@Anonymous wrote:
Hi Everyone,
As the subject says (because I couldn't think of anything catchy) I'm new here and trying to figure out where to start. Long story short, my spouse was injured and had about 2 years worth of rehabbing from the injury and while trying to find work, has been striking out. During that time, we pretty much robbed peter to pay paul. We relocated across the country for my job and recently sold our house through shortsale because it didn't move after a year of sitting on the market. The economy where we used to live tanked badly and took the housing market with it.
The only way they would agree to the shortsale was if we stopped paying on the mortgage....finally that is over and done with. But being the only income in the house, the medical issues, the house, moving etc, we had to bail on the credit cards within the last year. My spouse has around 15k in card debt, I have about 5k. Some of those debts were charged off and are now with debt collectors. I'm just about at the point where I can start finally throwing a little money at these collections, but I don't know which will be the better in the long run or even WHERE to start. The only thing I've done so far is ignore the phone calls. My spouse wants to file CH7, but I'm not sure if that's going to be better in the long run than trying to settle the debts. The ultimate goal is to be able to mortgage a house again, because I do NOT like renting. Prior to the accident, our credit was perfect and was up until the last 15 months or so....but things happen and we have to make some hard choices.
Can you all point me to where I can read some info and make some decisions or point me in the right direction? I'm kind of ....lost....
First of all, welcome to the forum. So happy you joined us. Members here are happy to help and share their idea and experiences. My experience is not enough like yours to offer any help. I filed a Chapter 13 in 2008 and now my credit has completely recovered so it can happen. Maybe not as fast as we would like it to, though. Filing for bankruptcy is not the end of the world. In fact, for many of us here, it was a new beginning.
Good luck to you in your choices and I am sure you will get some much needed ideas.
