Your Consideration Please

[Smalls]

I know that this question has probably been asked in the past, and please move this thread if need be.

I want to lay out my situation and ask if Chapter 13 or Chapter 7 are more appropriate for me. Now I know I am not speaking to lawyers, and I will take all advise as just that.

Married, would be a joint BK
I have work, wife's job is not lucrative to say the least.
She is looking for full time, reliable work, but economy says otherwise.
approx. 50k in CC debt and climbing fast, not making any payments at this time.
House and cars are current (all exempt under my state, FYI)
Close to 70k student loan debt among the two of us (non-dischargeable, I know)

Car A - KBB is $7800, we owe $4800 (car is financed with same company as one of the cc's!!! Is that bad?)
Car B - KBB is $8600 we owe $14,300. (may not be current for long)

Recreational Vehicle - Asset. Paid in full. ~$5500 (partially funded by CC) (what do I do with this?)


Might not be able to file ch13 until wife makes more money.
When (if) she does, we'll be real close to medium state income (before payments)


Which filing would be more conducive to my situation?

[Smalls]

I'm worried about cross collateralization with Car A and CC.

They are both with Chase.

Has anyone had any experience with them?

Should I trade the car in? Should I pay the car off if possible and try to get lien release before bk??

[woeisme]

Don't pay off your car unless you know for sure that your exemptions would cover the equity you wuld then have in the car. Right now you already have 3K in equity in the car, in Ohio that is more than allowed, so adding more equity to it by paying it off would be a HUGE mistake pre-BK, but if your state has much more generous allowances for vehicle exemptions, might be do-able. Might want to see if you can re-finance what you owe on car # 1 to get the title transfered to a different lender than the CC where you have cross-collateralization issues though.

I'm in a CH 13, and have to say, try for a CH 7 if at all possible. Much less pain in the long run.

[rrockinggramma]

credit unions impose the cross collateralization rule. Chase you should be ok but don't expect credit from them for at least 10 years.