: Filing for bankruptcy means you’ve failed financially

Fact: Bankruptcy is a legal tool to help you reset.

Medical debt, job loss, divorce, and inflation are just a few reasons people fall behind financially. Bankruptcy exists to give people a second chance. And thanks to the automatic stay, it offers immediate protection from lawsuits, garnishments, foreclosures, and aggressive collections.

Filing isn’t failure—it’s action. It means you’re taking control of your financial future.

Myth #5: Chapter 7 is better than Chapter 13 (or vice versa)

Fact: It depends entirely on your situation.

Chapter 7 is often faster and erases more debt, but Chapter 13 provides structure and breathing room for people who are behind on house payments or car loans.

Here’s a quick overview of Chapter 7 vs Chapter 13 bankruptcy:

Chapter 7 vs Chapter 13

Chapter 7	Chapter 13
Discharge in 3–6 months	3–5 year repayment plan
Most unsecured debt wiped out	Keep secured assets while catching up on payments
Income limits apply	No income limit

In Shawn’s words, it’s not about which chapter is "better" but about which one works best for your goals. Some clients even qualify for both. If you’re weighing out your options, you might want to consider the pros and cons of Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Myth #6: Bankruptcy is only for people with no income

Fact: People at all income levels file for bankruptcy.

You don’t need to be unemployed or broke to qualify. In fact, people with six-figure incomes often file for Chapter 13 to reorganize overwhelming debt or avoid foreclosure.

Bankruptcy isn’t about shame, it’s about solving a legal and financial problem using the tools available.

Myth #7: You can’t get credit for years after filing

Fact: You can rebuild quickly with the right strategy.

Lenders often view bankruptcy filers as a clean slate: you’re debt-free and likely eager to rebuild. Credit card offers may start arriving just months after your discharge.

You can begin rebuilding your credit by:

• Opening 2–3 secured or credit-building cards
• Keeping utilization low
• Making on-time payments
• Requesting credit line increases

Many filers reach the 700s within two years. Some mortgage programs allow applications during Chapter 13 if you’ve made consistent trustee payments.

Bankruptcy isn’t the end, but it can be the beginning

Don’t let fear or misinformation stop you from exploring a real solution. Whether you’re facing foreclosure, collection lawsuits, or simply overwhelmed by debt, bankruptcy may offer the clean slate you need.

Need help responding to a lawsuit or negotiating your debt? Use SoloSuit to file your response or SoloSettle to settle your debt directly with collectors.

Transcript

Hannah (00:36):

Hello everybody and welcome to the Debt Hotline. Thank you so much for listening. Our topic for this episode of The Debt Hotline is Bankruptcy Myths versus Facts, and we have a really special guest joining us. We actually have a bankruptcy attorney and we are really excited to learn about him and his practice and a little bit more about bankruptcy. Before we jump into things, did want to give a quick disclaimer and say that although we are joined by an attorney this evening, none of the information we share in this podcast is going to be considered legal advice. We are not your attorneys and this is strictly just resourceful and educational information, so we're just trying to help people get pointed in the right direction. My name is Hannah Locklear. I am a part of Team Solo. At Solo, we help people respond to debt lawsuits and settle their debts online using technology.

And so yes, we love to provide people with resources and information that helps them navigate debt situations, bankruptcy obviously being a very hot topic in that space. So with that being said, I wanted to take a moment to introduce our special guest and then we're going to jump into some real questions from real people about bankruptcy. Shawn is an experienced consumer and business bankruptcy attorney who's dedicated to helping individuals and families overcome financial challenges. He practices at the Law offices of John t Orcutt, which is a leading North Carolina bankruptcy firm, and he guides clients through chapter seven and chapter 13 filings with clarity and compassion, helping them protect their assets and find a true financial fresh. Start. With years of experience focused exclusively on debtor bankruptcy law, Shawn has helped hundreds of North Carolinas understand their options, stop creditor actions and move forward with confidence. His mission is to make the bankruptcy process approachable and understandable, empowering clients to turn financial setbacks into opportunities for long-term stability. So Shawn, we're really excited to have you join. Did I miss anything? Can you fill in any gaps that I might've had in that video?

Shawn Orcutt (02:51):

Yeah, we're trying to help.

Hannah (02:53):

To help Love it, and same at Solo. We're just trying to help people find solutions to their debt problems. So can you tell us a little bit more about your experience, John? How long have you been a bankruptcyd attorney?

Shawn Orcutt (03:07): I guess about 15 years now. It wasn't always this, I mean I was actually computer undergrad, MBA did financial planning. I think the main thing is just there's a lot of people who need a lot of help, people in debt, sort of the deck stacked against you, just high interest rates. The banks have a significant amount of power. Sometimes the law is on their side and so I guess I liked bankruptcy because it was one of those times where it actually sort of put the power back onto your side of the equation and then there are rules that your creditors are forced to play by and they don't really have much choice in it. Bankruptcy is one of those weird areas of law that sort of breaks other laws, so we like it a bunch.

Hannah (03:58):

Very cool. Well, it sounds like you're really passionate about the work that you do, Shawn, and I think that your expertise and your insights will be really helpful to people listening to the debt hotline, especially those considering bankruptcy, and I think that's really the goal is to figure out how people can separate the myths from the facts of bankruptcy and figure out if it's a good option for them and the best way to approach bankruptcy in general. So with that being said, I did want to ask you a couple of questions just based on your experience. Could you briefly explain to our listeners what is the difference between chapter seven and chapter 13 bankruptcy?

Shawn Orcutt (04:36):

Yeah, a lot of people focus on the time difference or often someone will come in and say, I want a chapter seven, because a lot of times they're like, oh, that one's better. I mean, it's simpler, it's quicker because like three or four months versus three, four or five years for a chapter 13. And I think that's the biggest difference is one's not better than the other. Chapter 13 does a few things. They're like 80% of the same, but the 20% is important. It can do things that chapter seven can't. Like if you're three months behind on your car, six months behind on your house, you owe a bunch of taxes, recent taxes that you're needing to pay that aren't dischargeable behind on child support. That's one of those things where chapter 13 can grab that and then catch it up over the life of the plan.

And then if you're 3, 6, 9, 12 months beyond on your mortgage, you need that time because of all things sort of the nest. The home is something people try to protect the most, and so that tends to be sort of the tipping point between one versus the other. Otherwise, people I guess focus on if you qualify for a seven versus a 13, not to get I guess too deep with it, but 13 can protect a little bit more. Maybe you have extra more assets and so it can actually shield those. The chapter 13, trustee doesn't want to sell your stuff, so he would just pay a little more into your plan, which would otherwise protect those assets the rest of the way along with the IRS Department of Revenue, everything else.

Hannah (06:21):

So you mentioned a little bit about the eligibility for chapter seven versus chapter 13. It sounds like there are different eligibility requirements for the two different types. Can you explain a little bit about what those eligibility requirements are?

