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If you are going to file for bankruptcy, then hopefully you have done some serious research in advance of consulting a lawyer and moving forward with the myriad legal proceedings that go into declaring oneself officially insolvent. There is nothing at all wrong with planning your bankruptcy in advance, and making the necessary steps to protect yourself before moving forward. After all, a bankruptcy filing will stay on your credit report for a long time and will make it hard for you to do pretty much anything that requires applying with your personal information. By all means, get yourself situated.

I’m here to tell you, however, that what you should NOT do is max out all your credit cards before you go trotting off to the lawyer’s office. It might seem appealing to go ahead and charge up all your plastic, given that you know that you are about to have all your debt discharged. Why not go ahead and purchase that big-screen TV that you can’t technically afford, that designer wardrobe, or that pricy cell phone upgrade so that all your friends will be good and jealous? I’ll tell you why not – it’s fraud. You can actually risk the success of your bankruptcy by spending a bunch of money on credit in the months before your filing, whether you do it intentionally or not. What you buy also has a bearing on whether a judge will throw you out of the court for willfully taking advantage of the chance for a fresh start.

Everyone who is filing bankruptcy is in trouble, financially. Otherwise they would never be taking such a drastic step towards severing all ties with financial ruin and taking the measure to start a new life. At the risk of sounding mean, you really need to live up to the part once that decision has been made. Stop spending money on plastic: if nothing else, you need to immediately reconcile yourself to the fact that this option is not going to be available to you for very much longer. Never mind the fact that it is absolutely reprehensible to build up debt that you have no intention or means of paying back.

You might try to say that you were continuing to attempt to pay on the cards right up to the moment when the cards are maxed out, but the courts are experienced and will see right through this disingenuous scheme. You actually think that you are the first one to dream up that line? Not so much – expect to have you card statements criticized intensely for as long as a year before your filing date. Every single account will be taken under consideration. All purchases and cash advances will be looked over with a fine-tooth comb, and you’d better bet that you will be questioned on anything that gives the appearance of abuse. If you can’t justify the spending, you may have the complete elimination of your debt challenged, and a portion held back from your filing.

The goal of most consumers looking into filing bankruptcy is to get a fresh start. Don’t imperil that new beginning with the appearance of fraud stemming from shady credit card habits right before you take the plunge.