sinking ship

[Anonymous]

I'll get straight to the point.

 I have come upon hard times. I have divorced and have those bills and I also have recent medical bill due to lapse in insurance.

 Due to my surgery I had to cut my hours at my job and then eventually move to a lower impact job causing me to have less pay.

Im considering filing chapter 7 as it will take me years to pay the debt off and if Im going to be sued I assume filing will lessen that sting.

 heres a breakdown of what I owe.

 50k in medical bills.

 27k car loan (repo)

25k credit card

60k student loan

I'm showing 10k in collection right now on my report but I have medical bills coming in on notice to be sent to collections.

When I switched jobs I thought my insurance would back date the difference since it was a 2 month time frame. Come to find out they did not do this and surgery couldnt be added to my now insurance.  

My income has went from 100k to 20k. I hoping to be able to get my income back up within 4 years but as of right now I cant make the payments on my bills and then my home and daily cost to live.

  If they would accept smaller payments like 30$ on each account I could wait it out but my student loans are 500+ alone. Im afraid that if I keep paying everything the car loan and medical bills will sue me and I just cant afford the lump sum payments to keep them at bay. 

I'm just at a stand still and it seems like I am drowning but I'd hate to give in and the shore is up ahead.  

Any suggestions on how to wait this out for 4 years or chapter 7 looks inevitable as they will come to collect. 

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

You do realize the student loans are almost certainly not dischargable, so you will still have to pay those, right?

That said, you are the person for whom the bankruptcy laws were written.   You need to file.   However, you need to make sure that all the bad news has hit before you do -- because once you file, you can't file again for seven more years.   What I mean is if you were to file now, and then another medical problem hits in three months, you can't discharge that debt for seven more years.   If I were you, I would file and then make sure you can pay that student loan and also get some Obamacare insurance before that option vanishes.   At 20K in income you shuld not have to pay very much (if anything) for coverage.

Good luck.   I'm happy to help advise you in any way I can.

[Anonymous]

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@CH-7-Mission-Accomplished wrote:

You do realize the student loans are almost certainly not dischargable, so you will still have to pay those, right?

That said, you are the person for whom the bankruptcy laws were written.   You need to file.   However, you need to make sure that all the bad news has hit before you do -- because once you file, you can't file again for seven more years.   What I mean is if you were to file now, and then another medical problem hits in three months, you can't discharge that debt for seven more years.   If I were you, I would file and then make sure you can pay that student loan and also get some Obamacare insurance before that option vanishes.   At 20K in income you shuld not have to pay very much (if anything) for coverage.

Good luck.   I'm happy to help advise you in any way I can.

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^^^all of this

I almost never tell someone to file right off the bat, but I absolutely would if I were you. Just make sure everything medical is behind you, and DO NOT go without insurance post BK as you will be stuck with any new medical debt incurred.

[Anonymous]

Being married to a bankruptcy attorney, I want to first say that you CAN discharge student loans, IF they are federal. It is EXTREMELY (and I mean extremely) difficult though, and most people don't qualify. You need to prove extreme (not to be redundant) hardship, and proving that takes years of fighting the courts. That being said, being able to discharge the other debt would allow you to at least be able to tackle only one type of debt. I agree with the other posters 100% that making sure all the medical debts have hit and insuring yourself for further down the road is critical. Filing and taking a huge chunk of that debt will give you a sense of relief that I can only imagine how good it will feel.