Shawn Orcutt (06:34):

The primary one is the people bring up is the MEANS test. That one's where it sort of looks at your income and it's sort of based on, I think it drills down to your county, so not just your state and then also looks at your household size and where I remember someone said, oh, I don't qualify for a seven because I have too much income. Well, maybe not. I mean you might just be above median income and those have gone up over the past few years. They do adjust. I can't remember if that was every three or four years or something, but a lot of people still, even if you're above median, a lot of people still qualify for chapter seven. It's pretty lenient. You can still have plenty of deductions when you do your taxes, you have your income, but then you deduct this and this and this and this.

So yeah, you can deduct your house or cars, even a car that's paid off, you still get a deduction for that, for maintenance and upkeep, taking care of other people, it's a pretty generous deal. It works out all right, but if you do overall all don't pass, that means test. Then you're back over in chapter 13 because the outcome was, hey, everything else being equal, you've got maybe a couple hundred dollars extra per month that we can't get deductions for, and that gets paid out each month to your uncured creditors. But it still adapts though too. Maybe if your hours got cut, then it will adjust back down. It's okay. It's not super strict, it's not super generous, but it fits for a lot of people where they have enough breathing room to sort of get back on their feet during those years.

Hannah (08:27):

Gotcha. So it sounds like a big question to ask yourself when considering chapter seven versus chapter 13 is what you want to do with your assets and the type of assets that you own, especially if you have a home or not, right?

Shawn Orcutt (08:40):

Yeah, I mean we don't see many people. I hear a lot of people say, oh, you'll lose assets. The only assets I've seen lost generally are when stuff people want to get rid of. They're like, I got that Mustang. I was getting crazy. I can't make that payment. I want to get in something a little more affordable. And so they're surrendering it otherwise us or another attorney is not going to put you in a position where you're going to lose something. Also, some states are 80% of bankruptcy, law is federal, about 20% is sort of local or state, and some states have much better exemptions than others. Exemptions are what you get to protect. So if you're in Florida, Texas, California or something, that's the ones that are the most generous. Yeah, your house is fine. Probably your house is fine. And even North Carolina's got some interesting ones, like tendency by the entirety if you're married and get to keep more property. Yeah, that's about it.

Hannah (09:47):

Cool. Well, another quick question about bankruptcy before we jump into some real questions from real people. I was curious, when you file for bankruptcy, does it wipe out all of your debt and which property or assets do you get to keep when you file bankruptcy?

Shawn Orcutt (10:04):

Kind of think about spring cleaning with your house. You got a keep pile in a trash pile. So generally some things go in a pile no matter what. So if it's personal loans, credit cards, medical bills, stuff like that, that pretty much goes in the trash pile that gets discharged. Then there's some things which you want to keep or not. You can make a choice, do I want to keep this car and this car? Do I want to keep this house? Do I want to keep, I'm making a payment, I need this mower, I need motorcycle. Then there's things which you just have to keep. That's where I owe. Let's say 20 25, 20 24 or 2023 taxes or something like that. Those are recent. I got to pay those. That's in the key pile. Unfortunately, someone's beyond in child support, same thing. Otherwise a lot more stuff is discharged.

Not a lot makes it to the keep pile. Otherwise, for something like a unsecured, what we call unsecured general debt to make it be forced in the keep pile, it needs to be something pretty severe. I mean, it's got to be like a DUI charge or restitution or some forms of personal injury or it has to be something like fraud is a common example, embezzlement or something like that. Otherwise, medical bills, personal loans, credit cards, they're just, they're over in the trash pile and they're gone. And one point of is while your case is open, yet often they're not getting any money and we've had people say, Hey, when do I pay these back? You don't. It's gone. It's gone. Gone. Permanent gone.

Hannah (12:00):

Yeah, that's good to know. So it sounds like it's mostly the debts, unsecured consumer debt that gets wiped out. If it's something like a federally or a federal debt, like something connected to the IRS or like you said, child support, alimony, that kind of stuff, that probably will not be wiped out then.

Shawn Orcutt (12:18):

Yeah. Well, one fun thing with the IRS though, boy, I mean we've just charged so much debt to the IRS because if it's a go over a few years old, if you filed your taxes on time and let's say it's from 2020 or something like that, there's a good chance it's dischargeable. And so we discharge hundreds of thousands of dollars to them in the Department of Revenue every year. I mean, even if people are making payments on it and stuff like that, bankruptcy gives them another bite at the apple, and if it's old enough, it goes right over into the trash pile and that gets gone too. And the IRSs are actually, hey, if you're listening, actually they follow the rules and a lot of people are worried about fighting with the IRS when it comes to bankruptcy. They're like, oh, it just comes down to the math and there we are. That's the deal. So it's always fun dealing with them actually.

Hannah (13:19):

Interesting.

Shawn Orcutt (13:20):

It's actually really just cut and dry. It's just the math, so there's no haggling, there's no fighting. It's just, oh, here's what it is.

Hannah (13:29):

They're just looking at the math.

Shawn Orcutt (13:31):

Well, it's predictable, which is nice because when I can tell someone to be like, look, 99% sure you may have to pay 3000, but this other eight, yeah, that's gone. So that's even interest in penalties or whatever. Yep, it's gone too.

Hannah (13:48):

Very cool. Well, I think that gives us a good little foundation of some basic bankruptcy understandings. I know a lot of people listening probably are wondering if bankruptcy is the best option for them, and so we wanted to jump into some real questions for people about their situations and see if we could get any tips or insights from you, Shawn. So our first question is from Bob. It says, my condo is in foreclosure and a sale date has been set. I was told chapter 13 would put the foreclosure sale on hold. Is this true in your state, which is North Carolina? Yep. What about Florida?

Shawn Orcutt (14:29):

Yeah, so the filing of a bankruptcy puts up, you hear me use this term a lot called the automatic stay, which is an injunction. So in common terms, it is a restraining order and it's not just like your restraining order, it's the judge's restraining order. So it gets taken very seriously by creditors who almost never disobey it or they get smacked by the judge. Okay, so in the foreclosure, yeah, it derails that process. So they actually have to restart and then not only do they have to restart, they have to restart with the judge's permission this time. So they say, Hey, judge, his plan says he is not going to make payments. We'd like to do a relief from stay, and then they have to restart the process, but that doesn't even mean they get to, if you say, Nope, I'm going to pay it. I can catch it up.

And in our state, that can be all the way until the sale and even 10 days after, which is pretty wild. We have enough set bid period. I don't think Florida has it, but Florida foreclosures tend to have more hoops for creditors to jump through, so it takes even longer. And so I would assume that that process is even more in your favor of disrupting it and getting your case filed. I mean getting your case filed, disrupting the process and proposing a plan to catch it back up. Everything else being equal, the bank doesn't want to foreclose, they want payments, and so the bankruptcy court just says, here are the payments. They're like, okay, fine. And then they go chase somebody else. You're off the radar. They're just happy to get their money and they don't want to fight with you in bankruptcy court generally.

Hannah (16:20):

That's good to know. Yeah, it's good to know that they don't want to fight, they don't want to drag out the legal process. They just want to keep it.

