what advice would you give your friend?

Question

If a good friend of yours has had serious financial misfortunes lately
and
is unable to meet her debt payments, what advice can you give? Be sure
to
include the topic of bankruptcy because she has heard that it
eliminates all
your credit problems.

Answer 1

The best advice I could give is to point them in the direction of the "Get out of Debt" section on The Motley Fool website:
http://www.fool.com/ccc/debt/debt.htm (US version)
http://www.fool.co.uk/get-out-of-debt/get-out-of-debt.aspx (UK version)

Answer 2

Creditors basically just want to be repaid,even if it's not according to the original agreement. Tell your friend to contact his/her creditors and let them know of the financial hardship. Many creditors have special programs to help a customer during a hardship. The creditors may even be willing to eliminate the poor credit reported in the past if the customer shows good faith to pay back the money owed. ( but not always)

It's not as easy to file bankruptcy today; the laws changed last year. If you file a chapter 7, you now have to prove that you're insolvent. If you file a chapter 13, you must seek out qualified credit counseling first.

Try to negotiate first. The creditors just want to be paid, even if it's slower than it was supposed to be..