MasConcepts Incorporated

It has been a crazy year. I started seriously looking into Chapter 7 after Amex got two different default judgments against me. I was unemployed, in grad school full time, job hunting, and also getting out of a pretty nasty divorce, so basically everything hit at once.

I had around $90k in unsecured debt that accumulated slowly and then very quickly defaulted once the divorce and unemployment happened. I’ve basically been surviving off student loan refunds. I know the student loans themselves aren’t dischargeable, but that money is literally how I’ve been keeping my mortgage paid, utilities on, buying groceries, etc.

Once my divorce was finally done, I was able to file!
My filing appointment yesterday was about three hours and I was SO anxious. There were multiple points where I started getting a little teary because I had convinced myself something was going to go wrong. My attorney was phenomenal though. He’s been doing this for around 30 years and has handled about 4,000 Chapter 7 cases, and he told me he’s never filed one that didn’t ultimately get discharged because he’s so thorough before filing.

The biggest thing I was worried about was my bank history because it looks absolutely insane without context. Since I was scared of bank garnishment since Amex couldn’t wage garnish an unemployed person, whenever I got a student loan refund I would withdraw most of it in cash and then deposit smaller amounts back in whenever I needed to pay my mortgage or bills. At first even my attorney was like, “Oh my God, this is complicated,” and said the trustee would probably look closely at all the cash movement, which obviously made me panic, but once we actually went through it, it was way simpler than it looked. Everything traced back to the student loan refunds, the deposits and bills made sense, every dollar was accounted for, and I am unfortunately not secretly sitting on a mountain of cash somewhere.

He knows I’m very anxious, so he told me if I want to play it extra safe, just give it about a week for everything to process and creditor notices to go out, and then I can finally start using my bank account like a normal person again instead of running to an ATM every time I need to pay a bill.

Honestly, the relief is unreal 🤍

I know I still have my 341 meeting and I’m not discharged yet, but just getting to the point of officially filing feels like such a huge weight off my shoulders. Also, I really love this subreddit. I’ve posted questions here throughout this whole process and people have always been incredibly helpful. If you’re lurking and terrified to talk to an attorney, just do the consultation. Having someone look at MY actual situation instead of me doomscrolling and applying everyone else’s bankruptcy to my own made such a difference.

And if anyone is in Ohio and needs a bankruptcy attorney, I have a phenomenal recommendation because this man handled my chaotic paperwork, approximately one million anxious questions, and me almost crying, and somehow I left feeling completely relieved.

Anyway. Chapter 7 is officially filed.
Holy shit.