Bankruptcy Alternatives: When is doing nothing the best alternative?

As a debtor, you have a number of bankruptcy alternatives you can choose. Surprisingly, one of these is doing nothing at all.

If you’re not making payments to your creditors, one or more of the following may happen:

• The creditor may continue making phone calls to you and sending you threatening letters.
• The creditor may file suit against you and get a judgment.
• Once the judgment is obtained, the creditor may use various legal methods of collecting the judgment.
• The creditor may take any collateral you have agreed to use to secure the loan (such as repossessing an automobile or foreclosing on a house).

If none of these make any difference to you, then doing nothing at all may be your best alternative to bankruptcy. You might be what is called “judgment proof” in that your income or assets are not allowed to be levied or taken. If you don’t mind getting calls and letters (or if the creditors don’t have your phone number), if you don’t care whether a creditor gets a judgment because you are “judgment proof”, and if you have no collateral for the creditor to take back, then you don’t really have to do anything to handle your creditors. I recommend you talk with an experienced bankruptcy attorney before embarking on this route.