Agree w/ Roth obv. As for the chances of success, it isn't dissimilar from poker (apologies in advance for poker analogy). Creditors have a range. I know which are more aggressive than others over a limited sample. I have a history of settlements and ranges of settlements depending upon the nature of the debtor. I know which creditor and which agencies offer incentives to employees and which are vulnerable at EOM. I can't make any guarantees, and I only represent that my opinions are based upon my beliefs and that my beliefs are honest.

The obvious tension is that each debtor has a sample size of one.

UPDATE: My friend talked to a bankruptcy lawyer, and they basically said the exact same info as the bk lawyer on here, that u can start to build credit again after a yr or two, and that it stays on ur record for ten yrs (i had always thought it was 7 yrs fwiw). He told her, with her scenario that he def thinks she should file for bankruptcy. Neways, her debt wasnt accrued bc of lavish trips, tvs, etc, etc...it was just $100 here and there added up over yrs and yrs, with the occasional emergency for $1k or so added in...im not saying she couldnt live a lifestyle where she could spend less then she does now, but she doesnt really do anything out of the norm...it all started around 5 yrs ago when she had a better job and she bought a new car, then her boyfriend (who was a pro poker player for over a yr, went broke LOL), then she had to pay all the bills for a bunch of months bc he had no income in this time...so that was where the snowball started rolling, then she broke up with him, moved to a different city and couldnt find a job that paid as much, but wanted to keep her car neways, even though in a perfect world, she couldnt really afford it...so im not saying i completely defend all the decisions she has made over the yrs, but if u look at things "in the now", it doesnt really matter how she came to accrue all this debt, the question now is what is the best course of action for her current situation

I read through all the posts and was surprised how many there were in the last few days...i appreciate all the responses, esp from the lawyer in this field...its nice to hear someones pov who has been doing this for 15 yrs...neway Henry, i think ur a bit too harsh, not everyone is perfect, and most ppl make lots of mistakes, especially younger ppl...but i do agree with some of ur points that she could get a second job, spend a bit less, etc etc...but what i told her is do u wanna work and extra 20 hrs a week and take all that money and try to pay these cards down for yrs and yrs until they are gone, or take the easy way out, which is available and legal to do and just file...its about 2k, then she will get a fresh start and hopefully have learned from her mistakes...fwiw she told me she has never missed any payments on any of these cards, and she has just really been thinking in the last few months that it was getting out of hand...like someone else said, "its like throwing good money towards bad money" by trying to pay them off...say she pays $450 a month and only $150 is coming off of the principal...ur just burning $300 a month...kind of pointless when the legal system allows u to just file and get rid of all this debt...i think out of the 3 options available, 1)try to pay them off over time, 2)quit paying any of the cards and just default on them, or 3)file bankruptcy...i think #3 is just a no-brainer now that i know a little more about all this

and LOL to the poster who wrote something about my "friend" implying that it was actually me...im not 17 yrs old telling my mom that the pot she found in my pocket was my "friends" and i was just holding it

My motto on things like this is if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I agree with Henry that in an ideal world credit laws would be far stricter, but I can't do anything about that.

What I can do is exploit the current system in every way possible.