Questions & more questions

[Big T]

This is the best site for information. I appreciate all the people here. I will start to be a regular contributer, since I am about to take the journey myself. But, I still have a lot of questions.

The small family owned company, (I had no ownership), which I worked for has closed the doors. I have about $95,000 in credit card debt that I racked up over the years. No need to tell me how dumb I am, I already know. $40,000 is from cards in the company name, but I signed for the cards. The other $55,000 are in my name. The company cards are all 120 days past due and beyond. The ones in my name had been in a debt consalidation program, but I stopped paying those last month and are all 30 days out.

I met with a lawyer and decided I have to file. I live in Michigan so I can file seperately without involving my wife. At least I hope she comes out unscathed. Problem is combined we are way over the median. We are at about $106,000 combined for the last 6 months. I have now been on unemployment for about a month. The attorney still thinks he can get me into a 7 with the means test. He thinks it will be close, but felt that since all the credit card debt was for the business he thinks that is in my favor. Not sure if it makes a difference?

Questions:
I want to keep my house, 2 trucks (nothing nice but almost paid for), & belongings. How do you go about re-affirming? Do I have to contact the banks who hold the loans or do they contact me?

I also have a furniture loan with a local company. I can and want to continue to pay that each month. Do I have to list them too? Can I not list them? (But I may need to for the monthly payment in the means test).


I can honestly say all the credit card debt was for the business. There isn't anything on there that was for me or my family. Not even a lunch during work. If I don't get the 7, then I am going to have to go 13, which I was told "you aren't going to want to go that route". Anyone else have any similiar experiences?

[biotechsolution]

If it's all business debt you dont' have to worry about income or means test, they are not required if more than 50% of your debt is non-consumer.

Remember you have to list your mortgage and car loans in the debt ratio.
If you business debt is still more than 50% of all your debt it only matters that your schedules end up at 0.

[b_girl]

The longer you go between your old income and your new income, the better your chances of fitting into a Ch7. We were also over the median and were already 6 months out of our old income when we first met with our attorney last October. At that time, he wasn't sure if he could get us into a 7. We waited a bit and finally filed a full year after our higher income ended. We recently discharged Ch7 No Asset after a quiet 60 days. The only problem we had during our wait was the constant phone calls after we ceased paying our CC.

As for your furniture loan, you cannot pick and choose what you include in the bankruptcy...all debts must be listed, even if they cannot be discharged (alimony, taxes, student loans, etc.) If it's considered a secured loan (which a furniture loan usually is) then you can choose to re-affirm it, but I wouldn't...they probably won't come after it, especially if it is an older purchase. However, nothing stops you from paying off a discharged debt anyway....we have a personal loan which was discharged but which we are still continuing to pay.