What to do? What to do?

[breezyday]

[AngelinaCatHub]

Welcome to the “everything is taken away” club. My credit was 820 when we got ourselves into our problems. Your credit rating will be blown on a bk anyway, so your hard part now is to make up your mind. Do not make your decision on sincerity, or pride, or history. Make it a strictly business decision as to how to become whole again and get a goods night sleep. We are at a point of our life where things should be comfortable and we ease through from here on. Kids grown, and out, house paid for, big fat retirement money, but no, “stuff” happens, and this is the real world. You must do now with what you have and not think of what could have been. Life is a Trip, enjoy the journey. Only worry about things you can do something about, then handle that, and don’t worry about things you have no control over, time will fix that. ‘Hub

[fltoo]

IMO, I would foreclose on the house and move to the place that makes you happy.

I would not do a BK on 18,000. of debt. Rentals are not that hard to get in this market.

Rent and pay off the credit cards.

Just me, but being a victim of the "everything is taken away club" is futile.
Nothing important is being taken away. You still have your resources.

[justplaintired]

Have you meet with any attorneys yet? Free consultations are very common and I would recommend that first. Meet with a few. Find out what they think your best option is, most all will be honest and tell you if they think BK is right for you.

If you BK you home and cc it will put you onto a fresh start. Even if your cc aren't that high, if you add in your home loans my guess is it will be worthwhile looking into BK. The foreclosure will be on your credit report and basically your will already have a black mark.

It's obvious from your story you can't keep going like you are. As long as you keep trying to work this all out using cc to live on you will dig your hole deeper and deeper and believe me it's not worth it.

You can rebuild your credit down the road if that's what your worried about, but if you live with all this stress you may ruin your health and debt isn't worth that. Take a deep breath, call some attorneys and get some professional opinions. You may be surprised there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

We are filing on a little over $30K in cc debt, not much by some peoples standards, but more then we can repay with high interest rates and a failing economy. We knew that if we were going to have any chance to survive this economy we needed a fresh start and BK is exactly that for us. This was a business decision for us plain and simple, we weren't going to keep robbing peter to pay paul. Learning to live like my grandparents and parents has actually been very rewarding and much less stressful.

[breezyday]

I had forgot to mention our rate is adjustable and will change on Sept 1st. After Sept 1st we will no longer be able to hang on at all!
My husband just talk to I think his title is debt officer or something like that at the bank.
A kid whom has no idea how life can bite.
This is a small bank in a small town and you would think you would receive some personal service.
He pretty much said No SHORT SALE and told us we would still lose since we had the 80/20 loan!
Makes me sick how he talk to my husband, whom is a retired military man.
Like at least show some respect!

Only thing I worry about is right now our credit card debt is at a very low interest rate.
After foreclosure it will jump from 3% interest to 29%.
So don’t matter how much extra we pay they will never get paid off!

The stress is effecting my health, I am seeing a therapist whom basely told me to run not walk away from a situation that is making you sick.
Sept 1st is our dead line for dealing with this!

[lrprn]

I had forgot to mention our rate is adjustable and will change on Sept 1st. After Sept 1st we will no longer be able to hang on at all! ... He pretty much said No SHORT SALE and told us we would still lose since we had the 80/20 loan! Sept 1st is our dead line for dealing with this!

Although it's very hard to think about, right now you and your wonderful husband (please thank him for his service to our country) are in a very tough spot.

If you decide to file bankruptcy (Ch 7 or Ch 13) and surrender the home voluntarily to foreclosure, filing bankruptcy will wipe out the 20% the bank is threatening you with *IF* you do NOT sign a reaffirmation agreement. Under the circumstances that may be your best option. The way to find that out is to meet with 3-4 experienced bankruptcy lawyers in your area - most give free initial consultations. You'll learn a great deal about what to expect if you do decide to file and where any potential problem areas might be.

Hang in there! We all have been in your shoes to some degree and know how hard this is. The worst is waking up to see how few options you have left, and you've already done that. Next was to find out if your bank would accept a short sale and they've shot that down.

Now it's time to find out what happens if you two file bankruptcy. I think you'll be relieved once you talk with a few lawyers to find out that it can solve your major financial problems with the home and give the two of you a fresh start back home with family and friends.

Come back and tell us what you find out, ok? And until then keep asking questions - we'll help you sort things out as best we can.

[breezyday]

We have about $2000. left in our poor broken savings account and a camper that is paid off. Thought about selling it but may have to live in for awhile!
In fact we may just take a break from life to recover.
Our kids are grown, so maybe travel a little.

Could I move the camper title into my son name to save it?
Shall I take the cash out of my savings account NOW?
What shall I do with it? Don’t want it setting around the house.

