Greetings:
I am in an interesting situation which I plan to consult a bankruptcy lawyer about in the very near future, but am also interested in the experiences of others about this before I actually proceed. I'm at a "decision point" right now, and need to make a final decision.
In any case, to sum up my history -- I make about 60k a year, single, live alone, and have about 70k in credit card debt. Literally 100% of my debt is in credit cards, no medical or secured loans. I got myself into this situation attempting to start a business during the dot-com boom, and things went south during the dot-com bust. Since then I've been struggling to get myself back on my feet.
I've been on a credit councelling program for about 1.5 years now, and it has been going OK, however, every month I literally am left with about $200 to pay for food and gas after all bills are taken care of. I talked with my credit councelling service, and they told me to contact each creditor to see if they would allow the monthly deposit that is sent to them to be reduced, only 1 creditor agreed, and the difference was only $30 a month, which certainly won't help matters much. I'm sick of having 0$ in my account (or a negative ammt!) each month, and no ability to generate any kind of savings, so I feel that bankruptcy might be my only choice.
Before I got myself into this situation, I bought a very nice car (2001 Audi TT), which currently has about 100k miles on it. It is valued at about 14k blue book, so I suspect this would be the first item to be saught after by a Trustee. The problem is, the car is in both mine and my father's name (co-owners), I share an insurance policy with him, which is why it is like this.
So, I have numerous questions that I'm curious about everyone's thoughts on -- I of course will consult with a lawyer, but I also like to get as much input from people who've been through this as I can.
First, what are the odds of me even being accepted for chapter 7? I'm afraid of Chapter 13, only because I've been doing this repayment plan through a credit councellor for 1.5 years, and it just doesn't work, its causing me more stress than before I was on the plan. Does the fact that I am single, unmarried, have a good paying job, and don't own a home (I rent) mean that I won't likely be accepted for chapter 7?
Further, what are the odds that my car will be taken? The car is paid for in full (in fact, it was paid with cash, I had received a large stock payment from when we sold our company about 5 years ago, and paid for the car with that stock money) -- If they want to take the car, what implications are there for my father, since his name is on the car as well? I am willing to surrender the car, but the problem is I don't have the cash to be able to purchase a replacement cheaper car, thus, I would be stuck without a mode of transportation to work (public transportation isn't a real possibility for where I live and where my office is). I love the car, but would be willing to let it go if some kind of solution could be made so that I can still get to work without any period of interruption in my means of travel.
I'm also curious about how my payments to the credit councelling agency would appear to a trustee. I've read a lot about how people have to be not making any payments to creditors for a while prior to filing chapter 7, is this true? If I stop making payments, my bank account will balloon rather quickly (in just one month I would likely have about 2000$ in the account). Will this cause me to also be denied chapter 7? How does this all work? Can I still file now, even though I've been making monthly payments to the credit councelling service? I would of course drop myself from the program before filing, but I'm wondering how long I should wait before filing after dropping the program, and also, what implications the extra money in my bank account would be..
So, that's my scenario in a nutshell. I'm at my wit's end, I can't stand living paycheck to paycheck anymore, I can't afford to even persue a relationship with someone, so I've remained single throughout all of this, its really been killing me inside. I need a resolution sometime soon before I pop, and since the creditors aren't willing to negotiate what I pay them monthly, I think I'm left with one choice. Any insight into my concerns listed above would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
I am in an interesting situation which I plan to consult a bankruptcy lawyer about in the very near future, but am also interested in the experiences of others about this before I actually proceed. I'm at a "decision point" right now, and need to make a final decision.
In any case, to sum up my history -- I make about 60k a year, single, live alone, and have about 70k in credit card debt. Literally 100% of my debt is in credit cards, no medical or secured loans. I got myself into this situation attempting to start a business during the dot-com boom, and things went south during the dot-com bust. Since then I've been struggling to get myself back on my feet.
I've been on a credit councelling program for about 1.5 years now, and it has been going OK, however, every month I literally am left with about $200 to pay for food and gas after all bills are taken care of. I talked with my credit councelling service, and they told me to contact each creditor to see if they would allow the monthly deposit that is sent to them to be reduced, only 1 creditor agreed, and the difference was only $30 a month, which certainly won't help matters much. I'm sick of having 0$ in my account (or a negative ammt!) each month, and no ability to generate any kind of savings, so I feel that bankruptcy might be my only choice.
Before I got myself into this situation, I bought a very nice car (2001 Audi TT), which currently has about 100k miles on it. It is valued at about 14k blue book, so I suspect this would be the first item to be saught after by a Trustee. The problem is, the car is in both mine and my father's name (co-owners), I share an insurance policy with him, which is why it is like this.
So, I have numerous questions that I'm curious about everyone's thoughts on -- I of course will consult with a lawyer, but I also like to get as much input from people who've been through this as I can.
First, what are the odds of me even being accepted for chapter 7? I'm afraid of Chapter 13, only because I've been doing this repayment plan through a credit councellor for 1.5 years, and it just doesn't work, its causing me more stress than before I was on the plan. Does the fact that I am single, unmarried, have a good paying job, and don't own a home (I rent) mean that I won't likely be accepted for chapter 7?
Further, what are the odds that my car will be taken? The car is paid for in full (in fact, it was paid with cash, I had received a large stock payment from when we sold our company about 5 years ago, and paid for the car with that stock money) -- If they want to take the car, what implications are there for my father, since his name is on the car as well? I am willing to surrender the car, but the problem is I don't have the cash to be able to purchase a replacement cheaper car, thus, I would be stuck without a mode of transportation to work (public transportation isn't a real possibility for where I live and where my office is). I love the car, but would be willing to let it go if some kind of solution could be made so that I can still get to work without any period of interruption in my means of travel.
I'm also curious about how my payments to the credit councelling agency would appear to a trustee. I've read a lot about how people have to be not making any payments to creditors for a while prior to filing chapter 7, is this true? If I stop making payments, my bank account will balloon rather quickly (in just one month I would likely have about 2000$ in the account). Will this cause me to also be denied chapter 7? How does this all work? Can I still file now, even though I've been making monthly payments to the credit councelling service? I would of course drop myself from the program before filing, but I'm wondering how long I should wait before filing after dropping the program, and also, what implications the extra money in my bank account would be..
So, that's my scenario in a nutshell. I'm at my wit's end, I can't stand living paycheck to paycheck anymore, I can't afford to even persue a relationship with someone, so I've remained single throughout all of this, its really been killing me inside. I need a resolution sometime soon before I pop, and since the creditors aren't willing to negotiate what I pay them monthly, I think I'm left with one choice. Any insight into my concerns listed above would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
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