The bankruptcy forms listing your debts (so, Schedules D and E/F) ask you for the date you took on the debt. The official form instructions explain this as follows:
When a debt was incurred on a single date, fill in the actual date that the debt was incurred. When a debt was incurred on multiple dates, fill in the range of dates. For example, if the debt is from a credit card, fill in the month and year of the first and last transactions, if known.
Here are some rules of thumb you can use when updating this information:
- Cars / secured debt: You incurred the debt when you purchased the car (or other item securing the debt).
- Tax debt: Most people put the last day of the year that the tax debt is for. So, someone with a 2019 tax debt might list 12/31/2019 as the date the debt was incurred.
- Medical debt: Typically, the day you went to the doctor or had your procedure is appropriate to list as the date you incurred the debt. Some folks put the date they were discharged from the hospital.
- Loans: The date you signed up for the loan.
- Credit Cards / Lines of Credit: If you were using this for a period of time, it’s best to put the date range from the month the card/line of credit was opened to the month of the last transaction. For example, someone who opened a credit card in March 2016 and last used it in August of 2019 would list 03/2016 - 08/2019 as the “date debt incurred.”
Comments
4 comments
Very helpful so far
What if I'm unable to determine the exact date a debt was incurred. I have a bill in collections for a Verizon cell phone bill that is on my credit report. I got the phone at a walmart years ago, and ended up homeless, lost the phone, never received a bill. I am unable to determine the exact date this debt was incurred. Any suggestions?
I am also wondering the same thing. Have several credit cards that have been in collection accounts. I have no idea when the debt was incurred. wondering if I can put the date the collection agency shows as date, which is not the original date however.
It has been at least 5 months since the last unanswered question. Well, I don't think you have to be that specific unless you really know when it happened. If you ever felt behind and then were able to catch up again, that doesn't count. They are looking for a situation where you started to fall behind and were never able to pay your debt in full. They want to find out if you had the idea that you couldn't pay your bills and were planning to apply for bankruptcy, but despite that, you went ahead and incurred more debts, abusing the bankruptcy system.
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