Paying wife's cards

[MakinMeCrazy]

good morning.
once again I'm posting .....I usually do this when I get scared and nervous..
her we go.....My Husband is filing SINGLE, I want to keep what tiny credit i have... currently his only income is a retirement check from the state. It is direct deposited into his checking account...for years the account has been only in his name.........BUT we paid ALL bills from it because i no longer work. This is my question...currently from the pension check, we have paid only MY credit cards, which total payments monthly are about 210.00 since we have to use his pension as our total monthly income to pay bills.............would this be considered an "insider" payment? we have done this forever.. and i'm thinking is there is only ONE income and both have bills.......is that a problem?
We live in OHIO.......a non-community property state
Thanks for helping me some many times already

[rrj]

I am filing, my husband is not, becouse we are trying to salvage his credit

worked about 10 hr on his credit reports fri (lot of work, but he has some collections that should of been off a long time ago(


from my understanding his paying his bills is nothing to do with my filing, since he is not

he does draw a check, and i had to list on my schudules but we are still under the means test with his income

his little bills adds up to 279 a month
I think insiderspayments have to be to one person over 500.00 or 600.00
unless it a secured with auto or mortgage

I'm just wondering since he didnt file, do we still have to wait three years for a fah loan if we just put the mortgage in his name but we would have to use my income to get it , we have never had a mortgage at all

[MakinMeCrazy]

hi!
Thanks for the reply but my question is a lil different.what I meant was....my husband is the sole provider now and my cards are paid from his checking account....I wanted to know if HIM paying my cards is considered a insider preference payment..we have always paid all the bills from one account ...it is not a joint account .......it is in his name only..

[music12]

if the payments were made directly to the credit cards (and not to you first) then i think you are ok, because even if they are considered "insider", the trustee would be going after the credit card companies, not you, because the money never passed through you.

there are others here who are better experts, i hope they will respond.

[HHM]

No preference issue, but let's take a big picture for a moment.

How much in credit card debt do YOU have. If the only income is a meager retirement, and the CC debt is relatively significant (30% or more of the gross annual income), you are shooting yourself in the foot by not doing this as a joint case. If your husband is at retirement, I am guessing you are older as well, do you really "need" credit. And the big question, is having credit worth the price of continuing to pay these credit cards given that credit recovers in about 2 years after BK.

Anyway, just something to think about. Whenever someone says, I am not filing to protect my credit, usually means they have their priorities out of whack and are woefully misinformed about how BK effects credit.

[MakinMeCrazy]

Thank you for the replies......
My credit is tiny......totaling less than $5000 and my payments are very small.totaling
$210 per month........I want to keep my credit alive......since I still have a pretty good credit score and "just in case" of an emergency like a home repair...or car repair......to come up with a "large amount " of money for let's say a car repair ...would be very hard on us.....so i wanted to keep my cards, and hope I don't have to run them up.....
Thank you all again

[StartingOver08]

I understand your point, the $5000 is a very small debt and not worth filing BK over at all. Also it makes sense that you would want to keep what credit you might have available. Sometimes when you have available credit, you might be tempted to use it by saying "This is an emergency and I will pay it right back". (I know I did that! )

The best way to make sure you don't have to use your cards is to have a large emergency fund. Start with a small one of $1000 that you do not touch except for emergencies. You may have to wait until your husband is filed and discharged before you can begin your fund. But if you make that a priority it will give you a lot of relief and peace of mind. Having the cc's for emergency's is one of the ways we set ourselves up for failure.

You may want to consider going back to work, even part time, to get rid of that $5000 debt so it doesn't continue to grow. If you are only paying $210/mth it will take you 31 months to pay off your cards (assuming a rate of 20%) even if you never charge anything else. If your rate is closer to 30% it will take 37 months. If you work, even part time and you are able to beef up your payments you could knock out that debt in less than a year and have a good start on an emergency fund. JMO. One of the things I learned from my BK is to SAVE. Have lots of savings and only buy if you have the funds. It is amazing how much lighter you feel not having the weight of the debt and monthly payments.

Good luck with your plan and your filing. It sounds like you have it under control.

[MakinMeCrazy]

Thank You all............I should have also asked this in my post.will they go after the card companies? and then the card come after me , correct?

[rrj]

No preference issue, but let's take a big picture for a moment.

How much in credit card debt do YOU have. If the only income is a meager retirement, and the CC debt is relatively significant (30% or more of the gross annual income), you are shooting yourself in the foot by not doing this as a joint case. If your husband is at retirement, I am guessing you are older as well, do you really "need" credit. And the big question, is having credit worth the price of continuing to pay these credit cards given that credit recovers in about 2 years after BK.

Anyway, just something to think about. Whenever someone says, I am not filing to protect my credit, usually means they have their priorities out of whack and are woefully misinformed about how BK effects credit.

hhm

my husband owes a total of 1140.00, he is current on them all
he owes three installments loans, 2 check advances, he let the check
bounce so he could start a payment plan with them, they will be paid off in two months
balance installments
1.100.00 will pay feb 1,2009
2.100.00 paid off jan 20,2009
3.280.00 paid march 20
payday advances
1.80.00 paid off in dec 20,2009
2.160.00 paid off in feb 20 2009
signarture loan
1.400.00 paid off march 20

2 collection agency on his credit report
1.383.00 this account is over 7 years old
2.1700.00 this account is over 7 years old
( i just send dispute letters in
(not many know they can do that, check advances if you let them bounce they will do payments with you


I think i we should salave his credit

[music12]

Thank You all............I should have also asked this in my post.will they go after the card companies? and then the card come after me , correct?

the card companies cannot go after you once you have filed and then discharged, even if the trustee went after the card companies.

[DeadManCrawling]

To the OP (others have sort of hijacked the thread): I am sorry, I must disagree with other posters on this one.

The debt in your name, though it seems small, is worth filing a joint petition for, IMHO.

Here is my reasoning:

$210 a month? How big is the overall debt YOU owe, not counting hubby? Filing on your debts will get rid of the debt IMMEDIATELY. You can have, in 3 years or so, 8k in SAVINGS as an emergency fund. And not pay creditors. Since you are living, from what I see, on retirement income, this may be a significant amount. The key, if you joint file, is to make sure you actually SAVE the money and do not spend it as the months go by.

I would not usually recommend filing on 210/month, but your situation is a little different than the norm. Since he is already filing, you should consider including your debt as well and starting with a totally clean slate.

Credit is overrated, in my belief, and anyway you can immediately start to rebuild credit. In fact, your credit will in all likelihood, be better by filing and sooner than it would be if you continued to pay a $210 a month minimum for the rest of the time it takes to reach a zero balance.

The payments may well be considered preferential, to answer the original question. That is not your problem. The CC companies cannot pursue YOU--unless you are a joint party on the agreement and do NOT file. If these are joint cards they will certainly come after you.

Either way, good luck to you and hubby.