Worse off now,need opinions!

[MEA2]

A little background;After our lawyer appt on friday my dh and I were really relieved.He told us that although we make a bit too much income for Chapter 7 he thinks Chapter 13 wouldn't be right for us at this point.He thought we should consolidate the debt and pay it off at a lower interest rate.
Well,after much research here and through phone calls to many loan places,credit unions etc there is basically no such thing as a consolidation loan for $45,000 without putting up equity.We thought that would be the case but we are seriously at a dead end.High CC payments with interests of 20% and more(MBNA,Citibank) a month and no end in sight of how to resolve this.We are truly up the creek.....Any ideas?

[Princesskina]

Yes visit other lawyers.

Consultations are usually free so u NEVER under any circumstances based your whole plan one one persons advice u always get a SECOND opinion.

[MEA2]

Yes visit other lawyers.

Consultations are usually free so u NEVER under any circumstances based your whole plan one one persons advice u always get a SECOND opinion.

this was our 2nd opinion the 1st lawyer was very aloof with us,like he could care less...told us a chapter 13 would be the best for us...I guess the reason i liked the 2nd lawyer is because he sounded positive,like this could be overcome....but I don't see how...maybe a 3rd lawyer visit is in order...

[Bobby'sGirl]

You could use the free counseling feature at a site like CCCS of Atlanta

If you haven't already met with a debt counseling/management center, take a few hours to see what payment plans might be available to pay down the debt. It might not lower the total, but could lower interest on some cards and if you decide to go the BK route, you can use that info to get your pre-BK certificate for counselling. If there is no way to increase your income to help pay down the debt, you have at least taken another pre-BK step. Some of the posters here have met with as many as a half dozen attorneys before making a decision, and you are educating yourself in your options by asking questions here as well!

[CAB_44]

Hey MEA2~
Goodness.... I would say visit other attorney's as well........

Where's SF......she seems to always have the best advise!!!!!!!

We had done all of the consolidation routes etc. etc......that has only helped us to acquire MORE CC debt....you're still up the creek, because when something else happens...you have to resort to using the CC.....we were at 45K many years ago...trying and trying to pay off.....now it's 90K.....hence the need to file~
Of course you can try Mea2...to consolidate~if that's what you feel best~ just telling you that we went that route too, and it still didn't solve much for us~ but everyone's situation is different.
We both have good jobs, and trying to pour double payments into that 45K .... it just didn't work for us~ I wish well for you though~

[alh]

I was on lawyer #5 before I found one that was good. So it may take a few visits.

[Sammy]

I was on lawyer #5 before I found one that was good. So it may take a few visits.

Roger that! Get 3rd, 4th, 5th..... opinions. We met with nearly every BK lawyer in town before we found one we liked. In part it was a matter of matching personality/temperment/attitude and we started feeling like we were searching for one to tell us what we wanted to hear. In fact, it seemed that most of them were only interested int "textbook" cases and if it fell outside the lines of the "typical" BK they really weren't interested in undertaking the extra work that would take them away from other/easier cases. The atty we ended up retaining is a former Trustee and I think that helps as well.

[SinkingFast]

I was on lawyer #5 before I found one that was good. So it may take a few visits.

We Consulted with a dozen attnys, I think.

If it wasn't 12, it sure felt like that many!

We finally found one that talked some sense. We paid him a retainer fee to help handle our Foreclosure. We wanted to offer the Lender a DIL, and the attny did NOTHING!! So after a month of NOTHING, we moved on to other attnys.

Every attny we mentioned this one guy to said, "He's a good attny but he does have a tendency to drop the ball from time to time."

We finally found our attny. He's given us good advice. He or his paralegal have always been available to answer our questions. They either take the call, or they call us back if we leave a voicemail message. They've also responded to every email.

Just because you haven't hit THE attny yet, doesn't mean yours isn't out there. I know just how frustrating and depressing going to Consults can be, but don't give up!! Keep looking. You'll find the right person to work with.