The dreaded payday loans and filing Bankruptcy

i am seriously contemplating filing bk, i guess the deal breaker for me at this point is weather or not payday loans can be included. i've read mixed anwers online. some say you can and some say you cant. i know it looks like somone just went out and got a bunch of payday loans then said ok i'm going to file bk now, but thats not the situation. we've been in payday loan debt going on 2 years now and we are no closer to paying them off than when we started. we still have 11 active payday loans we havent defaulted on, and about 4 that we already defaulted on. not to mention some other stuff from around 5-6 years ago when we went through the young and dumb stage that keeps coming back to haunt us. it would be great if we could just take care of everything all at once and get a fresh start. i live in arizona. if anyone knows the answer or could point me to a good bk attorney i would greatly appriciate it. thanks.

I live in TN. I have filed for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy & included my storefront & internet payday loans. They have all been sent notice from the Bankruptcy Court to file a claim but only 3 have responded. You can usually speak with an attorney for a free consultation to know the laws in your state.

Payday loans are unsecured debt and can be included in BK just like any other debt.

i called and talked to an attorney today and they told me you can include paydayloans with bk. i have a consultation on friday. they told me to add up all my debt before i go in. so far i am up to a little over 18,000. sadly enough 9500 of that is payday loans. i know i have no one to blame but myself. hopfully it will work out though. i'm tired of living the life of debt. i mean i seriously have been busting my hump trying to pay things off but it seems like the more i pay the more behind i get, not to mention for the last 6 months we have been paying 1300 every two weeks just to renew the payday loans. some have slipped but the majority we've kept going. but we cant do it anymore. debt makes a person want to just dissapear.

i kinda had a crazy day, i had a consultation with an attorney agency today about my situation. didnt take long for them to decide i definetly qualify for chapter 7. i had to talk to a paralegal, so everytime a serious question came up he would have to run and ask the attorney then come back and tell me. so we talked about price and agreed on a retainer fee and he said let me ok it with the attorney i'll be right back. so like 15 minutes later he comes back and said i need to pay double what we agreed on for the retainer, then said i would need to make two more payments of 500. i was like no way, then the guy took off with my drivers license and debit card. finally somone diffrent came into the room with my license and card and i literally snatched it out of his hand and ran out the door. i literally felt like i was at a car dealership.

after that bad experiance i wasnt feeling too confident, but i called an agency who set me up with an independant attorney who contracts through their website, they guy acually turned out to be pretty cool, he was straight up and didnt beat around the bushes. after i got home i googled him and didnt find 1 negative article about him, i acually found a few good articles about some of the work he has done in the state. and was also almost 1k cheaper than the 1st attorney i went to. so i went back and paid the retainer fee. i'm feeling pretty good about my choice.

the first attorney i went to was a big flashy attorney office who has those commercials on late at night with the cheezy jingles, the attorneys walk around with their big ol suits on and drive their bentleys and ignore all the people waiting for them in the waiting room. it was really a bad experiance. i feel sorry for the people they take advantage of and screw over, they litteraly set up a sting operation and wont let you out the door until you agree to give them tons of money. i'm just glad i got out and didnt let them pressure me to the point i gave in. it really worked out for the better.

Crazy experience. When I hired my attorney, I had a consultation with him personally on the phone, which lasted about 30 minutes. He gave me the total price, and the retainer, which was only $50. In fact, he let me give his number to my creditors before I even paid him the retainer. That seems to be the benefit of going to a local attorney, who has been practicing bk law here for almost 30 ears.

its been a few weeks now and i'm still glad i made the right choice going with a down home attorney and not the big flashy putting on a show attorney. for the most part the creditors are leaving me alone. i still get 2-4 calls a day but i am slowly weeding them out. and thats not bad considering we defaulted on 11 payday loans a few weeks ago. it was the biggest burden lifted off our shoulders. i'm not happy about filing bk but between the payday loans and the other stuff thats been following me around for the last 5 or so years its finally a relief to get my life back and be able to start over. i mean my whole family has been suffering for years because of the choices i have made and its not fair for them to have to suffer for my stupidity.

update: i am now approaching the 90 day mark since i defaulted on everything, my attorney told me we would file around the 120 day mark so we got about 30 days left. everything is just sitting in line and waiting. i'm ready to get this over with. but i already feel better knowing everything is in place and we are just playing the waiting game. and by the way cash one who i posted about earlier told me i would be served within 48 hours, still havent heard squat from them.

