Advice would be great thank you

[TwIsTa]

Hello, im a 23 yr old who works 2 jobs trying to support my family i make descent money but the last 2 years me and my wife have gotten our hands on a few to many credit cards and a couple personal loans btw Cash call is the devil. the credit cards are small thiers just a few to many of them i pay about 700 bucks to my cards and loans alone i only owe around 10,000 not including my 2 cars. i own a 2001 grand am that i still owe 13,000 for and the cars only worth like 8,000 and my wife 2001 jimmy thats she owes less than its worth so thats cool. I went to a bankruptcy office today cause i just cant afford my credit cards anymore im overdrawn on almost all of them and late. the lady at the office advised me Chapt 7 sounds like my best choice so im really thinking about doing this cause the debt is causing so much stress in our life and causing alot of arguments my real question is about the cars i can care less if i keep mine but i would really like the payment to go down and the lady said that could happen but she also said thiers a chance my wifes cars interest rate will go up and so will her payment is it hard when you file chap 7 to keep your cars? and is it hard to find a place that will take your cars or can you keep the same place? The bad thing about all this is my Credit score was so good. but i let my so called best friend move in and he ran up all my bills and i loaned him over 1000 he skipped town and i havent heard from him in over 2 months i worked so hard to build my credit but im behind on everything. besides my rent and my car payments. im sorry if im rambleing im very tired just got home from my 2nd job. any advice would be great when the lady quoted me the cost of the fileing fees and my attorney i would pay a little over 1700 is that about right. thank you for whoever took the time to read my post.

[Genenco]

Well, you should consider all avenues. From Home equity loans, to CCCS. A good credit counsler can help you, however, beware of many of the "Debt Reduction" people as they aren't 100% trustworthy.

You might also consider a Ch 13, then your credit report won't take as bad as a hit as a Ch 7.

[Minnymouth]

You said you contacted a BK attorney and they suggested Chapter 7....
Did they say anything about you possibly being thrown into a Chapter 13 due to disposable income available if your not paying credit cards?

Also Chapter 7 may be the best thing you ever did to wipe the slate clean, and start "fresh" again in life.

Are you planning on keeping your vehicles or downsizing?

Minny

[TwIsTa]

I havent totally stoped paying the cards just paying like 10-15-20 bucks whatever i can afford. sorry if i misslead you about that the lady told me as long as im paying something they (credit card companies) cant do anything to me. she said that would buy me some time until i come up with the full 1700 bucks but i need to give them 200 bucks down to open my case and then pay what i can when i can and just refer the credit companies to them. the place i went to today is highley recommended and they have offices all over southern california so im sure thier legit. just the lady is adjusting to the new laws and whatnot. i was hopeing on keeping my 2 cars that i have but if worse came to worse i would surrender my car which is the grand am and downsize cause its having alot of probs i just put alot of money into it. but i would love to keep them both i just want my payment lower i owe 13000 for a 8000 car i pay 358 a month for a 01. and my wife also owns a 01 jimmy that she only pays 253 and her car is worth more. so if i did decide to keep both cars am i gonna have trouble doing so?

[StaciMM]

If you decide to keep both cars, you'll need to keep both those payments current. But if you're going to file, STOP paying on the credit cards. That $10-20 per month per card could go to your legal fees.

What you said about your car payments going up or down, or the interest going up, sounds odd. If you keep the same loans, you keep the same terms. And, it would not be likely for you to refinance them when you are upside down on them.

If your vehicle requires a lot of maintenance, it might be best to give it up. The BK would discharge the obligation so it wouldn't matter that you're upside down. Most likely, you could stop paying that bill before you filed. In general, most lenders would not repo until you're 60+ days past due. So, don't let it go beyond that but don't put more $$ into it than you have to. That saved payment would also let you file sooner. Once you file, the automatic stay of BK prevents repo-at least temporarily.

[StaciMM]

One last thing-if you have no way to make it on your own without BK, don't worry about your credit rating right now. Concentrate instead on living within your means, learning to live without credit, and then down the road-once you have a handle on that-then you can start rebuilding. Rebuilding isn't hard to do, it just shouldn't be #1 priority.

[TwIsTa]

thank you everyone for your responses. i appreciate it. The lady is suppost to call me tommorow and give me some information. so i hope to give her some money in a couple days to start the process. ill make sure to keep everyone posted as im sure ill have some more questions. thank you.

[sunshine08]

I checked my attorney's website and she is quoting about $1450, which is almost double what she charged under the old way and she was extremely reasonable. Your price is probably reasonable.

[edwards2]

$1450? Wow - I am glad I filed in March...I only paid $850 for a Chapter 7.
Good luck!