Significance

• Usually unsecured debts (as with credit cards) are discharged in bankruptcy. A debt is unsecured if no collateral is pledged as a condition for receiving the loan.
  
  

Features

• After you file bankruptcy, you typically receive a discharge of debtors notice four months later. This is the last stage of your bankruptcy.
  
  

Considerations

• Creditors cannot collect debts that have been discharged through a bankruptcy proceeding, but some creditors may attempt to do so. Contact your attorney or the bankruptcy court if this happens to you.
  
  

Warning

• Child support obligations and other debts cannot be discharged. According to Moranlaw.net, accident claims dealing with intoxication, debts listed in a previous bankruptcy where discharge was denied, penalties payable to the government besides tax penalties, recent taxes and trust fund taxes, and student loans are not dischargeable debts.
  
  

Benefits

• Debts that can be discharged are personal loans, judgments, credit cards, medical bills, business debts, leases, repossession deficiency balances, auto accident claims, and tax penalties over three years old, according to Moranlaw.net.