I have been reading your posts, and you make me feel so much better. Our situation is almost identical to yours. We did go to an independent atty last week - they were very nice and understanding. We too, have about 15 PDLs, none of which we've defaulted on. I am curious - have any of them called your employer or references? I need to keep my job and having them call my boss would be the last thing I could stomach! Also, did you need to send letters stopping ACH withdrawals, etc., or is the atty handling all this for you? Thanks!

thanks for reading my post. we had over 9k worth of payday loans total. some defaulted, alot were still current. the best advice my attorney gave me was "stop paying them" he said "thats how you pay me is you quit paying them". i know it seems like an endless black hole but just hang in there and you will start to see light at the end of the long tunnel.

now as soon as you stop paying them you will feel a burden lifted from your shoulders, but you also get a stress of another kind. these people are bounty hunters, they will do whatever they can to try and "trick" or "scare" you into paying. the best advice is stay strong. they will call you repeatadly. they will call your job, and your refrences. there are things you can do to prepare or try to lessen the blow, alot of them when i gave them my attorney info they pretty much backed off. there were a few sticklers that continued to call. i sent the cease and desist letters, some wont abide by it, some dont have to. but i dont feel like i wasted my time. second tell your boss you are having some problems but its being taken care of, but tell them you might get some calls and if they could please tell the person its not ok to call you there then it might help. as well as your refrences, just tell them if anyone calls asking questions about you to tell them wrong number or somthing, it will slow them down. also if you happen to get a call while you are at work just continue to tell them "do not call this number" and hang up on them. eventually they will get the hint. now dont let all this scare you, i would say after the first week or two is when the storm hits, but it will really slow down and be easier to work with once things start getting sorted out. they will also tell you they are taking you to court, chances are they are blowing smoke. just tell them to call your attorney and hang up on them.

so all in all in the end it is definetly worth every second and penny spent because you are taking your life back into your control. and i dont believe you can put a price on being able to live happy. good luck and let me know if you have any questions.

Been there done that. PDL are what caused our down hill spiral into a Chapter 13. About 3-4 years ago, I got caught in the PDL cycle, it went completely out of control and the next thing I knew I could not pay my other bills and was barely able to keep my household expenses above water. I needed up "stop" paying, however I stop paying everyone, paid off all but 3 PDLS, and filed BK at the end of August and yes those 3 PDLS were included in our case.

It was a bad situation, and a BIG learning experiences!

Good Luck, Reny

i filed bankruptcy because of large bills and payday loans (if only i had known those loans were illegal and i overpaid them!) stupid me got into debt after that but am almost debt free (just one more debt that junk buyers keep buying and not validating and some odds and ends with monthly bills).
good luck, please keep up with the updates.

Thank you all. I am just so darn worried that these companies will bring a summons to my work - ugggghhhh how humiliating! My lawyers says that once they get wind of him, they probably won't bother with a lawsuit, as they know it will go away with the BK. They have gotten so much of my $$$. I hope they will just back off. Very scared right now.

Did you have any of these: Payday One, Salary Fast, Integrity Advance, Check n Go, Checkmate, Money Tree, Ace?

i did have payday one and ace cash express. ace called a few times but eventually stoped. i havent heard anything from payday one. i do believe most will leave you alone after you give them your attny info. just remember to stay strong. you can do this.

Also if they do harrass you after you are in bankruptcy protection, you really can sue. my lawyer wanted me to after a loan company kept calling me and telling me to pay my bills (they lied and said they recieved a discharge) but i was so worn out from filing (plus i mostly filed because of medical bills so i was not feeling healthy) that i just kind of gave up.. plus i do not think he really was honest about how much money i could have made through suing them.