Bankruptcy is lifesaving

I don't think so, or at least is state dependent, I definitely had medical debt and it was definitely discharged along with all the other debt I had

In my country that isn't a thing. Everybody has to have private insurance and if they can't afford it, the State subsidizes it.

And if somehow you get something done that isn't covered by the insurance, they can't pursue you for that debt and it doesn't show up when doing things like getting a lease.

It's not perfect (insurance costs a ton and keeps rising) but at least it's not some dystopian nightmare where people can't afford to get care in one of the World's top economies.

Money you have to take out for college and then pay back at 10% interest.

You mean you never pay interest by paying off the debt before the next billing cycle, right? Or is it fine to get zero interest for whatever amount of months on certain purchases?

I used to feel this way with 2% cash back, but I don’t think it’s worth the privacy loss of giving a for-profit corporation all of my spending data. Where I live now, almost no one accepts credit cards in person & if they do, there’s a high minimum payment & you will be paying the transaction fee. After getting used to carrying cash again, I can confidently say I prefer the anonymity. What weirder in hindsight is many other places either not accepting cash or baking the credit fees into the prices so it’s cash payers getting screwed—meanwhile the credit companies get to skim fixed costs while providing minimal value.

Everything you've said only stands for public university (which is better than private schools however). In the private world, you're looking at ~10000€ a year.

So why in the hell would you pay 50k. That's 33 times as much, guys just come to France

I believe it's more expensive for foreigners to study in France now. You're looking at ~3000€ per year IIRC.

Around 3-5% is spent on textbooks alone

The real cost is in living expenses though. A lot of kids still end up with 20-40k of loans after 3-5 years in school living on their own.

I was able to get a car loan a few years after the bankruptcy. It was dumb, I hadn't fully figured out my money situation yet. Bankruptcy didn't fix that spending habit. But that was the tipping point. When my minimum expenses between the car, student loans, and living expenses exactly equaled my salary, I started trying to beat my way out of the mess. The car I currently own, I paid for up front. By the time I bought a house, the bankruptcy had disappeared off my report. Now the plan is pay off the mortgage and never have a credit score again.

After 7 years the bankruptcy disappears from your credit report. After that it's like it didn't happen.

Bankruptcies fall off your credit report after 7 years. I think the only thing you are blacklisted from after that 7 year period is the bank that credited you and lost money.

But it’s on the internet?

Which part is untrue? Didn't they change the rules of bankruptcy like a decade ago or something?

It used to be that you could get all your loans discharged and in essence just end up with a really bad credit score. I thought they changed it so people still had to pay their debts off even if they declared bankruptcy.

Unsure if it applied to corporations though.

Permanently Deleted

You can and will lose your home in many many states (non homestead states primarily). If the person you aren’t paying is your mortgage holder, you’re definitely going to lose your home You will also almost always lose non-primary residences provided they need to be liquidated to settle your debts. You will be given any excess money from the liquidations after your debts are settled.

If you’re settling debts you’re probably doing chapter 11 not 7.

Chapter 11 requires your lenders to play ball, but if they think they can make more money by extending terms of offering a discount than if they force you into chapter 7, they will.

If you make $5k/mo and your living expenses are $3k/mo and you have $3k/mo of debt for the next 30 months, reasonable lenders would look at that and say I’d rather have $1.5k for 60 months and I believe you can pay it rather than rolling the dice in chapter 7 on what assets you have or don’t have and what they’re worth when they finally get liquidated.

Pretty sure Trump has done it 4 or 5 times. Those were company bankruptcies by a nepo baby, though, so probably not the same rules as regular people 🤷

Given the effect it has on credit score, it will perhaps be more difficult to accumulate debt --- it will be harder to take out large credit card, mortgage, or other loans. Probably not applicable to medical and whatnot.

In theory I think it makes sense: loans should be a privilege not a right, or something like that. But in reality, loans are essentially required for modern life, at least in the US. So the people who can least afford it end up with loans with ridiculous interest rates (even if the total loan amount is smaller than it would be pre-bankruptcy).

I am fortunate enough to be able to pay off my credit card every month, so the interest rate doesn't really matter. It's a great, but dystopian, example of positive feedback: those who can afford pay less (no interest), and those who can't afford pay more (interest).

7 year cool down, and unless you are Trump and can afford extremely expensive legal representation, your odds of actually getting a full discharge of debt go down.

Yes, there is NO limit on the number of bankruptcies you can file for. However, there are time limits between filling dates. Here's what a Forbes article mentions about it:

Just as there are different types of bankruptcy, there are different rules for how often you can file bankruptcy. The waiting period to file another bankruptcy case generally ranges from two to eight years, depending on the type of bankruptcy. In some situations, there may be no waiting period.

However, good luck getting creditors for years after filing for a bankruptcy. I imagine very few will trust you / loan you money, except for the most predatory (i.e. loan sharks). And if you did go with a predatory source, a future bankruptcy may not help you discharge the debt given predatory sources commonly operate outside of the law.

So it's double-triple bad to have debt? Then manage the finances, assess the risks, cut unrealistic expectations that will toss you into the debt spiral, because it's triple-bad. Who is to blame?

About these unexpected costs:

• medical insurance is a must, otherwise you are gambling and the chances to lose this bet are quite high.

• funerals happen unexpected - when they actually absolutely do not. Everybody can be sure to die, so plan accordingly.

• being "in deep credit card debt" is too late. One should never have swam out this far. Being "a tiny little bit in debt" should have the alarm bells blasting as financing is not self sustaining, "a tiny litte bit" is already much too late already because you've entered the spiral

• student debts - well, not everybody has to study. If you can't afford it reflect on it, if you really must. And if yes, seek alternatives like leaving the country tht is hell-bent to enslave you in debt if you want to study, find sponsors, arrange it with your expectations about a longer time horizon, etc. You are not able to pay for it? Do not do it! Seek solutions.

Indeed. But they want to make money, so they rise the interest rate to make even more money and cut losses on failed debt repayments.

They solely exist to make money by extorting the people in debt. Who would have guessed?

So? Never have debts.

"Consumer" debts should ethically not exist as consumers just consume the money and are therefore not able to pay it back as it is not an "investment" debt, which has the chance to succeed.