Shawn Orcutt (16:29):

Yeah, they could just be getting checks from the trustee or why are they fighting? And once again, the rules are pretty well known, so if it looks like your budget can afford you, if you can actually really afford the condo and afford to catch it up, I think that looks good. And then the court likes motivated people as well where if you step up and you say, I'm going to tighten things down, I've made some adaptations, I'm making a little more money, I've got this. Like, okay, we'll give you a shot.

Hannah (16:58):

It looks like Bob had a follow-up question. He said, how long does it take to get the stay in place same

Shawn Orcutt (17:04):

Same day.

Hannah (17:04):

So the automatic stay will be official the same day that you file?

Shawn Orcutt (17:09):

Yeah, so as soon as you file, it used to be slower. We had to do stuff by mail, but back in 2000 2, 3 4, the ECF program went into place. So when we file a case, it goes in, we get a case number back immediately and we will actually pick up the phone. You don't have to do this. They'll get notice within a couple of days the court does mailings, but we'll pick up the phone, call the bank or call the foreclosing attorney and be like, guess what? Bob filed his case number is ready to write this down, 25 dash zero and it's done. That's it. It's immediate.

Hannah (17:46):

So as soon as you file that automatic fee is in place, case number, you slid home you are safe, sounds like you've definitely got some time Bob too. Get that bankruptcy filed and get that automatic stay in place so that that property can be protected.

Shawn Orcutt (18:00):

Two weeks is not a ton of time to get everything in place, but we can do it and I know a lot of attorneys can do it in less. You just be organized, get your stuff together, grab your papers, grab your bills, pay stubs, bank statements, just start collecting stuff. So you go in there and you've got everything you need in tax returns.

Hannah (18:20):

Bob, it sounds like you might've been asking in Florida, but if you happen to be in North Carolina, you can check out the law offices of John t Orcutt and you might be able to contact an attorney from that office and see what your options are.

Shawn Orcutt (18:40):

There's good attorneys in Florida. I've run into several, a few near Tampa, Robert Galer. Perfect, good friend.

Hannah (18:49):

Okay, well let's jump into another question. We've got one from Madea in Texas. She says, if you're being sued by your previous landlord, can you file for bankruptcy if you don't have the money to pay?

Shawn Orcutt (19:03):

Yeah, I mean I guess that would fall under. I guess the additional question under that is are you still living there? If you're not still living there, then that debt kind of goes into the trash pile. Everything else, there's nothing special about a broken lease unless it was up to the level of criminal damage or something like that. Just a regular plain vanilla broken lease. Then that many other judgements doesn't get any kind of special treatment and gets discharged as well. If you're still living there, it's a little more complicated. We have stopped where someone is being evicted, much like foreclosure, but it's a little less powerful in that it does stop the eviction and then you can propose a plan to sort of catch up your rent. You just get less time to catch up rent. So you might get more like six months instead of three years and then it's still, do you still want to live there or do For a lot of people, they just want to buy more time and then maybe find someplace more affordable or something that suits 'em and it does give them time to sort of handle their business because getting a U-Haul truck and moving and everything else is not simple. We've done it too many times, especially if you've got kids. There's a lot of other factors.

Hannah (20:26):

I also wanted to share, so Shawn, you had shared another resource with me before we started Npa.org, so if you go to www.naba.org, that's NACB a.org. That stands for the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys. Another great resource to look for attorneys and see what your options are based on where you live and the specific jurisdiction that you are under. So that's a good resource if you are seriously considering bankruptcy, Madea, it sounds like you might be very seriously considering it, so check that out. Hopefully that helps. Let's jump to another question since from Dorian in Oklahoma. Dorian says, what recourse do I have from a predatory loan or lender who is automatically drafting payments from a bank account?

Shawn Orcutt (21:23):

North Carolina is one of the few non garnishment states, so my answer, I may only get a b plus on this answer. So with garnishment though, once again, the automatic stay kicks into place and it's immediate. They're also pretty good about not violating that and actually if they're drafting from your account as well, then if you exempt that money in that account, then that money is protected. Like there'll be wild card or wages, stuff like that. So between one of the two, that should stop. I mean the automatic stay will stop that from happening and then it's a matter of if it's under garnishment, once again it stopped and even if they accidentally garnish afterwards, you can get that money back. Sometimes you can even get money back up to 60 or 90 days from before the filing. It was a preference, it's just a technical thing, but that's always a nice little win getting that money back too because they dipped in the pool more than the other creditors got to, so they got more ice cream than their kids and that's not okay. But yeah, that can stop and then exempting that account will shield it.

Hannah (22:36):

Gotcha. I'm curious specifically for people who have been already sued if they filed bankruptcy after a lawsuit has been filed against them, what happens to that lawsuit?

Shawn Orcutt (22:52):

I mean, depending on what the debt was is it's not a very satisfying answer, but it's true. So if it was just, let's say it was credit cards or medical bills or personal loans, then it just gets trash pile treatment. If it was let's say a personal injury lawsuit or I brought DUI or something like that, then that could be different. Or the only other complication that can occur is if the lawsuit has already completed and they have an order and a judgment. So in North Carolina, the judgment can then attach to if you have real property, so if you've got a house then it can attach to your house. Sometimes we can still solve that too though because we've got, here's the mortgage and then the exemption and if the exemption pushes that judgment off some or all of it, we can actually peel the judgment off back off the house in part or in full, which is a motion to avoid lien, which is fairly common.

Hannah (24:04):

So that's again to clarify, that's if someone has been sued and a judgment was made against the person being sued, which affected their home ownership, meaning there was a lien placed on their property, if they file bankruptcy, you can file a motion to, what did you call it, A motion. It's a motion to avoid lien.

Shawn Orcutt (24:26):

Where it's effectively then just the lien gets pushed back up off the house and we peel it off the top and it hasn't been as much the past decade or so, but we can actually do that with second mortgages to, but there has to be no equity like the house, let's say back in 2008, someone got a house and the house went down in value, whole second mortgages get peeled off. So it was nice.

Hannah (24:52):

Cool. Well let's move on to another question then. This one comes from Juan in Florida and it says, hello, I have a consolidation program, but the company has changed its terms and raised the promise initial payment from $514 to $810. Now they've sent another letter requesting an additional $80 adjustment. Is it possible to file for bankruptcy using the cards included in this program and the money that the company expects to collect?

Shawn Orcutt (25:23):

I mean you can file bankruptcy on the cards that are included in that program. I mean they're still eligible for discharge, same as anything else and the money the company expects to collect. Yeah, I mean that's your money. Sometimes we even get money back from them, but it's not too common. It has to be someone who's not doing business quite correctly. The nice thing I'd say you already have an option in place. I'm saying don't jump out of the ship without a plan. I'd say the nice thing about a lot of bankruptcy attorneys is that they often do free consultations, which I can't say for a lot of the legal industry, but bankruptcy is one of those that generally has it and then you can actually get questions answered in detail where you can get an hour, hour and a half, the exact details. You give them all your facts and your details, you might have a little bit of paperwork to fill out, but that paperwork, the better you fill out the paperwork, the better answers you'll get. So I think my short answer is I would say use a free consultation, see what the attorney has and then you at least have another option in hand to evaluate whether or not it's worth sticking with your current plan.

