As people start to struggle to make their financial ends meet one of the things that people want to do is keep their lifestyle as normal as possible even when the money to do so is not there.

So, the natural reaction is to turn to credit cards.  Once upon a time you were using them for big needs such as new tires for your car, or those expensive airline tickets that you didn't quite have the money for. 

Today, you are charging groceries and gasoline on your credit cards.  The charges are smaller and don't seem like that big of a deal.  You might even be paying those charges back at the end of the month to open up a few extra dollars of available credit to repeat the process the following month.

Sometimes people rationalize these charges by saying “at least I am getting airline mileage” or “points”, that I can redeem later, but you need to seriously stop and think about the big picture.  If you are charging your groceries and fuel on a credit card, perhaps a more serious solution is needed.

The other thing that quite often happens is that people don't want to cancel the little extras like Netflix, or Disney Plus, so they swap those monthly charges to their credit cards to give their bank accounts a little extra breathing room.

Eventually, however, if you end up in the office of a Bankruptcy attorney, we invariably ask you about your credit card charges.  These small charges may not seem like a big deal, especially when most Bankruptcy attorneys are primarily concerned with larger credit card transactions, like cash advances and luxury purchases, but if a credit card company chooses to dispute your Bankruptcy discharge, they will use all of your credit activity to paint a negative picture of you to the Bankruptcy Judge.

If you were charging your Netflix account on a credit card right up until the date you filed for Bankruptcy, even though the charge is small, if in the larger picture, the attorney for the credit card company can portray you as irresponsible and acting with the obvious intent to not pay your debts, you can severely complicate your Bankruptcy case.

So, the first thing you should do is get an appointment to speak to an experienced Bankruptcy attorney.  The next thing you should do is plan to go over your credit card activity in detail with your attorney for at least the previous four months.  Your Bankruptcy attorney will likely tell you to stop those charges.  In fact, if you think that you might be considering Bankruptcy, you should try to stop using credit cards altogether, even for small things like groceries or gas, and see what needs to happen in order to go cash only as much as possible.

If you have to charge the small stuff on a credit card, you probably need to speak to a professional right away, because there is a clear shortfall in cash and credit card charges will only delay the inevitable.  If you are going to inevitably file a Bankruptcy, there is no time like the present to start working on organizing your finances to free yourself from depending on credit.