Thinking about a Chapter 13

[kimw8083]

My Husband and I are most likelygoing to have to file we want to file chapter 13, we have about 23,000 secure loans at a credit union, 6,800 secure at a finance company and about 3,000 in hospital bills.
My husband also has another secure loan in his name that we do not pay so we did not want to put that in our bankruptcy, we do not have a mortgage and we do not want to loose any of our stuff we want to pay for it.
So my question is filing under chapter 13 do we have to worry about loosing are vechicels and can we not put the other secure loan in the bankruptcy and what kind of payment would this much debt inquirer?

[AngelinaCat]

Hi Kim:

Welcome to the forum. I moved your question into a thread of it's own so that it cab be more easily seen. You will find plenty of supportive and helpful people here. Good luck to you!

[kimw8083]

I go see a lawyer Tuesday and I need to know what I need to take for the initial consultation, do I just need to take my husbands and my credit report or do I need to take other things?

[InOverHead]

The Attorney i saw asked me to bring Last two paystubs (but would need 6 months eventually) and Average monthly expenses report. In addition i brought to the meeting my Full Credit report.

You must include all debts in your BK.

[kjrmom911]

Kim, we took in the amount of money we owed unsecured creditors;how much our cars were worth, how much income we made over the lasst 6 months, how much we owed in unsecured debt, and for us how much income tax we owed. We did not take a credit report. The first meeting was just an overview to see where we were at financially and what the lawyer felt they could do for us.

[kimw8083]

How do I go about getting all this information, do I need to go to my creditors for the payout balance I am so confused, How do I find out how much are cars are worth!

[momofthree]

Do you have an unsecured debt aside from the $3000 medical? Filing bankruptcy will not help you much if you don't have much unsecured debt and aren't trying to protect a home....

[kimw8083]

Why will it not help me?I am trying to get my monthly payments lowered so I can afford them.

[kimw8083]

Will Bankruptcy help with secure loans?

All I really have is secure loans what can bankruptcy do to help me!

[lillymarlene]

You could get a credit report to maybe check for inaccuracies and to help you in compiling your list of creditors. I brought one to my first consults in case I needed to refer to it.

[lrprn]

@kimw8083....we can see you are upset, scared, and frustrated. You are asking questions that are hard to answer given the little information you've given us. Slow down and take some deep breaths. We will help you sort things out, promise!

First of all, how much a potential Ch 13 payment might be isn't based directly on your actual debts, income, and living expenses but on a very complex set of cross-comparisons on the required Means Test that determines how much disposable income you have to support a Ch 13 plan.

It will help a lot if you can share the following:
- Why do you want to file Ch 13 (reorganize debts and repay at least part of them) rather than Ch 7 (discharge the unsecured debts in full)?
- What is your family size? (You =1, husband = 2, do you have children under 18 living in your home at least half the time?)
- Are you supporting one or more persons older than 18 in your home?
- When you combine both your incomes from all sources from the last six calendar months (November 1, 2010 to April 30, 2011), what's the total? (We're not asking to be nosy but because knowing this helps us make a very rough initial guess if you can qualify to file Ch 13 or not.)
- What secured assets are included in your credit union and finance company loans?
- What secured assets do you want to keep? Do you plan on surrendering any assets when you file?
- Are you behind in your car payments or mortgage payments right now? If yes, how many payments are you behind on the cars and/or house?

This is just a start. If you can provide us with this information to get the ball rolling, it would help us help you sort things out better and faster.

If you haven't set up 3-4 free initial consultations with experienced bankruptcy lawyers in your area yet, then it's time now to do that.

Right now start by focusing on gathering all your financial information together. You can use your online access to your loans, credit cards, bills, etc. to print out copies or use the paper copies that come to you in the mail. Pull your free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp to get a listing of your debts (although it may be missing some, especially older debts or debts that have been sold multiple times. Please use this site only - other sites can be frauds or try to charge you.) Save all your paycheck stubs and documentation for any other sources of income. Start saving receipts for all your daily living expenses - groceries, gas, clothes, etc. Pulling all this together is priority one right now.

Most of us were very stressed and very scared too when we started thinking about filing bankruptcy. We're here to help (although we can't give you legal advice - 99.9% of us aren't lawyers and the few who are aren't representing you.)

I hope this gives you some hope and direction to overcome the fear of the journey ahead. Hang in there. We're here for you!

[lrprn]

kimw083, I merged another thread you started today with a related question with this thread so all your answers will be in one place. I addressed your question about secured assets in my long and detailed reply in this combined thread.

[kimw8083]

Thank you so much IRPN
1- I would like to repay as much as I can
2- family size 5
3- Not supporting anyone over 18
4-around 16,200.00 for the past 6 months
5- Truck-Credit Union, Car- Finance company, Comp,T.V,game Station and other little things at the house with finance company
6- I would like to keep it all, but I dont know if that is possible
7- I just got behind on 1 truck payment. which I am trying to make up now.
Thank You for helping me !

[LadyInTheRed]

kimw8083, your annual income is far below the median income of $70574 for a family of 5 in South Carolina. You are unlikely to be able to show you can fund a Chap 13. You should be considering a Chap 7.

You need to take a close look at your budget and decide whether you can really afford to keep the car and truck. If you file a Chap 7, the finance company is very unlikely to repossess the computer, tv and game station. Is the car loan with the same finance company as the loan for the electronics? What is the balance of the loan on the car and the value of the car? It sounds like $23,000 is the debt on the truck. What is the value of the truck? How long have you had the car and truck?

For values, go to kbb.com and get the private party value and nada.com for a retail value. Different trustee's accept different sources of value. But, those two will give you a range.

[kimw8083]

No the car loan is on a different loan, one by itself, the truck was financed for 16500.00 and we have been paying on it for a little over a year it is my husbands only means of transportation.
The balance on the car loan is 4500.00 and it was paid for but my husband used it as collateral for his other loan. per kbb the value of the car in excellent condition is 6700.00 but it is no where near excellent condition,the value of the truck is 20565.00 per kbb.
I really would prefer to pay my loans off that I got instead of filing chapter 7 but I going to talk to a lawyer Tue so I really wanted to here what his input is.