Hannah (26:37):

Yeah, it sounds like maybe if you've already started a consolidation program, that might be kind of tricky to look into other options like bankruptcy, but it sounds like even with bankruptcy you can get discharged not only for the credit cards that you were getting help to pay off with the consolidation program, but you might even be able to be discharged of the debt that you owed to the consolidation company. Is that right? Yeah. Cool. Alright, well let's jump to the next question. This one's from Angela in North Carolina. She says, I'm behind about $45,000 in credit cards and medical bills and I'm scared of losing my house. How do I know if I should file chapter seven or chapter 13?

Shawn Orcutt (27:20):

If Angelo was sitting in front of me, then I would say, how much is your house worth? And then first, when I say that, people's minds starts spinning. It's not what Zillow necessarily says, but what is it worth? As is an example. If you got it two years ago you paid 180, maybe it's up to 200 now you still owe about 180 on it. North Carolina has a homestead exemption for $35,000 per person and that would mean, and given those details, that house is safe. Let's say you only owe one 60 and it's worth 200,000, now you're kind of near at the edge. Could you do a chapter seven, maybe 5,000 of equity kind of in the borderline because trustee has supposed to pay a realtor, they have their own expenses that may not be worth it. Also, as is a true thing, if you need the gutters fixed the shingles because we get hurricanes every two years, you've got some loose shingles water damage to this or that your HVAC maybe has another year on it.

That all gets factored into the value and that stretches our homestead exemption a lot farther and then if that's assuming chapter 13 isn't right for some other reason like the taxes repo or not even just a repo on a car, you can also just pay off a whole car in without it being behind just to crush the interest rate down. And then in the middle district of North Carolina, you can even cram down the loan. We can cram down in the Eastern, but you can do it more in the middle or if the car is over two and a half years old, you can cram it down to what the value is today. So if it depreciated a whole bunch, a lot of people are upside down, especially if you bought a car and you rolled equity from the old car into the new one. So take clean retail 10% off and you are saving thousands.

Sorry, that's a digression from her thing, but even though I just said, I don't say ignore Zillow, but you'd also maybe want to look, what some real estate agents do is they look at comps. If you don't know exactly what your house is, maybe you've been there for quite some time and it's changed over the look at some other houses nearby that are about the same square footage that would be fairly similar to yours. That's pretty persuasive. That's useful for your attorney and persuasive to trustees for sort of proving and otherwise you are the expert on the value of the house because you live in it and all the good, the bad and the ugly.

Hannah (30:00):

But it sounds like it really just depends on how much your house is worth, whether or not you should choose chapter seven or chapter 13.

Shawn Orcutt (30:07):

Yeah, that's a good one. While I do like what chapter 13 does, I do love chapter sevens because I'm impatient and if they're done quick and that makes me happy that they're just over done and you just launch, you move forward sooner.

Hannah (30:24):

Yeah, so it sounds like there's a lot of factors obviously to consider when trying to decide which type of bankruptcy is best for you. Chapter seven might be a quicker process, you might come out on the other end a lot faster, but chapter 13 might help you protect more of your assets. Is that

Shawn Orcutt (30:40):
Right? Yeah, there's benefits and mostly the biggest benefits for 13 are just catching up and paying off bigger debts. It gives you that time three, four or five years is actually not a sentence, it's a reprieve.

Hannah (30:54):

Got it. Well, cool. Let's move on to another question then. This one comes from Lindsay Ward. Lindsay says, if you only have $2,000 in assets, will a judgment creditor pay the sheriff to put it into sheriff's sale and at what amount will they probably not bother?

Shawn Orcutt (31:13):

A lot of times, I mean we don't do any creditor work and so it's very hard for me to predict what creditors will do. Even within the same bank you may get two totally different outcomes depending on the people in there and some creditors are more motivated than others. Generally though it's not worth their time. I'm always surprised if I see something that's kind of under 4,000 or so just because it's not worth the expense to sue on that they would probably just send it to collections and then just cross their fingers. But there are some creditors which are maybe a smaller place where that debt hurts them more like a more mom and pop shop or a former business partner or something else like that who maybe just be more motivated 2000. I mean it can happen, but I don't see it. It's just less likely like 10,000.

Then I'd say flip a coin. Even nowadays I see a lot of 10 thousands, which are not, they just go to collections but they're not being sued. So I'm always kind of wondering like city chase Capital One, you guys okay, what's going on? But it could be my state though too. We don't have garnishment, so it's not the, if you can't garnish, you get a judgment and the person may not have a lot of assets, well you can't get blood from a stone, so what's the point? But if you're in a garnishment state, I think you're always a little more at risk of them wanting to just get paid.

Hannah (32:55):

Gotcha. So you said in North Carolina if someone, like if a creditor sues a consumer, they cannot actually garnish their wages. It's against the law in North Carolina?

Shawn Orcutt (33:06):

Yeah, we're a non-garnishment state. I think the only times it really happens is when there's, let's say in the military or you work for a company that's not based in North Carolina, so they attack your check before it gets to North Carolina. And according to my understanding, I think there's just four states that are non-garnishment states. North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas for the most part, I believe those are the four states that have a lot of prohibitions surrounding wage garnishment for consumer debt, that varies pretty wildly for the amount, how much of your check and then whether it's your net income or your gross income, big difference pre-tax, 25%, that's debilitating.

Hannah (33:54):

Yeah, garnishment is no joke. So if you are in a state that your wages can be garnished and you're getting sued, don't ignore it. Definitely do something, take action and everything you can to avoid that garnishment. I think that's really important and at Solo we see a lot of people who are so intimidated by the lawsuit that they'll kind of bury their head in the sand, but that's probably the worst course of action you could take. The best thing you can do is just file an answer that'll block a default judgment, which will prevent garnishment.

Shawn Orcutt (34:29):

It'll give you more time too.

Hannah (34:30):

Yeah, it'll give you time to figure out your options, whether it's bankruptcy or negotiating with a creditor or collector to settle outside of court or even fighting the case all the way through. If you feel like you're being sued for a debt that's not valid,

Shawn Orcutt (34:44):

And once again the free consultation, whoever has a free consultation, explore your options. It's uncomfortable, but go get it checked out and because once they do start to garnish, like I said, sometimes we can claw back some of the money, but once they get their hooks into your bank account or your pay stubs, you are on your heels, you're starting to hemorrhage in different ways and then maybe it starts to affect things that you care about more. Like okay, I can't pay that, but then if I can't make my car payment and I lose my car, then I can't get to work. There's this domino effect and that's not, you're in a weaker position. It's easier to get that ace up your sleeve where you've got options to play earlier on.

Hannah (35:31):

Yeah. Well, let's try to get a couple more questions in. We've got a question follow up question from Bob from earlier actually. Bob says, I'm being sued by the HOA for missed payments. Will the chapter 13 stay postpone that trial?

Shawn Orcutt (35:48):

Yep.

Hannah (35:49):
Awesome. Love. Quick and easy answer.

