The required Bankruptcy Credit Counseling Debtor Education
You must take the required Bankruptcy Credit Counseling & Debtor Education to get a bankruptcy discharge. You may prepare your petition with us before you get the credit counseling certificate. But you cannot file your case without the Credit Counseling certificate, or the court will dismiss it. The certificate expires after six months.
You should take the second class called Debtor Education course immediately after the case is filed if you want a discharge. You do not need to take the second class if you only wish to catch up on a mortgage. A discharge is the permanent elimination of your obligation to pay.
The fee for credit counseling and debtor education may be waived if you are below the poverty income guidelines. However, providers require you to prove you are below poverty income. Active duty military personnel are generally exempt from the counseling requirement. If you cannot complete the course online, you can get counseling over the phone.
Forgetting to take the second Debtor Education class is a common costly mistake. If you fail to take the second course (Debtor Education) before your case closes, you will have to file a motion to reopen the case and pay another filing fee and a small attorney fee. This 600-dollar cost can be avoided by timely taking the second class and filing the certificate immediately after your case is filed.
The Best Bankruptcy Credit Counseling Debtor Education Providers
We have searched the entire web for you to find the two best course providers. Prebk is the cheapest provider; we only need the certificate to file your case. BKcert is also called Decaf. BKcert is the website Decaf is the company. I feel BKcert and StartFreshToday are the best providers, but they cost slightly more. All of these providers file the second Debtor Education class automatically for you. There are cheaper providers than BK cert and Start Fresh. But other educational providers may try to force you into debt settlement programs they offer. BKcert is not the most affordable provider, but it is quick.
In an emergency, www.bkcert.com is open most hours. The significant advantage to BKcert is we get certificates immediately in case of an emergency filing. StartFresh offers more custom-tailored counseling. Counseling for foreclosure clients is different from counseling for clients with medical debts or tax problems. Fresh Start may give you a better education and be more relevant if you listen to a credit counseling explicitly designed for your problems.
www.startfreshtoday.com The Start Fresh Today platform conveniently offers the Credit Counseling and Debtor Education courses online or by phone at the same price for single or joint filers with full customer support and fast certificate delivery. 800-435-9138, our attorney code is NT4459. They do close, however, at 10 pm.
Helpful Bankruptcy Links
Having a copy of your credit report when you list the creditors on our intake is helpful. You can follow the progress of your case at www.ndc.org and also look at www.13datacenter.com for your Chapter 13 case data.
A copy of your property taxes is here: Jefferson County PVA. And the Deed and Mortgage for Jefferson County are here: Jefferson County Land Records.
Social Security Cards: If you need a new social security card, Call 1-800-772-1213 or go to www.ssa.gov
IRS Returns: You can get a copy of your tax transcripts for the prior two years by calling 1-800-829-1040. Tax returns and a copy of your account with the IRS are available. Failing to file tax returns or provide copies of your taxes or your Social Security card is a basis for dismissing your case automatically. Hopefully, you will have filed your taxes for the prior two years. If you need to bankrupt income taxes, you will need both the account transcripts and your returns. These are different documents. IRS transaction codes on the transcript tell you if your debt is old enough to discharge and the history of your IRS account. You may also download it at proofoftax.com or irs.gov/Individuals/Get-Transcript.
You can download our manual that explains step by step how to handle foreclosures, student loan debt and how to bankrupt income taxes.
Credit Report and Credit Repair Video and links
You can get a free credit report at Annualcreditreport.com or 1–877–322–8228. A credit report helps gather the debt account numbers and creditor addresses. Do not pay for additional services. The credit report helps you list the debt addresses and check that you have included all the debts.
Credit Repair: You can remove outdated, untrue, and misleading information from your credit file. In the process, you may also remove much of the negative information. We suggest that you repair your credit file about one year after your discharge if you file for bankruptcy. To improve your credit after bankruptcy, look at the page under the bankruptcy navigation tab that lists the credit repair services we have personally used and like.
Short Video: How to properly get your free credit report and how hard it is to repair credit.
