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What Debts Chapter 7 Wipes Out (and What It Cannot Touch) \| iFightDebt.com

iFightDebt · Maryland Consumer Defense

What Debts Chapter 7 Wipes Out (and What It Cannot Touch)

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People walk into bankruptcy expecting a clean slate - then learn the student loan and the child support followed them out the door. Here is the honest line between the debts Chapter 7 erases and the ones it leaves standing.

By Amir Guerami, The Guerami Law Firm, LLC  ·  Posted June 29, 2026

The Clean Slate Has Fine Print

You are drowning in debt, and you have heard that Chapter 7 bankruptcy can wash it away. For a lot of what is crushing you, that is true. But here is the worst case, named plainly: people file expecting every debt to disappear, finish the case, and then discover that the student loan, the back child support, and last year's taxes are still there \- now with no credit cards left to juggle them.

Chapter 7 is powerful. It ends with a court order called a discharge that legally wipes out your personal responsibility for most everyday debt. But the law carves out certain debts that survive no matter what. The difference between those two lists is the whole decision - and you want to know it before you file, not after.

“Chapter 7 can erase the credit card and the medical bill - but it will not touch the child support, and it usually will not touch the student loan. Knowing that line before you file is the whole game.”

What Chapter 7 Usually Wipes Out

For most people, the debts causing the panic are exactly the ones Chapter 7 is built to erase. These are called unsecured debts - money you owe with no property pledged behind it. The discharge typically wipes out:

• Credit card balances, including store and gas cards.
• Medical and hospital bills - often the single biggest reason Maryland families file.
• Personal loans, payday loans, and most signature loans.
• Old utility bills, cell phone balances, and most collection-agency accounts.
• The leftover balance after a car is repossessed or surrendered (the deficiency).
• Most money judgments a creditor already won against you in court.

Once the discharge is entered, those creditors are done. They cannot call you, sue you, garnish your wages, or freeze your account over a discharged debt. If one tries, that is now its violation, not your problem.

What It Cannot Touch

Congress decided some debts are too important to wipe out. These survive a Chapter 7 discharge and follow you out of the case:

• Child support and alimony - these are almost never dischargeable, period.
• Most student loans - federal and private - unless you prove a separate, demanding 'undue hardship' case.
• Recent income taxes and many other tax debts (older income taxes can sometimes qualify, under strict rules).
• Debts you ran up through fraud, lies, or false financial statements.
• Court fines, most criminal restitution, and many government penalties.
• Debts for injury or death you caused by drunk driving, or by willful and malicious acts.

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There is also a trap with secured debt. Chapter 7 can erase what you _owe_ on a house or car, but it does _not_ erase the lender's lien on the property itself. If you want to keep the house or the car, you generally have to keep paying for it. Do NOT assume bankruptcy lets you keep the collateral and walk away from the loan.

The Debts That Depend

Some debts live in a gray zone where the outcome turns on the facts and the calendar. Income taxes can be dischargeable - but only if the returns are old enough, were filed on time, and meet several technical tests. A debt normally wiped out can be challenged and saved by a creditor who proves you took on the debt by fraud. And a student loan, almost always protected, can in rare cases be discharged through a separate court action if repaying it would cause real, lasting hardship.

This is exactly the territory where guessing hurts you. The same tax bill can be erased or survive depending on dates most people never think to check. A Maryland consumer attorney looks at these before you file - while you can still plan around them - instead of after, when the case is closed and the surviving debt is yours.

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Discharge Is Not All-Or-Nothing Chapter 7 does not erase 'your debt' as one lump. It works debt by debt. A single filing can wipe out tens of thousands in credit cards and medical bills while leaving your child support and student loan completely untouched. Knowing which of your debts fall on which side - before you file - is what tells you whether Chapter 7 actually solves your problem.

Three Things To Do Before You File

1\. Write down every debt and label it

List everything you owe - creditor, rough amount, and what kind of debt it is. Credit cards and medical bills in one column; child support, student loans, and taxes in another. That single page tells you, at a glance, how much of your burden Chapter 7 can actually lift.

2\. Pull the dates on any tax debt

If taxes are part of what you owe, the year matters enormously. Find out which tax years you owe for and when you filed each return. Those dates can be the difference between a tax bill that vanishes and one that survives - so do not throw out the paperwork.

3\. Have a Maryland consumer attorney map it before you file

Bankruptcy is one of the few moves you cannot easily undo. Before you file, have a Maryland consumer attorney sort your debts into what discharges and what does not, so there are no surprises after the case closes. The goal is simple: file with your eyes open, knowing exactly what relief you are getting.

The Bottom Line

Chapter 7 is not a magic eraser, and the worst case - finishing your case still chained to the debts you most wanted gone - is real for anyone who files blind. But for most Maryland families buried in credit cards and medical bills, it is exactly the fresh start the law promises. The key is knowing which of your debts it touches, and which it never will, before you ever sign the petition.

This article is for general educational purposes only. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Maryland law changes, and every case turns on its own facts. If you or someone you love needs honest guidance on bankruptcy, debt settlement, creditor harassment, and collection defense, speak with a Maryland consumer attorney about your specific situation before making any decisions.

Contact The Guerami Law Firm, LLC through www.ifightdebt.com for a confidential consultation with Amir Guerami and his team.