Shawn Orcutt (35:51):

HOAs are very aggressive. It's gotten better. They're learning, but yeah, they have to play by the same roles as everybody else even though they don't like it. But yeah, I'll postpone that too and they can get paid. It's a little more complicated about there's, you still owe for the post-petition HOA dues. You got to keep paying that stuff in the pool and the lawns and all that, but the pre-petition stuff, it can handle that and I can't remember if it's dischargeable or can get paid through the plan, but they're ones who actually get a lot more aggressive for about much less money sooner.

Hannah (36:30):

Got it. We've got another question here from Annette in North Carolina, which another, this speaks to your expertise specifically Shawn being in North Carolina, Annette says, I lived in California and got most of my credit cards there. I moved to North Carolina three years ago and my employer is in California. I work remotely in North Carolina. Would the creditor have to sue me in California?

Shawn Orcutt (37:00):

They wouldn't have to. This is back to the first year of law school about personal jurisdiction. Generally jurisdiction is where they are and where you are and it can be though where the deal was normally, I think they would have the option to do it, but they wouldn't have to see you there. It can follow you and since you live in North Carolina after two and a half years I think then you'd be using North Carolina exemptions. California exemptions are great though. They're wonderful every time I get to use them from people who have moved here from California, but I don't think they'd have to sue you. They don't have to sue you there. It's my final answer on that one.

Hannah (37:39):

Yeah, as far as I understand, usually in a typical credit card debt case, if you're being sued, they have to sue you within your jurisdiction, which would be wherever your closest courthouse would be typically. So if you don't live in California, in my experience, and correct me if I'm wrong, Shawn, but they can't sue you in another state because then you'd have to travel to be able to go to court for that.

Shawn Orcutt (38:09):

So I'll give you an example. Let's say I'm going to start a business with someone or do a deal with somebody who lives in New York and we meet halfway and actually we meet in Delaware because Delaware's laws are different and we do the whole deal there and we set up the business there or whatever and it goes defunct. Then in theory, they could sue me in North Carolina or Delaware because we actually did a lot of the action happened in Delaware.

Hannah (38:37):
Is that for consumer debt too or business debt? Does it matter?

Shawn Orcutt (38:42):

I guess it could be consumer debt. I mean it could be. You just don't see it as much because once again, it's an unnecessary complication on their end. It's much easier for them to just meet you where you are and most creditors, it's easy for them to find an attorney into that state and just deal with everything there. Also, California is probably not where anyone wants to sue anybody if they don't have the choice just because there's much more consumer protections in place and it's probably just more expensive. It's probably cheaper for them to sue you in North Carolina.

Hannah (39:17):

Interesting.

Shawn Orcutt (39:19):

Like Florida and Texas and California. There's just more hurdles in their way.

Hannah (39:24):

Alright, well I think we've got time for maybe two more questions if that's all right with you Shawn. We've got one from Whitney in Texas. Whitney says, what about disabled people that are in debt? Is there an easier way out? I can't work, so I am behind on everything.

Shawn Orcutt (39:40):

We had quite a few people who are either a private disability or a social security disability. There are some Social security disability payments are actually immune or exempt from the means test. So if that's your only income, you are pretty much below median. I'd like to say the other benefit of we work it out and I know some others do too, where, alright, I'll give you a couple of bonus answers. One chapter seven can be cheaper. So a lot of attorneys where if you're not in any rush to get filed, let's say if you do just pay a hundred a month or so, whatever you can afford, then you can do a cheaper chapter seven if you needed to file and get something sooner. Then there can be a chapter 13, there can be zero money down or no money down. Those are options and maybe you only if you don't have other debts you're you're paying maybe your trustee payments only about a hundred dollars a month.

We did those for 20 years. Now we call 'em debt busters at 99, so I'm sure someone in Florida's got something like that. Also, if you're just disability income and you're below median, I don't know what the legal aid situation is like in Texas sometimes the way North Carolina worked is legal aid, they lost some of their funding. They used to file cases. Now they just refer cases out, but they have a network of where if you go through legal aid, legal aid has a bunch of attorneys and that they're connected to and they say, Hey, if we send you a case, you don't charge more than this amount. And if I remember correctly, it was about $600 in attorney fees where if the average otherwise for seven could be more like 1500 or above, then that's a savings. That's an option too. Yeah, those are the main ones.

Hannah (41:42):

Okay, well I think we've got time for one more question, Shawn. This one comes from Jamie in Arizona. He says, I'm on social security and dfas military annuity and HUD. So it sounds like Jamie's getting a lot of social security benefits. I got in a car loan back in 2022 and the dealership income that I did not have to get me the loan. I found out should I volunt voluntarily surrender or file bankruptcy. If you file bankruptcy, can you keep the car?

Shawn Orcutt (42:17):

Yeah, I wouldn't voluntarily, voluntarily surrender it yet. I brought something up and this is going to be a little technical, but all right, so it was 2022, so it's been three years roundabout or at least two and a half. That means that you might be able to cram down on that car. So what they would do is let's say your balance on the car is, let's use round numbers. Let's say you still, let's say it was really expensive and you still owe let's say 30 K on it. Okay, well, what you could do in bankruptcy is even if their interest rate is something with the good double digits, we can still take that and put that into a chapter 13, spread that out over 60 months, so that's more about $500 a month and the interest rate gets squished down to till rate. So it's about I think 9.5 or 10% and that is an option

So think of it as divided over 60 months plus some attorney fees. Is the car more affordable? Then if you just surrender it and you are upside down to sell it at auction, they won't get much for it and then you'll have a repo deficiency for his case, the previous one, social security is also not included on the means test. It is your money to do with whatever you want, so it is not for creditors. And the other thing within chapter 13 is let's say a year from now, let's say you file a case and then a year from now transmission blows or you've decided I really don't want this car. I've always hated the color orange, whatever it is. You'd be whatever reason, you can still surrender it in the case and then it goes to the creditor, creditor sell it at auction, they get nothing for it. They have a repo deficiency, which then gets discharged with the bankruptcy. But like I said, puts the power sort of back on your side, it gives you some more options, but I would think I would do that before I would just surrender it. I'd do the math on that one.

Hannah (44:24):

Yeah, so it sounds like there are other options before you have to voluntarily surrender.

Shawn Orcutt (44:28):

Yeah. Oh, sorry, I missed one. It might be even better if you owe 30,000 and you're dividing it over 60 months. Well, let's say the car is really only worth 20. Then that's where that crammed down comes in where if it's been two and a half years, so then you just pay 20,000 and that they have to, that's their problem. So you pay 20,000 and at the end of your case when you discharge, that last 10 gets in the trash pile with everything else. You get the title of your car and is done and then the cram down value your attorney to look it up. But you can use Kelley Blue Book, NADA, sort of clean retail, add all your features, stuff like that, sunroof, et cetera. But that'll give you kind of another idea to just do that math at home. I like people that do stuff at home, so I just crunch the numbers.

Hannah (45:16):

That's super helpful. I forgot that I did have one other question. This conversation reminded me of the other question that was submitted to the debt hotline voicemail. Here is another question.

