New. About to retain attorney. Need advice

[francoboy]

Hi! I just registered today.
Long story short...my husbands job of 25 years began going bad about 5 years ago. It ended alltogether 2/2013. Since then he has had unemployment comp. and temp jobs. Finally working in his field again but at 1/3 the salary. So, lots of cc debt. Our income is around $65,000. Our cc debt is $50,000. We have a loan on parents house to build addition when my mom got sick we moved in. Our name is not on the deed. The loan is in our name w dad as "grantor".
Much more, but my main question now concerns my daughter going off to college in the fall. I think we would qualify for a parent plus loan because our cc are current. But what happens if we get the plus loan and file bk a month later? Would it be beter to have my daughter get a private loan? Obviously she will need a cosigner which will not be us.
I know we have to file. We have nothing left over after bills. But geez. It does not feel good putting this weeks cc money into a retainer fee instead of paying th bill.
Thanks in advance!

[bcohen]

You are actually better off to be denied for a Parent PLUS loan, because then your expected family contribution will be lowered, so the school will provide more need-based aid for your daughter. They will still require that you apply, but upon showing the denial letter, the additional need-based aid will be offered. Thus, you should file for bankruptcy ASAP if you have decided that you are going to go that route.

[francoboy]

Thank you bcohen! I was thinking the same thing. She would get $4000 more in loans. The drawback is finding a co-signer for a private loan to make up the difference.. If we do get approved for a parent plus loan, would that look bad to the court that we requested a loan so close to filing?
I can't file until I save enough $ for the down payment.
My new issue today, I was going to ask for a deferment on 2 months of car payments. Now I wonder if that will be bad when we file. From what I read, it is important to be current on secured loans.
I have so many worries about all of this.

[chrisdfw]

If you were not paying for credit cards, is is possible you could pay the difference in the education after getting denied for a plus loan?

Minimum payments for credit cards of 50,000 have to be 1000 a month of more, that pays a lot of education expenses?

NEVER take a private loan, NEVER take a private loan, and NEVER take a private loan

If the parent gets denied the student gets more loans, these are government loans, eligible for PAYE, PSLF, discharge in case of death/disability, etc

I am not a fan of government, but government loans are indeed better.

[AngelinaCat]

Does daughter have a PT job so she can help out with her own schooling?

[francoboy]

We ended up getting aproved for the parent plus loan. This will be the only time for that obviously.
My daughter has been working for a year. Because of our finances, she has used her money for alot of things we normally would have paid for. Hopefully she will be eligible for more grants next year.
You are right that our cc are about $1000 a month. Not paying those will allow us to pay for neccesities that we do without now. I also want to save money for anything that comes up.
Thank you for replying. This is so stressful. I can't wait to have the money together to file just so I can get answers to my many, many questions.