when you miss your upkeep, even by a few credits, your modules take damage and ALL your credits disappear. i propose that if you cant afford your upkeep then you are allowed to keep your credits. quite a few times i was damaged, then upkeep rolled around and i couldnt fix myself.

I think that's reasonable.

+1, atleast then you could prevent damage now and then

I disagree with this suggestion. If a player is having that issue more than once than it shows the player is out of balance and that they need to increase their mining to have the credits needed. The modules being damaged is the "punishment" for not keeping your numbers up, the loss of the credits is also what I say tough luck. You should know to have your credits saved above what your upkeep is, and if you don't you deserve the loss.

But lets not forget this is a game and not real life...
I think punishment is a bit out of order.
even logicly the damage should only be done to the ship (as you cannot afford the upkeep), you should get to keep your credits, atleast then it gives you a bit more cover to equal things out again.
If you ask me i dont think its intended to take away all your credits and might be an in game error.

Also i think this will be resolved one day, or atleast very likely to be.

You could also say it rewards you for blowing all your remaining credits if you know you won't make upkeep.