How-To-File-Online-Bankruptcy
Re-printed With Permission Original Article Written By: Brian Reed
How to File Bankruptcy Online
What exactly is online bankruptcy and how does one handle their bankruptcy online.
Online bankruptcy preparation should not be confused with bankruptcy software which is downloaded over in the internet. Online bankruptcy preparation involves directly interacting with the online bankruptcy preparation service company through one's web browser.
Prior to the year 2000, all bankruptcy preparation happened in a physical law office. If you needed to file bankruptcy, even if you found a firm or company online, you had to take time from work and go to see them. Needless to say, it was inconvenient and somewhat embarrassing.
In 2000, a couple of companies, USA Bankruptcy Associates and Bridgeport American Bankruptcy took their bankruptcy preparation services online, thus creating the online bankruptcy preparation industry. This meant that debtors now had the option to have their bankruptcy prepared without leaving their homes or going to see a bankruptcy attorney.
When you use the services of an online bankruptcy preparer, you enter you bills and financial information in your browser for transmission to the online bankruptcy preparation company.
Once you are done entering your information, the online bankruptcy preparation company, usually a full-service bankruptcy company, prepares the bankruptcy documents and either emails them to you or provides you a download link from which you can download the finished bankruptcy documents.
Online Bankruptcy Software
These days a lot of web sites claim to sell online bankruptcy software but in fact, they just sell plain old bankruptcy forms they downloaded from the bankruptcy court web sites. These are the exact same bankruptcy forms that you can download yourself from your local bankruptcy court web site for free. These companies simply re-label the free court forms as software, figuring that a lot of debtors are too uninformed to tell the difference.
We generally discourage debtors from using any bankruptcy software for their bankruptcy filing. The only real bankruptcy software that we are aware of is Guaranteed Bankruptcy Software. Even then, you are always better off either hiring an attorney or using a full-service online bankruptcy preparer.
If you have mistakenly used a so called online bankruptcy software, tell us about it in our comment section below so that we can look into them.
Full-Service Online Bankruptcy Preparers
To file bankruptcy online, you need to hire a full-service online bankruptcy preparation company, but what constitutes full-service online bankruptcy preparation?
Full-service online bankruptcy preparation means that trained professionals are actually preparing the bankruptcy documents for you, not just giving you blank forms and pretending to prepare them for you. This means that a pair of trained eyeballs is at work getting the documents done right. The end result of full-service online bankruptcy preparation is that you receive court-ready bankruptcy forms that you simply sign and file.
With full-service online bankruptcy preparation, you do not need to research bankruptcy exemptions, read bankruptcy books, or muddle through bankruptcy law. You simply submit your information in your web browser, in an interview style, just like in TurboTax, and the full-service online bankruptcy preparation takes that information and prepares the online bankruptcy documents for your signature.
Full-service online bankruptcy preparers also hold your hands beyond the preparing and filing of the documents. They will guide you from the start of the process, all the way to your getting the discharge and sometime, even with credit restoration. That is why they are called full-service online bankruptcy preparation companies.
For your convenience, here are the full-service online bankruptcy preparers that we have vetted and found to be reputable:
- Miller Bankruptcy Group
- Bridgeport American Bankruptcy
- Zmt Bankruptcy
- USA Bankruptcy Associates
- Easy Bk Services
- Debtor Aid
How To File Bankruptcy Online
Assuming you are working with a full-service online bankruptcy preparation service, here are the steps to getting your bankruptcy prepared online.
- You start out by collecting as many of your bills as you already have at home. You do not need to have all of them initially since you can always add them to your bankruptcy as you get them.
- It is important to keep in mind that you do not need to have the exact balances on the debts or to even have the account numbers. This is because chapter 7 bankruptcy wipes off all the debt, regardless of the amount or account number. Just list the creditor and all the accounts you have with that creditor are discharged, even if you did not list the account numbers.
- You will need the addresses of the creditors, but here again you do not have to worry about getting the address off a recent bill or statement. If you have the name of the creditor but not the address, all you do is google them for their address. Any address of the creditor will be sufficient for the bankruptcy court.
So as you can see, all you need to do before filing is to decide to file and to select which company to use. There is no need to get a credit report since it will not make a difference.
- You will however need to have a reasonable approximation of your income if you are employed. Your paycheck stub will be more than enough for that.
- Once you have registered with the full-service online bankruptcy preparation company, you can immediately start to enter your bankruptcy information. They will usually structure their intake questionnaire like an online interview or survey. You can usually enter your online bankruptcy information in a few hours.
- The most important thing you have to do in your online bankruptcy is to double check everything you enter. You cannot just leave whole sections of required information blank or enter gibberish. A lot of debtors leave off common sense information and do not double check it and then complain when their own errors are echoed on the finished bankruptcy forms.
- After getting the finish bankruptcy forms back, check them over before proceeding to file. If there are substantive errors, have the online bankruptcy preparer fix them.
