Dear Expert:

Hi, can you please tell me how long does CH. 7 bankruptcy lasts? I heard that if a person declare bankruptcy before 2000, then the length of time is 7 years. And after, 2000, it is 10 years. Is that correct?

What happened was I declared bankruptcy in June, 1997, but was discharged in August, 1997. I have re-established credit pretty well since then, and I currently only have 1 major credit card. I have never been late, until last year, I was 2 times, and this year, 1 time late. Do these track record mean I have good standing credit? The reason I'm asking is I want to buy a house really bad, because I hate living in an apartment and throwing money away for all these years. I'm in a good position to make a down payment, $100,000 in fact. If my bankruptcy does, indeed, end next year, what are my credit chances of truly qualifying to buy a house?
Thank You in advance. Elina :)

Hello,

When you file Bankruptcy it does stay on your record for 10 years NOW... I am not quite sure about when you files in 1997 what the rules where a good site that I have found that will answer all you questions on all Mortgage issues (including Bankruptcy)is:

www.morgage101.com

I am in the process of buying a house myself and I found that site extremely helpful..

Good Luck..


P.S. $100,000? Wow where do you live? Here in TX you could buy yourself a decent house for it and Pay it off!

Well I wish you the best of Luck! ;)

TheVoice02, hi, thank you for replying. Yeah, you're right. $100,000 is a lot. We've also thought about moving to Texas or another state where it's cheaper to buy a really nice house. $100,000 does sound like it should be easy for us to qualify. But we now live in San Jose, California, where a single family house is at least $445,000, which is out of reach for many people making $40,000 and lower, which includes me. Of course, you've probably heard of Silicon Valley, where thousands of high-tech companies like to be at and where most jobs are engineering jobs that pay at least $100,000 per year. We went to a couple of lenders, and even with that much down, we still would be paying $1,800 per month at min. 9% interest, which we can't afford. And that's only when we look into buying a townhouse at $280,000! The problem is we would have a tough time finding a babysitter at the low price that we can afford and who would also can keep up with putting several medications 5 or 6 times each day and at night for our daughter with special medcial needs. Everything we do is so close by, and plus, I 'm changing careers to the high-tech field where layoffs keep rising across the nation. When my wife is done with her school in 1 and 1/2 year, we'll moved to Texas by then. Thank You again for your reply. That website you gave me is really going to help. Thanks again. Good luck, too in buying an affordable house! ;) :D

Please tell me I am new at this. I had a debt in 2000. I received a call today from lawyers wanting to recover the debt. Can this still happen after 8 years. Are you still liable after such a long period. Doesn't this get written off. Please advise:confused:

Unless a creditor CHOOSES to write off the debt, you owe it. Forever.

If they're reactivating the pursuit, consider contacting them and making a one-time offer to pay a small sum you can afford if they accept is as payment in full without recourse. A debt this old, they'd probably settle for 20 cents on the dollar.