Back in 2012, I was a mess. I was drinking and doing drunk on-line shopping. I had no income except what I was allowed to withdraw from my pension plan. And so I racked up 44K in credit card debt. I was drowning, just trying to make the interest payments.

So I went to a non-profit credit counselling agency and they said my best option was to declare bankruptcy and start over with a clean slate. I was really hesitant at first, but decided to go for it.

It was hard at first since I had a maximum monthly income, and couldn't have any credit cards, and had to report my monthly income/expenses to the trustee, but I did it, and was discharged after 9 months.


I also had to get more credit counselling which turned out to be invaluable advice.


It was weird living without a credit card, but I got a virtual visa debit card that I could use for on-line or over the phone ordering. Then 2 years ago I applied for and got a secured credit card, with a low limit, and just used it once a month for my grocery bill, and paid it off right on time, in full. Then late last year, I decided to see if I could get a regular credit card. I applied and somewhat to my surprise I qualified for a low interest, low maximum credit card. I'm using it every month and paying it off in full. This is really helping me rebuild my credit rating.

But I still had the bankruptcy and all the credit cards that were written off as bad debt listed on my credit report. I have a credit monitoring service that I use and when I checked it at the end of June, I realized the 7 year period was up and so the bankruptcy and all the bad debt info was gone. So I now have a clean slate going forward. I just have to be careful not to repeat the same mistake.

I know the rules between Can. and the US are different, but if you're really in debt, bankruptcy can be a good solution for some people.

splitimage