Considering Chapter 7

[Jess21]

Hello guys, I never would have though I would be writing this but I guess I have to. I am looking for guidance because I am complitely uneducated on this topic.  

Basically, I recently lost my job, we have a lot of cc debt and now that only my husband is working we cannot even afford the minimum payment on all of them. My best friend works for a bankruptcy attorney in PR and after talking to her I asked her if bankruptcy is something she recommends for us and she said yes.  Basically, most of the credit card debt is in my name,  but other are in my husbands name but I am an authorized user.  We have a house and a car payment.  Right now we are current in all of our bills but only one income (his) and I cannot go back to work anywhere soon due to medical issues. We want to keep the house and our vehicle,  it will be hard but we should be able to take care of that every month with his income.  We nay need to get rid of the cc debt though.

I guess some of my questions are,  

Can i file by myself so that my husband's credit isnt affected?

what happens to the cards that have a balance that are in my husbands name but im an authorized user?

can I transfer the balance in those cards (2) to one in my name before I file so that we can get rid of the most debt?

do i need to be delincuent on payments in order to file?

Thank you in advance

[redneck18]

Yes you can file in your name only.

Authorized User means just that, you are not liable for the debt therefore it can't be discharged if only you file (someone correct me here if I'm wrong). It may be best to actually remove yourself as an AU prior to filing.

The last two probably should be answered by an attorney. I would think your idea to do balance transfer would be borderline fraud and may be highly frowned upon but I'm no expert.

[Jess21]

Thank you.  I hadnt thought of it that way but it makes sense.  I mean it is all our debt but Ii would like to avoid both of our credit ruined

[redneck18]

Look for the thread "BK to 700 in two years" BK doesn't ruin your credit. It's like a complete reset, yes some lenders will make you wait months or even years post BK before they will look at you again, but my experience and reading the experience of others on here tell me it's most times easier to rebuild after a BK than just letting it age off. Consult an attorney or three, depending on your situation it may be best for you to file jointly with your husband. Even in BK you can reaffirm secured credit (house and car) so they are not affected.

[Jess21]

Thats my biggest thing,  I dont want to loose our house and we need our vehicle. 

[teddingt]

First I am not an Attorney.

Depending on your state and if they go by federal or state exemptions  I would say your house and car should be fine if you are up to date on payments.   The other is most Attorneys will give a free consult I would see what they say.  

The internet is a wonderfull thing but sometimes to much information will scare you to death.

Good luck.

[Jess21]

Thank you, right now we aren delinquent on anything, everything is up do date.  I just lost my job a month ago but when it comes to it, ill pay my mortgage first, not the cc

[Anonymous]

How much unsecured CC debt are you talking about? Sometimes it makes sense to file, sometimes you can get cc companies to work with you. A lot depends on your state exemptions, whose name is the house and car in?

There's not much to go on here. So my only thought is that you need to contact a bk attorney.

Filing in and of itself was pretty painless. I did have to come up with some cash to keep my car since it was over the exemption amount, thankfully I had just enough to do that. And I had to pay the bk attorney up front so make sure you have cash available to do that.

[Jess21]

Both the house and the van are in both our names. We owe about 20k in cc debt. No personal loans or anything like that. What is the exeption amount and how is that determined?