If you are thinking of filing a petition for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Law, you will be required to take two educational courses. One course is taken PRIOR to the filing of the bankruptcy petition, and the second AFTER the petition is filed.
The first course is about budgeting and learning how much income you have coming in, what monthly expenses you have, and how much you owe. The second course is more about how to maintain your credit, how credit card companies operate their business and how it affects your account(s). You will not receive a discharge in bankruptcy if you took the first course but failed to take the second. If your case is dismissed for failure to take the second course, you would have to make a motion to re-open the case and pay fees to the court.
The courses can be taken online or by telephone. Their cost depends on whether you are doing them online or over the telephone. By telephone they cost a little more. These courses are useful, you can learn a lot about maintaining good credit from taking them. After you take each course, a Certificate of Completion is issued by the school offering it and these certificates have to be filed with the court.
Some debtors are unable to take these courses due to some incapacity, or because counseling is not available in their ares of residence.
