I have student debt, govt and private, and I've researched student debt and talked to 2 BK lawyers. Student loans are not dischargable unless you're physically disabled and can't work to pay it (as someone else has already noted here), then the court might disharge it. My experience from talking to 2 BK attorneys is they want you to file because that's how they make a living. I don't think they're looking out for your best interests but rather their own. (I lost $800 to a BK attorney last week when I made a down payment fto file then decided not to file. He's still encouraging me to file so he can get another $1000 from me..) I've got much more debt than you, $32K in cc debt, 6K in private student loan, and $54K in federal student loan. And I'm unemployed. I may end up in BK, but for now I'll keep trying to pull out of this whlle I try to get a job.
I agree with others that you don't have that much dischargable debt, less than $9k. It doesn't seem it's in your best interest to file. Your federal students loans will give you hardship deferrements. for 3 years, not counting unemployment deferments if needed.Your private student loans may be willing to help in some way. Have you tried negotating with your CC companies? I negotiated some of my cc accounts way down. Bank of America dropped my 29.9 percent interest on $10k down to 4 percent and dropped another card with $5k down from 29 percent to 6 percent. Citibank dropped 10K in debt that was 29.9 percent down to 10 percent. I had a good payment record, and sounds like you do to, and it seems like that helps when negotiating. Good luck to you!
From my experience and what I've read, most cc companies will close your account if you have debt you want to negotiated the interest rate down on. So I closed my accounts myself before I negotiated the lower interest rate so that it shows on my cc report that the accounts were closed by consumer. Closed by cc company is a negative, so you may want to close the accounts yourself before negotiating with them. If that fails, there are companies to help. See this Consumer Reports report on this issue. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/money/credit-loan/negotiating-with-your-creditors/overview/negoti...
