Credit report article written attorney Daniel Stone
There is no formal requirement by the Bankruptcy Code that a debtor obtain a credit report prior to filing a bankruptcy. In fact, there are often many debts that are not reported to a credit reporting company such as Experian that a debtor still is obligated to list on the bankruptcy schedules. That being said, there are many benefits to obtaining a credit report prior to filing for bankruptcy. Some of the benefits include: a majority of the creditors will be listed, collection companies will be listed, account numbers provided, dates of the loan provided, current addresses provided, and the outstanding balances provided.
Starting in 2014, I am requiring all my bankruptcy clients to obtain a credit report. For a small fee, my firm can download to my bankruptcy software a current credit report. Please note that medical creditors are often omitted from credit reports so you will want to make sure all your medical creditors are listed separately. In addition, you will want to check the addresses listed on your credit report. Sometimes the addresses listed for a particular creditor are not correct.