Bankruptcy and meeting of creditors

Relax, this is nothing to worry about. It is simply a hearing where you go into a room (most likely with a LOT of other people who are also filing Chapter 7) with a mediator/judge/trustee type person, and representatives from your creditors (if any show up).

The mediator/judge/trustee will ask a few questions of you, you answer them honestly, and if any of your creditors show up, he will ask them if they object to the filing of Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. If they object, there will have to be some meeting of some sort with your attorney to decide how to handle that.

The whole thing only takes a few minutes once it's your turn. What takes the longest is waiting for your turn, as everyone in the room has to go through the same process as you.

But to be honest, 90% of all creditors don't show up for the meeting of the creditors. One of the few that I've heard that WILL show up is Sears, if you have purchased items from them using their credit card.

Can a Moderator of the Pub move this to the Bankruptcy forum? I don't Mod here. Thanks!

Suebee is right, when I went through my BK (years ago) the only creditor that showed up was Sears! We had charged the installation of carpet into a house we were purchasing on that (Sears) credit card. They asked what became of the carpet, I told them it was still in the house, duh! The house had went into foreclosure. Those were rough times.

If it helps I went through it a couple of years ago and Sears didn't show up either. It was all of 15 minuts and it was over. Relax!

My friend went through the same deal. Only creditor to show up was Sears because they purchased an air conditioner with their Sears card months earlier.

I still haven't figured out why Sears thinks they can recoup any money by reclaiming the items purchased with their card - more times than not, the item is either worn out, broken, sold, trashed, etc. It's a waste of their time to have someone show up at those hearings...but they continue to do it.

Does anyone know what your credit report should look like after bankruptcy? I pulled mine with Equifax and I see some of the creditors are still on there and some have a reference to the bankruptcy and some do not. I've also noticed that the previous good credit items are not showing on there and were active within the last 7 years....

All of the accounts that were included in the bankruptcy should have some type of notation that says the debt was discharged in bankruptcy, included in bankruptcy, something to that effect. If there are accounts that were discharged, but this is not indicated on your credit report, you will need to dispute the item with the credit bureau. If you dispute online, there is a drop-down box that gives you a list of reasons you are disputing the debt, and one of the choices is "debt was included in bankruptcy."

Once the credit bureau verifies this, they are supposed to update the account to reflect this.

The only creditor to show up at my BK was Sears, claiming that I owned them a lot more than I really did. I ended paying them back for an expensive camera, but for the bedroom furniture they claimed also bought, I never bought it so refused to pay for THAT.

Don't stifff Sears. They will show up if it's still like it was in 2000. :evil:

I've heard that from others who tried to include Sears.

Sears might be different now, as they are issued by Citibank. In years past (before 2004??) they were run independently.

Good luck....I go next week I feel like you getting butterflies...please keep us posted on your meeting...