[AngelinaCat]

If you want to keep the camper, move it now into your son's name. You will need to wait at least 90 days, perhaps 180 or more, depending on state and district before you file. You want that transfer as far behind you as possible before you file. I'm not sure about the savings. You might want to buy some storable goods to have on hand. I will have to think a little more, but I'm sure someone else will come in with an idea.

Good luck.

PS: Please forgive my manners. Thank YOU AND your husband for your service to our Country!

[fltoo]

DO NOT transfer anything into anyone's name without checking with your attorney first!!!

My utmost respect to your hub and you for serving our nation.

[Flamingo]

We are the survivors too of a high income job loss from which my hubby could not recover. We did everything imaginable trying not to file and after using up all savings, hit my hubby's 401(k) (with bad advice from another BK forum - didn't know if this one existed in 2001) blew that and thankfully did not touch mine, then we started robbing Peter to pay Paul until I knew we could not hold out any longer (over one year after the job loss) as we were getting further in debt and my hubby just could not find a somewhat equal paying job anywhere. We then investigated filing after speaking to some attorney friends and others who filed. DON'T wait that long - you will just get further in debt. I know the downward spiral you are in and it just gets worse and it can cause all sorts of mental and physical issues for anyone involved. Call and get a free BK consultation with an attorney now and find out where you stand. Don't worry about what you want to do in the future right now - what you have to do right now is straighten out the mess you are in because, believe me, it won't go away on it's own.

[lrprn]

Could I move the camper title into my son name to save it?

DO NOT, repeat DO NOT change the title on the camper!! That is an insider transfer and can force you to wait to file at least a year, maybe more.

We also had a paid-off pop-up camper when we filed - value was about $3000. We figured our trustee would seize it for sale for sure. We're two years into our Ch 13 - haven't heard a peep. Our lawyer said that if we haven't heard anything now, we very likely won't and will finish our Ch 13 with our pop-up camper intact. It's just not worth our trustee's time to sell it - it's not worth enough to go through the trouble of seizing it. The same thing may happen in your case.

I beg you - DON'T transfer the title or sell any asset to ANYONE without getting good legal advice first about how it might affect your filing bk. What seems logical to us doesn't mean a thing in court - it's what the law says. The law, case law decisions, and local court customs decide everything in bankruptcy - common sense often isn't worth a bucket of warm spit and doing what seems logical can get you into all kinds of trouble.

Shall I take the cash out of my savings account NOW?

I assume you mean the $2000 in your savings account. How much you can leave in the account if you file depends on your state's bankruptcy exemptions. Some states allow fairly generous amounts of cash on filing day, where others don't allow much at all. If you tell us which state you're in, we can help you figure this out.

[Flamingo]

lrprn - your pop up campber may have been exempt under your state. Our small bass boat was and also our piano.

[JRScott]

In this instance Cat is wrong, listen to lrprn do not transfer any assets into any one else name. At the best the Trustee if you file will reverse them, at the worst he'll consider it bankruptcy fraud and you don't want that.

Good Luck see some bk attorneys and check on your options

[breezyday]

DO NOT, repeat DO NOT change the title on the camper!! That is an insider transfer and can force you to wait to file at least a year, maybe more.

We also had a paid-off pop-up camper when we filed - value was about $3000. We figured our trustee would seize it for sale for sure. We're two years into our Ch 13 - haven't heard a peep. Our lawyer said that if we haven't heard anything now, we very likely won't and will finish our Ch 13 with our pop-up camper intact. It's just not worth our trustee's time to sell it - it's not worth enough to go through the trouble of seizing it. The same thing may happen in your case.

I beg you - DON'T transfer the title or sell any asset to ANYONE without getting good legal advice first about how it might affect your filing bk. What seems logical to us doesn't mean a thing in court - it's what the law says. The law, case law decisions, and local court customs decide everything in bankruptcy - common sense often isn't worth a bucket of warm spit and doing what seems logical can get you into all kinds of trouble.

I assume you mean the $2000 in your savings account. How much you can leave in the account if you file depends on your state's bankruptcy exemptions. Some states allow fairly generous amounts of cash on filing day, where others don't allow much at all. If you tell us which state you're in, we can help you figure this out.

[AngelinaCat]

In this instance Cat is wrong, listen to lrprn do not transfer any assets into any one else name. At the best the Trustee if you file will reverse them, at the worst he'll consider it bankruptcy fraud and you don't want that.

Good Luck see some bk attorneys and check on your options

Hi JR and Everyone. I stand corrected, though I did say that the OP would have to wait a period of time before filing. But everyone is absolutely correct. Do NOT do anything without consulting with a BK attorney first. This could be mis-construed as a fraudulent transfer.