The cons of filing for bankruptcy are many and long. There are of course positives to doing this, but the negative list is quite intimidating.

The first thing is that it will stay on your record for many years. During this time no matter what else you do, that mark will still be there for people to see and judge you by. This both makes things difficult financially, and emotionally. Dealing with the shame is the thing that holds a lot of people back from moving forward in multiple arenas after bankruptcy.

This record gets looked at a lot more than you might think. It comes up when you go to apply for jobs, apartments, a mortgage, a credit card, a rental car, any kind of insurance, etc. The list goes on and on. There really isn't a way to escape that this is a part of your life for the years to come.

Filing itself is a long and painful process. You have to go over everything in detail and go through a LOT of paperwork and go before judges...there's always more to do. And once you finally get through it all, you have to start working on rebuilding your credit, so it never really feels "over".

It's going to take a lot of effort and time to rebuild your financial history and get a decent credit score again. While the bankruptcy itself won't come off for a very long time, you can have a decent score again in as little as two years--but only if you're constantly on top of your finances and actively working on rebuilding your credit. This takes up a lot of effort and time and will effect a lot of your life decisions.

As you can see, there are a lot of cons to filing for bankruptcy, however often once it comes to the point to make the decision, it's often your only choice and avoiding it can actually make things even more difficult than the problems listed here. When you're at this point, it's always good to consult a financial professional for advice on your situation from an outsider.