Debt Hotline Guest, Nicole (45:28):

Good afternoon. My name is Nicole G, and my question is I've been thinking about filing bankruptcy. I had even completed the bankruptcy class, I forgot what it was called, but you have to complete some kind of class or some kind of course before you file for bankruptcy and I've done that, but then I was just concerned about it saying that the bankruptcy could stay on my credit report for 10 years and I'm kind of concerned about that because I don't know if that's going to prevent me from being able to get credit lines and stuff like that if it's going to prevent me from being able to open new lines of credit and stuff because I have that bankruptcy on my credit report. So that's my question and main concern right there. Is it showing up on my credit report and being on there for up to 10 years and how is that going to help me be able to open new lines of credit and get loans and stuff if that's showing up on my credit report? Because from what I hear, I think companies and stuff like that frowned upon that. So I'm not sure, but that is my question. Thank you.

Shawn Orcutt (46:48):

Oh, I've got a good answer for this one. So yeah, she sounds like she did the credit counseling course. First thing when you're applying for credit, are they looking at your credit score? Are they looking at your credit report like most credit cards and stuff like that? Unless you're getting maybe an apartment or a mortgage or something more in detail, they're not pulling your credit report, they just want your FIO score and your FIO score. Yes, for chapter seven, it's on your credit for 10 years. Chapter 13, it's on your credit for seven years from the date of filing. Here's the thing though, your FICO score is while they keep it secret, it's like the formula for Coca-Cola, everything else being equal, it is a weighted moving average, and so it is the last two years, even though stuff is on it for up to seven years generally, so for judgments in the chapter seven bankruptcy, it's a weighted moving average of your activity over the past two years because are you the same person you were seven years ago?

No. Are you the same person you were a year or two ago closer? So let's say you filed a chapter seven bankruptcy and you're out of it. So 90 days later discharge, okay, you'll actually get more credit card offers than you're probably used to upon you're getting your discharge. Why is because they know you don't have any other debt. It's like being the only hunter in the forest full of deer. They know that you're hungry for credit, you want to rebuild and you are unburdened from all this other debt that was weighing you down. So they are actually very happy to, I make the joke, they're kind of like an ex-boyfriend or ex- girlfriend. They're like, Hey, even if you discharge a debt with bank a, bank A might be the first one to hit you back up. We were so good together. You love our times together.

I know we had our issues, but we're past that. So getting those lines of credit shouldn't be too difficult and it's actually people with the highest credit scores tend to have between three and five open lines of credit. You just want to make sure that your lines of credit are ones that report to all three bureaus every six months or every one year. Try to get credit limit increases. It is entirely possible. I experimented on myself absent the bankruptcy part because I had bad credit and I read everything I could. I was like, I'm going to figure this out and I experimented on myself and it works. And you can get your credit up really quite quickly with very simple things where at the end you just keep doing those credit limit increases, which sounds counterintuitive where it seems like you have a high limit. It's not a high balance. A high limit is actually a good thing. It's like when you go to apply for a job and you have a recommendation letter on the bottom. If you have 5,000 or $10,000 lines of credit from bank A and bank B, bank C goes, well, they've even vetted by bank A's and B's.

So it's very two years from a bankruptcy filing while the bankruptcy is still on there. Once again, that two year weighted moving average, it starts to become a lot less significant. And then what you've done in those past two years starts getting all the attention and so you've opened these other three lines. You just use one to pay your water bill or something, one to pay your phone bill, maybe one Amazon or whatever, and you just pay 'em off balance. The bill comes in, pay the balance off, keep it under 10% if possible of utilization because they'll still have that max amount and then just keep doing those credit limit increases. So at the end of two years, you can be touching 7 20, 7 30, 7 47 50 and from there forward, it doesn't matter. You're just in the A plus category, but even though it still says bankruptcy on your credit report, you kind of get this little acceleration with rebuilding. I don't know why they did it that way, but that's the way it works. So take advantage of it. You can get up there real fast. And then even though, let's say if you do try to get a house, that's the other big one. That's the dream. F-H-A-U-S-D-A and VA don't discriminate. So two years after your bankruptcy, you can get all of those loans if you qualify for a VA in USDA, but FHA is two years after discharge.

You can get all three actually in the middle of a chapter 13. That's how much they're fine with it if you have a gear of good payments to the trustee, but two years after discharge, and then their credit requirement though was what, I think it was maybe like five 80 or something in there less. I looked 3% down. So that's possible. And once again, they don't care about that bankruptcy. You've got two years, you've built your credit up since then and you should actually slingshot up pretty quick because your slate got cleaned pretty well.

Hannah (52:01):

I love it. That's the financial planner in That's so cool. You're like a triple threat, but I love that. Super great tips on improving your credit and also looking for home ownership opportunities. It's all related, right? And I think for people considering bankruptcy or struggling with debt, those are things to be thinking about and I really appreciate you sharing your personal experience too. It sounds like you have personal experience improving your credit and getting in a better place financially. So thank you for sharing that, Shawn, certainly. Well, I think with that, we're going to go ahead and wrap up. Again, I just want to say thank you to everyone who is listening at Solo. We host this podcast twice a week. You can call into the debt hotline at 801-613-8181 and submit your questions about debt. We will respond to those questions every single week, and our goal is to just help educate and point people in the right direction. And so I want to say thanks again to Shawn who joined us from the Law Offices of John t Orcutt. Again, if you want to explore your options for bankruptcy in North Carolina, specifically, the law offices of John t Orcutt are a good option. You can check them out.

And many other attorneys out there that can help you. You can check out that particular law firm in North carolina@billsbills.com, or if you're just considering bankruptcy in general, you can also consult an attorney wherever you live. A good resource for that is npa.org. Again, that's NACB a.org. But yes, and if you've been sued for debt, I just want to echo what I said earlier. If you've been sued, don't ignore it. You have options. Even if you can't afford an attorney, you can use Solo to respond to the lawsuit, block that default judgment, and then negotiate with your creditors and collectors to settle the debt outside of court and avoid the courthouse altogether. We can help you do that. So head on over to Solosuit.com to learn more, and if you have questions specifically about filing an answer, you can also contact us at support@Solosuit.com. We're happy to respond and hopefully point you in the right direction. Shawn, any last words or any thoughts before we close?

Shawn Orcutt (54:26):

No, I think that anyone listening to your podcast is sort of someone who is educating themselves, knowing what your options are, and that's the beauty of the internet is you can sit down at home, get a pad of paper and a pencil, and start writing it down. Come up with a plan if you've got a spouse or someone on who will be on your team that you can confide in getting another point of view and explore all your options. Bankruptcy is not always the best one, but it is one of them. So it's best to have a few ACEs up your sleeve to deal with this because it's tough.

Hannah (55:06):

It is tough, and it's intimidating, but I think after this episode of the debt hotline, people hopefully do have a few ACEs up their sleeve. So thank you so much, Shawn, for your insights for sharing your expertise. We really appreciate you having you as a guest, and thanks again everybody for listening. This is the Debt Hotline.

