very confused

[deepinit]

I am in the process of finding an attorney to advise me on if I should file for chapter 7 or 13. How do I know?
I want to keep my house, even though we owe more than its worth and have a 2nd that I would love to have stripped off.
I have 1 car that I lease and will be up in April - I own my other older car outright - it's worth about 3500.00.
I also have a rental property that I want to get rid of but nonone is buying right now - it is rented out and just covers the expenses - its worth about 95000 - 100000 and i owe 92000.
I have about 87000 in unsecured CC and personal loan debt. I dont have a proble repaying the debt - they cc companies changed the rules and my payments went from about 800 a month to now over 1500 - i just cant do it anymore and have now started not to pay a couple of these.
I have seen people write something about a notice to their employers for payroll deduction to the trustee - is this the only way this can be done - will htey accept a certified check or a regular bank check or does it have to be payroll deduct?
Every year I get about 11000 back in taxes and plan on using that to get an attorney.
What should or should not tell the CC companies when they call looking for money?
I would love to take the next 2 months and just build up an emergency fund.
By the way I am in Ohio if anyone has any advice.
Sorry for hte long post - I dont know what to do.

[holycrap]

My wife and i are filing in the next month or so and we have gone 4 months not paying CC's so we could take care of some important items before we filed. We had a good amount of home repairs finished and some medical/dental work done that would have been a hardship during our CH13.

I am pretty sure you aren't going to be able to build up any large amount of "emergency fund". Whatever you don't pay to CC's during the period you are waiting may need to be accounted for when you file. At least that was the advice i got. We have purchased a lot of things that we will need that are non-perishable (cosmetics, laundry supplies, cleaners) so that during the first few months of our plan we can have a little wiggle room in the budget.

[cc8225]

Hi I am filing a 13 in the next few weeks. If you want to keep your house and strip your second you have to file a 13. You cannot lien strip in a chapter 7. If you are filing soon you should stop paying your unsecured debt including your second if you are eligible for a lien strip. You will most likely lose your tax refund but check with your lawyer. As for the phone calls just dont answer. They will continue to call until you have officially filed. Good luck..

[oldhack]

...Every year I get about 11000 back in taxes...

Aaarrrgggh! This is a pet peeve of mine, regardless on one's financial situation vis-a-vis bankruptcy. It is simply irresponsible money management to allow the government to borrow your money interest-free for a year. Would you let anyone else borrow $11,000 interest-free for a year? An $11,000 refund means almost $1,000 less in your personal budget monthly!
You only are legally required to pay via payroll withholding an amount equal to 90% or more of your tax liability for the previous tax year. Thus, for example, if I paid $7,000 in income taxes last year, I must have $6,300 or more withheld this year. You ARE legally entitled to claim as many exemptions as needed to meet that threshhold (NOTE: you aren't encouraged to do so by the IRS worksheet or other government publication -- the feds are quite glad for you to loan them free money! -- but they can't do anything about it if you do it).
My personal goal each year is to have to write the Treasury a check that will cost them more to process than it's worth -- say for a dime! (I haven't succeeded yet, but I'm usually +/- $200 or less.)
Risking having a bankruptcy trustee claim it for creditors is just one more good reason not to allow for a large tax refund, as far as I'm concerned.