As she received credit-card solicitations offering zero-percent interest, a 42-year-old Selinsgrove woman — newly divorced and with two children to support — began a descent into financial turmoil by using new cards to pay debt on the old.

“I felt very depressed, very hopeless,” said “Jane,” who asked that her real name not be published. “I was scared. I was just desperate.”

She charged her car payment.

Her rent. Her school bills. Food. Clothing. Utilities.

“I started paying everything with credit cards,” she said.

Within a year, she was more than $30,000 in debt with seven cards later averaging 20 percent interest.

Many days were spent searching through purses and pockets, hoping to find change to pay for food or gasoline.

“It was,” she said, “like every negative feeling you could feel.”

Thousands of people in Central Pennsylvania face credit problems.

And many of them — such as the 7,502 in Pennsylvania’s Middle District in 2007 — file for bankruptcy. The number has been rising, officials say, and will continue to do so.

Daniel Rheam is one of those officials.

Rising problem

Bankruptcy filings increased 38 percent in 2007 from the previous year, and the trend will continue in 2008, said Rheam, a Lewisburg bankruptcy attorney.

The main reasons are the result of lost wages — especially stemming from divorce, job loss or illness, Rheam said.