Disclaimer: The information presented in this podcast is intended strictly for general informational purposes and should not be construed as legal, financial, or investment advice. Solo and its hosts are not licensed attorneys, financial advisors, or other certified professionals. While select guests may hold active professional licenses, their contributions are purely for educational and thematic discussion. They're not delivering professional or personalized advice. Solo is not a law firm, does not offer legal representation and must not be relied upon as a substitute for professional legal counsel. It is also not engaged in debt, settlement, credit repair, or financial counseling services. Solo provides self-directed software tools designed to support users in navigating their own legal and financial situations. Participation in this podcast is not establish an attorney-client relationship. Listeners are encouraged to consult with attorneys or licensed professionals for guidance specific to their circumstances. The opinions expressed by podcast participants are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or official positions of SoloSuit Inc. DBA Solo or any affiliated organizations.

How to Answer a Summons for debt collection in all 50 states

Here's a list of guides on how to respond to a debt collection lawsuit in each state:

The Ultimate 50 State Guide

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Vermont; Vermont (Small Claims court)
• Virginia
• Washington
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

Guides on how to resolve debt with every debt collector

Are you being sued by a debt collector? We’re making guides on how to resolve debt with each one.

• 11 Charter Communications
• AAA Collections
• Aargon Agency Inc
• Absolute Resolutions Investments LLC
• ACEI Collections
• Account Services
• Accredited Collection Services
• Accredited Collection Services
• Advanced Recovery Systems
• AES NCT
• AFNI Collections
• Alco Capital Group LLC
• Aldous and Associates
• Alliance Collections
• Alliance One
• Alliant Capital Management
• Alpha Recovery Corp
• Alltran Financial
• Alltran Health
• Alorica Inc.
• Amcol Clmbia in Court
• American Coradius International
• American Profit Recovery
• American Recovery Service
• Americollect
• AmSher Collection Services
• Apelles LLC
• AR Resources
• ARC Collections
• ARM Solutions
• Arrow Financial Services
• ARS National Services
• ARSC Debt Collectors
• ARS National Services
• ARstrat
• AscensionPoint Recovery Services
• Asset Acceptance LLC
• Asset Recovery Solutions
• Associated Credit Services
• Atlantic Credit and Finance
• Atradius Collections
• Automated Collection Services, Inc.
• Autovest LLC
• Avante USA
• Avantus
• AWA Collections
• Balekian Hayes
• Bay Area Receivables
• BCA Financial Services
• BC Services
• Benuck and Rainey
• Berlin-Wheeler
• Bluebonnet Financial LLC
• Bonneville Collections
• Bull City Financial
• Bureaus Investment Group
• Cach LLC
• Caine and Weiner
• Capio Partners
• Capital Accounts
• Capital Collections
• Capital Management Services
• CardWorks
• Carmel Financial/New Coast Direct
• Cavalry SPV I LLC
• CBCInnovis
• CBCS Collections
• CBE Group
• CBV Collections
• CCB Credit Services
• CCS Collections
• CCS Offices
• Central Mediation Services
• Central Portfolio Control
• Cerastes LLC
• Choice Recovery
• Choice Recovery Inc
• CKS Financial
• CKMS Financial
• Client Services
• CMRE Financial Services
• COAF
• Coast Professional
• Comenity Bank Debt Collection
• Commonwealth Financial
• ConServe Debt Collection
• Consumer Collection Management
• Contract Callers Inc
• Convergent Healthcare Recoveries
• Convergent Outsourcing
• Couch Conville & Blitt
• Covington Credit
• CRDT First
• Credco in Court
• Credence Resource Management
• Credit Bureau Systems
• Credit Control Corporation
• Credit Management Company
• Credit Management LP
• Credit Systems
• Credit Systems
• CSIEZPay
• CTC Debt Collector
• CVCS Debt Collection
• Cypress Financial Recoveries
• D&A Services
• Daniels, Norelli, Cecere & Tavel P.C.
• DCM Services
• Debt Recovery Solutions
• Delanor Kemper & Associates
• Department Stores National Bank
• Direct Recovery Associates
• Discover Collections
• Diversified Adjustment
• Diversified Consultants
• Diversified Recovery Bureau
• DNF Associates, LLC
• Dodeka LLC
• DRS Credit
• Dynamic Collectors
• Eagle Loan
• Eagle Accounts Group, Inc.
• Eastern Account System
• EduCap
• Ellington and Associates Collections
• Encore Capital Group
• Enerson Law
• Enerson Law LLC
• Enhanced Recovery Company
• EOS CCA
• ERC Collections
• ERSolutions
• Estate Information Services
• Equable Ascent Financial
• Everest Business Funding
• Executive Credit Management
• Faber and Brand
• Factual Data
• Falls Collection Service
• FBCS
• FCO Collections and Outsourcing
• FIA Card Services
• fin rec svc (Financial Recovery Services)
• First Federal Credit Credit Control
• First Financial Bank
• First Portfolio Ventures LLC
• First Progress
• FirstPoint Collection Resources
• Firstsource Advantage
• FMA Alliance
• FNB Omaha
• Forster & Garbus
• Franklin Collection Services
• Freedom Plus
• Freshview Solutions
• Frontline Asset
• Frost Arnett
• Fulton Friedman & Gullace LLP
• Galaxy International Purchasing, LLC
• GC Debt Collection
• GC Services
• General Revenue Corporation
• GLA Collections
• Glass Mountain Capital
• Glasser and Glasser
• Global Credit Collection Corp
• Global Trust Management
• GMAC Financing
• Golden 1 Credit Union
• Grant and Weber
• Grant Mercantile Agency
• Gulf Coast Collection Bureau
• Gurstel
• Halsted Financial Services
• Harris and Harris
• Harvard Collection
• Harvest Credit Management
• Helvey and Associates
• Hollis Cobb
• Holloway Moxley
• Hosto Buchan
• Howard Lee Schiff
• H&R Accounts
• HRRG
• Hudson & Keyse LLC?
• Hunter Warfield
• IC System
• Impact Receivables Management
• Innovative Recovery
• Integras Capital Recovery LLC
• Javitch Block
• JHPDE Finance 1 LLC
• JP Receivables Management Partners
• JPMCB card
• Kenneth Eisen and Associates
• KeyBank student loans
• Kinum
• Kirschenbaum, Phillips & Levy P.C.
• KLS Financial Services
• Kramer & Frank
• Lakeside Collection
• Lending Club
• Lincoln and Morgan Kabbage
• Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson LLP
• Lockhart Collection Agency
• LJ Ross Associates
• LTD Collections
• Malcolm S. Gerald and Associates
• Malen & Associates
• Mandarich Law Group
• Mannbracken
• Marcam Associates
• MARS Inc. Collections
• MBA Law
• MCA Management Company
• McCarthy, Burgess & Wolff
• Meade & Associates
• Medicredit
• Mercantile Adjustment Bureau
• Merchants Credit Association
• MGM Collections
• Michael J Adams PC
• Midland Funding LLC
• Mid-South Adjustment
• Monarch Recovery
• Monterey Financial
• Moss Law Firm
• Mountain Land Collections
• MRS Associates
• MRS BPO
• MSW Capital LLC
• Mullooly, Jeffrey, Rooney & Flynn
• Nathan and Nathan PC
• National Collegiate Trust
• National Credit Adjusters
• National Credit Care
• National Credit Systems
• National Enterprise Systems
• National Recovery Agency
• National Recovery Solutions
• Nationstar
• Nationwide Credit
• Nationwide Recovery Services
• Nationwide Recovery Systems
• NCEP LLC
• NCO Financial Systems Incorporated
• North American Recovery
• Northland Group
• Northstar Capital Acquisition
• Northstar Location Services
• NPAS
• NRC Collection Agency
• Oliver Adjustment Company
• Oliphant Financial, LLC
• Oportun
• P&B Capital Group
• PCB Collections Agency
• Palisades Collection LLC
• Pallida LLC
• Paragon Contracting Services
• Paragon Revenue Group
• Payday Loan Debt Collectors
• Pendrick Capital Partners
• Penn Credit
• Perdue Brandon
• Persolve LLC
• Phillips & Cohen Associates
• Phoenix Financial Services
• Pioneer Credit Recovery
• PMAB LLC
• PRA Group, Inc.
• Pressler, Felt & Warshaw LLP
• Prestige Services, Inc.
• Prince Parker and Associates
• ProCollect
• Professional Finance Company
• Progressive Management Systems
• Provest Law
• PYOD LLC
• Quaternary Collection Agency
• RAB Collection Agency
• Rash Curtis and Associates
• Radius Global SOL
• Radius Global Solutions
• Rawlings Company
• Razor Capital
• Real Time Resolutions
• Receivables Performance Management
• Regents and Associates
• Reliant Capital Solutions
• RentGrow
• Resurgent
• Resurgent Capital Services and LVNV Funding
• Revco Solutions
• Revenue Enterprises LLC
• Revenue Group
• RGS Financial, Inc.
• RMP LLC in Court
• RMP Services
• RS Clark and Associates
• RSIEH
• RSIEH
• RTR Financial Services
• Rubin & Rothman
• Salander Enterprises LLC
• Samara Portfolio Management
• SCA Collections
• Scott Parnell and Associates
• Second Round Collections
• Second Round Sub LLC
• Selip & Stylianou LLP
• Sequium Asset Solutions
• Sessoms and Rogers
• Sherman Acquisition
• Sherman Financial Group
• SIMM Associates
• Source Receivables Management
• Southern Management Systems
• Southwest Credit Group
• Spire Recovery Solutions
• SRS Company
• Stark Collection Agency
• State Collection Service
• Stenger and Stenger
• Stillman Law Office
• Summit Account Resolution
• Sunrise Credit Services
• Superlative RM Debt Collector
• Suttell and Hammer
• Synergetic Communication
• Synerprise Consulting
• The Law Office of Michael J Scott
• Trellis Company
• Troy Capital
• TRS Recovery Services
• TrueAccord
• Tulsa Teachers Credit Union
• UCB Collection
• UHG 1, LLC
• Unifin
• Unifin Debt Collector
• Unifund
• Universal Credit Services
• US Bank Collections
• USAA collections
• USCB America
• Valentine and Kebartas
• Valley Servicing
• Vance & Huffman LLC
• Van Ru Credit Corporation
• Velo Law Office
• Velocity Investments
• Viking Client Services
• Wakefield and Associates
• Waypoint Resource Group
• WCTCB
• Weinberg and Associates
• Weltman, Weinberg & Reis
• Westwood Funding
• Williams and Fudge
• Wilshire Consumer Credit
• Wolpoff & Abramson
• Worldwide Asset Purchasing
• www.AutomotiveCredit.com
• Zarzaur & Schwartz
• Zwicker & Associates

