should I make partial payments

I live in New Jersey

I spoke with an attorney yesterday regarding filing for chapter 7. I was basically told that even if I am not going to file for 3 months (which is about the time I need to save the money to pay the attorney) I should stop making all payments now. I had asked this person if I should atleast do partial payments for as much as I could send while coming up with the money to file which I thought might help me keep some of the creditors off my back till I file and was told why give them anything at this point. I am a bit confused and would like to know what others have done or were advised to do. I do need time to save and get all the paperwork the attorney is looking for andf it may take me 3-4 months before I can file.

[bigun]

I think your lawyer gave good advise. You'll suffer some telephone harrassment but, that's all they can do given the time frame. Just get caller ID or, let the machine screen calls . At this point, partil payments do nothing for you and you'd still be dealing with creditor phone calls.

Here's what I tell clients on that subject:

Once you decide that you're definitely going to seek bankruptcy protection, do not pay ONE MORE DIME to the unsecured creditors (such as credit cards).

Anything you pay to them will be a gift. I assume that you don't have money to throw away.

In the meantime, the money that you're NOT spending on the unsecured creditors can be used to hire your BK attorney or keep your mortgage current.

Yes, it will look bad to have late payments show up on your credit reports. But guess what?

A bankruptcy filing is the king of all bad things that can show up on your credit report.

So, the late payments that show up will pale by comparison to the bankruptcy filing.

Now, as to the secured creditors (such as your home and car), keep paying on those that you want to keep and reaffirm on.

Hope this information helps you solve your dilemma.