Those Filing For Bankruptcy Has Changed Over The Years

When it comes to filing for bankruptcy , there're many reasons why people end up having to file. Historically, most people ended up in bankruptcy because of a severe illness where the primary wage earner was unable to work, a death in the family, a plain old loss of job and also the collapse of the family with a divorce.

In the past, this was the norm. Over the last 20 years things changed. With the introduction of credit cards came a whole new set of problems. The enticement of buying something now and paying for it later sounds great on paper. But when it comes down to it, this is part of the problem that is causing the economic collapse of this great nation. When people buy something now and pay for it later, they have already forgotten about what they had to have last month or last year and have now moved on to “needing” the newer and greater model. They never even consider that they haven't finished paying for last year's model. Because of this, people started using bankruptcy as a form of clearing the credit logs. Mainly what was used was Chapter 7 bankruptcy, individuals could run up their credit cards to the tilt and file Chapter 7 bankruptcy wiping out all the credit card debt that they had and allowing the debtor to do it all over again. With a little help of lobbying from the credit industry, Congress got wise and implemented the BAPCPA of 2005.

The changes to the bankruptcy code were supposed to fix all the problems. It was intended to stop those individuals filing bankruptcy that were abusing the system. This did help stop that, but it also hurt the individuals that bankruptcy was originally created for. The good hard-working Americans, who just lost their job or got caught in the mortgage meltdown with a subprime loan and are no longer able to make their payment. Now, the credit industry is on a rampage going after people who are defaulting on their credit cards. The only thing that will stop these guys is filing bankruptcy. The problem is the people that should be using it have too much pride and bury their heads in the sand thinking that something will come along and it will all work out. Corporations have no problem using bankruptcy to benefit them and people shouldn't feel bad about being down on their luck. When the situation come these individuals should look for a bankruptcy attorney in the area and ask for a free consultation to see if the protection that bankruptcy offers is available to them.