West Palm Beach Bankruptcy Blog

Fifteen Things You Can Ask a Credit-Card Company That is Objecting to Your Petition for Bankruptcy

If a credit-card company files an objection with the bankruptcy court regarding your petition to file for bankruptcy, you, the debtor, have the legal right to send a list of written questions to that company demanding to know precisely why they believe you fraudulently incurred the debt in question.  That company must, in turn, respond to your questions in writing and under oath.  Some of the things you might state to the credit-card company include:

1. Provide all of the proof that your company has supporting its allegation that the debtor incurred charges that he did not intend to repay at the time he incurred them.
2. State with particularity the false representations that the debtor allegedly made with regard to his account with your company.
3. State each of the steps taken by your company to determine the debtor’s creditworthiness.
4. Provide copies of all of the documents that your company has in its possession that were used to verify the debtor’s income.
5. Provide copies of all of the documents that your company has in its possession that were used to verify the debtor’s expenses.
6. Provide copies of all of the documents that your company has in its possession that were used to verify the debtor’s assets.
7. Provide copies of all of the documents that your company has in its possession that were used to verify the debtor’s liabilities.
8. What are your company’s general policies concerning the decision to grant someone credit?
9. How were your company’s general policies concerning the decision to grant someone credit applied in this particular case?
10. Identify each of the credit policies that your company alleges were violated in this case.
11. State how your company communicated to the debtor each of the credit policies that your company alleges were violated in this case.
12. Provide copies of all of the documents that contain your company’s general policies concerning the decision to grant someone credit.
13. Identify the date(s) on which the debtor allegedly consulted a bankruptcy attorney.
14. Identify the date on which the debtor allegedly formed the intent not to repay his debt to your company.
15. Identify the date(s) the debtor allegedly violated the terms of the credit agreement he had with your company.

If a credit-card company receives this list of questions, it will know that you intend to fight their objection about whether your debt should be discharged in bankruptcy.  If you are lucky, the company might even withdraw its objection rather than spend the time needed to answer your questions.