Rebuilding with a Foreclosure Question

[Anonymous]

Up until 2009 I had perfect credit. After April of 2009, I lost my job and got divorced. The marital home went into foreclosure, I could not longer pay a credit card bill (large balance), there was a second mortgage that also went unpaid and several medical bills were turned over for collection.

I have recently remarried and desperately want to repair my credit. However, the debt is so large that I am considering Bankruptcy. The medical bills and credit card Judgments that I now have against me is about $15,000. I could struggle for the next several years to pay this off, but my concern is the foreclosure. To date, I have not received any communication about a deficiency balance on the mortgage loan and the second mortgage was written off to bad debt. Because it happened in the down market, the deficiency is around $100K.

I would like opinions as to your thoughts on just filing Bankruptcy or paying off the judgments and hope that the mortgage issues do not arise in the future. I am very torn on what to do.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Up until 2009 I had perfect credit. After April of 2009, I lost my job and got divorced. The marital home went into foreclosure, I could not longer pay a credit card bill (large balance), there was a second mortgage that also went unpaid and several medical bills were turned over for collection.

I have recently remarried and desperately want to repair my credit. However, the debt is so large that I am considering Bankruptcy. The medical bills and credit card Judgments that I now have against me is about $15,000. I could struggle for the next several years to pay this off, but my concern is the foreclosure. To date, I have not received any communication about a deficiency balance on the mortgage loan and the second mortgage was written off to bad debt. Because it happened in the down market, the deficiency is around $100K.

I would like opinions as to your thoughts on just filing Bankruptcy or paying off the judgments and hope that the mortgage issues do not arise in the future. I am very torn on what to do.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

BK should give you some room to breath.  But it appears from your previous history, not including the foreclosure, your spending habits need to be curbed.  I've filed bankruptcy for a couple friends, and they managed to do very well afterward.  But they also changed how they used credit. 

You may also want to call up the collection agencies and see if they will settle the amounts.  With BK they'll get nothing.  I did a short sale on my home last year.  I went to a couple lawyers who told me to file BK.  Glad I didn't listen to them.  I'd only want to file BK if I was dying from debt.  Good luck.