- Before filing your documents, you are required to take a counseling class and to attach the certificate from the counseling class to your bankruptcy documents. The good thing is that you can take this class online or by phone from any of the many counseling class providers.
- You can file your bankruptcy forms by mail or in person but it is generally better to do so in person. This allows you to get a fee waiver if you qualify.
- From here on, your bankruptcy will proceed like any other bankruptcy, regardless of who prepared it for you.
After Your Online Bankruptcy
After filing your online bankruptcy, the court clerk will send an official notice to all the creditors. This notice warns them to not continue any action against you. This means that they cannot call or harass you or continue any lawsuits or collection action against you.
You are also required after filing bankruptcy, to take a budgeting class to ensure that you do not end up in bankruptcy again.
The court clerk also sets a date for the creditor meeting. It is usually given to you on the day that you file your online bankruptcy, but they will also send you a notification by mail, informing you of the date.
Amending Your Online Bankruptcy
You can amend your bankruptcy filing any time after you have filed. Amendments are used to add more creditors to your online bankruptcy or to make other changes.
Your full-service online bankruptcy preparation company should be able to help you with preparing the amendment. Each bankruptcy court has its own procedure for filing the amendment and in some situations it includes paying a small amendment fee of about $20.
The Creditor Meeting
The creditor meeting takes place about one month after your online bankruptcy filing. Though it is called a creditor meeting, creditors usually do not show up. The meeting is mostly an opportunity for the bankruptcy trustee to inform you of your rights and options. Obviously the trustee can ask you any questions but most of the time, it is just to let you know what the process is and to ask you if you understand what you are doing.
The Bankruptcy Discharge
Most people who file online bankruptcy can expect to receive a discharge of the debts without issues. The discharge comes as a notice that the court clerk mails out a few months after the creditor meeting.
The discharge notice is just a terse line that says, "All dischargeable debts are discharged." That is it. It does not list the discharged debts or the amount of debt discharged, because it is automatically presumed that all your debts are discharged, regardless of the creditor or the amount, except for the obvious ones such as child and spousal support.
Our Recommended Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Picks
There are lots of good bankruptcy preparation companies that debtors can choose from but our pick is USA Bankruptcy Associates for online bankruptcy preparation. Here are our reasons for picking this company.
USA Bankruptcy Associates is the oldest bankruptcy preparation site around. They began as a regular attorney support company in California back in 1990 and then branched into the internet starting around 2000. Since then they have prepared more than 30,000 bankruptcies. I like that they have been around for such a long time and were the first to offer real-time online bankruptcy preparation. I also like the positive feedback that I get from readers of the blog who have used USA Bankruptcy Associates.
A close pick is Miller Bankruptcywhich is also a full-service bankruptcy preparation company. I have seen a lot of reviews where Miller Bankruptcy has been picked over USA Bankruptcy Associates but in my opinion, it still comes down to price verses features. Miller Bankruptcy is more expensive and though they have more after-bankruptcy features, I do not know if it justifies the significantly higher price. The Miller Bankruptcy claim to fame is their Labyrinth which they claim can help you hide or block your bankruptcy from the credit bureaus but that is nothing new.
More than ten years ago, USA Bankruptcy Associates pioneered that concept and I recall that it was so successful that many bankruptcy courts began to instruct their clerks to watch out for debtors using this USA Bankruptcy Associates technique. Just about everyone who used the company back then was able to hide their bankruptcy from the credit bureaus. That was until the court clerks began to intervene in what was obviously not their damn business and what was clearly a legitimate loophole in chapter 7 bankruptcy law.
To make a long story short, USA Bankruptcy Associates stopped offering that service and instead, focused on just preparing good bankruptcies and helping people to remove the bankruptcy from the credit bureaus, rather than blocking it from entering the credit report in the first place. While Miller Bankruptcy is a well regarded bankruptcy preparation company, they probably missed the memo on the bankruptcy hiding thing. Or it could simply be that they have found a way around the court clerks. In fact I have it on good authority that they use a better technique than the original one introduced by USA bankruptcy Associates but I am generally skeptical about new and improved things.
My opinion anyway is that if you want to file bankruptcy, use a solid company and for me, that is USA bankruptcy Associates. If they can help you with your credit after bankruptcy, then great, but who wants credit after bankruptcy? Credit was what got you in the mess in the first place so when they offer to help you get back on your credit binge, say thanks but no thanks.
Some of the other companies to consider are Bridgeport American Bankruptcy and Easy Bk services. They too are good full-service companies and you cannot go wrong with them. Stay away from bankruptcy software because there are no bankruptcy software designed for individual consumers. There are web sites claiming to sell bankruptcy software but they do not really sell software. Bankruptcy software is very difficult to develope so what a few sites do is take the same free bankruptcy forms that anyone can get from the court web sites and they repackage and call it software. They usually cost about $49.95 but it is a waste of money since it is the same free forms.
Our Pick:USA Bankruptcy Associates
A lot of people ask us if they can file bankruptcy for free and the answer is yes. It is possible to file bankruptcy for free and we can show you how. Find the article in the left navigation bar.
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