Total debt question

[slappy]

Hello, I just found this forum this week and it's awesome. I am going to file for bankruptcy later next month. I'm searching for attorneys currently. I have a few questions for everyone. Number one, over the last 1.5--2 years, I've accumulated credit card debt of about 2.5 times my annual income. I haven't used any of the cards for about 1 year now. Will I have trouble with the trustee meeting considering my high debt to income ratio?

Next, 2 of the credit cards are Home depot and Lowes totaling about $17,000. I charged a bunch of items about 15 months ago(0%. no payments for a year) with the intentions of flipping real estate. The real estate market took a dump and the guy who was going to finance the projects backed out. I wound up selling the items for whatever I could get(which wasn't a whole lot). The selling of the items took place about 8-9 months ago. Is this going to cause me any trouble?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks

[MomIcantFindmy]

I would not worry too much about it. The credit company is the one who has to prove fraud. It isn't an easy thing to do. They were the ones that offered the no payment, no interest for 12 deal. As long as you didn't lie on your application at the time you filled it out you are probably fine!

[lrprn]

Will I have trouble with the trustee meeting considering my high debt to income ratio?

If your total unsecured debt adds up to over $100,000, then the US trustee may take a closer look at your case. If there's nothing unusual there (and from your description of your situation, there isn't), then you should be fine.

2 of the credit cards are Home depot and Lowes totaling about $17,000. I charged a bunch of items about 15 months ago(0%. no payments for a year) with the intentions of flipping real estate. The real estate market took a dump and the guy who was going to finance the projects backed out. I wound up selling the items for whatever I could get(which wasn't a whole lot). The selling of the items took place about 8-9 months ago. Is this going to cause me any trouble?

Depends on if the items you charged are considered secured or not. Take a look at the original cc agreements you signed to see how Home Depot and Lowe's consider items charged on their cards.

Given the time frame you describe, HD or Lowe's would have to prove you charged the money with no intent to ever repay it. Given your circumstances, that would be almost impossible to prove.

[slappy]

Thanks for the responses so far, it is appreciated. My total debt is approximately $120,000. My income last year was $43,000. 1/3 of that debt is a chase card, which I haven't used since December of 2006. They filed a lawsuit against me in August of 2007 and it has been tied up in court since then.

[poor@budgeting]

I believe there is a threshold(high) for unsecured debt, either for single or joint filer.
Based on your time frame, I don't think you would have any issues.
BTW, are you making payments(at least minimum) to CC's?

[slappy]

I was making payments on most of the cards up until November of 2007. It got to be too much and had a kid on the way. Chase had already filed the lawsuit and I started to weigh my options at that point.

[sisterfunkhaus]

We have $250,000 in debt with a small income. We had zero questions about it from the trustee. No creditors came to our 341 either. Our attorney said she anticipates no problems from the US trustee either and would have already have gotten a heads up about if there was a problem. We accrued the debt over many many years and have not charged in 2 years, so that may help our case.