What should I do if I don't have enough debt to qualify for a chapter 7 bankruptcy? 20 Answers as of March 05, 2012

If you do not have enough debt to file, you will not be able to file unless you have absolutely no income or on limited income such as social security income.

There is no minimum amount to file a bankruptcy. You can technically file on any amount. Of course, if the amount of your debt is so low that it would cost you more to file than you would eliminate then filing doesn't make sense. As a rule of thumb, I tell the lowest amount of money you should file on is an amount that is higher than the fees you would pay to file AND is more than you can handle any other way (such as making payment arrangements with the creditors to pay the debts in relatively short amount of time on your current income). In Wisconsin, there is an option called "Voluntary Amortization of Debts" which is a filing in state court where the filer proposes to pay his debts in three years or less (without interest). If such a thing is feasible for a client, then perhaps Chapter 7 is not the best option.

File Chapter 13 and pay it off over a 3-5 yr period.

I do not know what you mean by "enough debt". There is no minimum. If your debt is so small that it does not justify the cost of bankruptcy, you should be able to manage it yourself. If you cannot, then you must be judgment proof. If that is the case, just develop a high threshold for aggravation. Your creditors will harass you, but they will not actually collect anything.

There's no such thing as a minimum amount of debt to be able to do chapter 7 bankruptcy.

What is your income and what are your assets? There is no minimum required, but what you owe will be looked at relative to your earnings and assets. Chances are if your debt is so low that it would be a problem, filing bankruptcy is probably a mistake.

First, there is no "debt" threshold. There is a means test, that looks to your income.

Your question does not make any sense. There is no minimum amount of debt required in ch 7 cases.

There is no amount of minimum debt required to qualify for Chapter 7. It might be that the amount of debt is so little that the cost of the bankruptcy case is more than the cost of filing the case and it would not make any sense filing for bankruptcy since you could pay off all or almost all your debts instead of filing the Chapter 7 case. You must be confused about a minimum amount of debt required to qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

There is no such thing as not having enough debt to file for CH7. You may have a large amount of non-dischargeable debt. That is different matter. Some taxes and student loan debts are not dischargeable. You should consult with a lawyer to see what will go and what won't.