Resolve your debt with your creditor

Some creditors, banks, and lenders have an internal collections department. If they come after you for a debt, Solosuit can still help you respond and resolve the debt. Here’s a list of guides on how to resolve debt with different creditors.

• American Express; American Express – Debt Collection
• Bank of America
• Barclay
• Best Buy Credit Card
• Capital One
• Chase
• Credit One Bank
• Old Navy Credit Card
• PayPal Synchrony Card
• Regional Finance
• Retailers National Bank
• Reunion Student Loan Finance Corporation
• SYNCB/PPEXTR
• Synchrony Bank
• Synchrony Walmart Card
• Target National Bank
• Webbank
• Wells Fargo
• Can I Pay My Original Creditor Instead of a Debt Collection Agency?
• Can I Settle a Debt with the Original Creditor?

Settle your medical debt

Having a health challenge is stressful, but dealing medical debt on top of it is overwhelming. Here are some resources on how to manage medical debt.

• Am I Responsible for My Spouse's Medical Debt?
• Do I Need a Lawyer for Medical Bills?
• Do I Need a Lawyer to Fight Medical Bill Debt?
• Does Bankruptcy Clear Medical Debt?
• How Much Do Collection Agencies Pay for Medical Debt?
• How to Find Medical Debt Forgiveness Programs
• Is There a Statute of Limitations on Medical Bills?
• Medical Debt Statute of Limitations by State
• Summoned to Court for Medical Bills — What Do I Do?
• Summoned to Court for Medical Bills? What to Do Next

Guides on arbitration

If the thought of going to court stresses you out, you’re not alone. Many Americans who are sued for credit card debt utilize a Motion to Compel Arbitration to push their case out of court and into arbitration.

Below are some resources on how to use an arbitration clause to your advantage and win a debt lawsuit.

• How Arbitration Works
• How to Find an Arbitration Clause in Your Credit Agreement
• How to Make a Motion to Compel Arbitration
• How to Make a Motion to Compel Arbitration in Florida
• How to Make a Motion to Compel Arbitration Without an Attorney
• How Credit Card Arbitration Works
• Motion to Compel Arbitration in California
• Sample Motion to Compel Arbitration

Stop calls from debt collectors

Do you keep getting calls from an unknown number, only to realize that it’s a debt collector on the other line? If you’ve been called by any of the following numbers, chances are you have collectors coming after you, and we’ll tell you how to stop them.

• 1-800-390-7584
• 800-289-8004
• 800-955-6600
• 8009556600
• 877-366-0169
• 877-591-0747
• 800-278-2420
• 800-604-0064
• 800-846-6406
• 877-317-0948
• 888-899-4332
• 888-912-7925
• 202-367-9070
• 502-267-7522

Federal debt collection laws can protect you

Knowing your rights makes it easier to stand up for your rights. Below, we’ve compiled all our articles on federal debt collection laws that protect you from unfair practices.

• 15 USC 1692 Explained
• Does the Fair Credit Reporting Act Work in Florida?
• FDCPA Violations List
• How to File an FDCPA Complaint Against Your Debt Collector (Ultimate Guide)
• How to Make a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act Demand Letter
• How to Submit a Transunion Dispute
• How to Submit an Equifax Dispute
• How to Submit an Experian Dispute
• What Debt Collectors Cannot Do — FDCPA Explained
• What Does Account Information Disputed by Consumer Meets FCRA Requirements Mean?
• What does “meets FCRA requirements” mean?
• What does FCRA stand for?
• What is the Consumer Credit Protection Act