Attorney Costs

[toxicdebt]

I am trying to debate between foreclosure and Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. I took the means test last night, and I do qualify. I have approximately 22k in credit card debt and no equity in my home or car. I want to get a good attorney, but I am wondering what the approximate attorney costs would be. What did you guys pay?

[TEW]

1500 including filing fees.
about half of my MIN CC payments a month.

[Clover329]

I paid $299 for the filing fee and $1501 to my atty for a total of $1800. I've heard that other atty's charge upwards of $2500 or a %age of your debt.

I asked the atty how I could pay that and he said that once people realize they dont have to pay their debts, they somehow find the $$ to pay the atty.

I only stopped paying my cc's after that convo. I was current with my min paymnets up to that point.

[AfraidOfBK]

Clover,
How much time passed between when you stopped paying CC's to when you filed? I am planing to file in July and am still paying CC's but not charging on them (I am missing mortgage pmt too, so the money I save from that is covering expenses now).

I did charge on one CC in the last few weeks.....should I pay the min pmt on that CC and then miss them all until filing? I can deal with creditor calls, and am in the process of changing banks so BofA doesn't take my money to pay the CC....what else is there to worry about? Does it save my credit any better if I stay current?

[2live]

Also Chap 7 paying 1440.00 including filing fees, x2 classes. I live in Texas--western district.

[jgw]

I talked to an attorney and his cost is $1100 including filing fee.

[ecsclb1724]

I just had an apt. today and it was $1299 for everything

[sadandconfus]

mine was around 2400 including everything, fees, classes and he comes to the 341 meeting. i live on the east coast.

[Clover329]

Clover,
How much time passed between when you stopped paying CC's to when you filed? I am planing to file in July and am still paying CC's but not charging on them (I am missing mortgage pmt too, so the money I save from that is covering expenses now).

I did charge on one CC in the last few weeks.....should I pay the min pmt on that CC and then miss them all until filing? I can deal with creditor calls, and am in the process of changing banks so BofA doesn't take my money to pay the CC....what else is there to worry about? Does it save my credit any better if I stay current?

I talked to my lawyer in early December. Filled out my paperwork and gave it to him about early Feb. We filied on March 20th. I stopped making cc payments in early Dec. I started to get nasty-grams from the creditors about the end of Jan. I ignored about 75% of the calls (sometimes 1 an hour). Those that I did answer I gave them my lawyers phone # and told them i would be filing BK. Since it has only been about a week and a half, I still get an occasional email, but probably because the creditors haven't updated their system yet.

My FICO scores dropped significantly after I stopped paying the cc's.
On 10/24/08 my scores were:
TU - 650
EQ - 620
EX - 597

On 02/12/09 they were:
TU - 531
EQ - 486
EX - 498

I haven't pulled my scores lately, but I'm sure they are a little worse and will probably drop even more when I'm discharged.

Not paying my cc's freed up extra money to pay my atty & keep my other bills current. BK is going to kill your credit anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it right now. If you don't mind your FICO dropping before BK, then stop paying your cc's. If you do pay them tho, make sure you do not pay one creditor more than any other one as that could be looked at negatively by the trustee as favoritism (forgot the other term).

STOP using your cards!!! DO NOT Charge anything anymore. Cut them up and delete the numbers from any online accounts you have.

I did have to pay one cc and a line of credit in January because my bank froze all my accounts and I couldn't access my $$ at all. That was a *****, but I on;y paid the minimum.

Sorry for the ramblings. Basically, I would suggest stop paying your cc's and use that $ to pay your atty amd stay current with other bills or loans that you want to reaffirm. Double check with your atty before doing this tho.

Good Luck & Hang in there!
Clover

[willbfree]

Atty fees including filing fees were $2950 for a Ch 7. The two BK classes were not included in that price.

[toxicdebt]

Thanks Clover329. That is the dilemma I am dealing with right now. I have an appointment w/ an attorney on the 15th, so I am wondering if I should stop paying my cc's or pay bare-minimum until after the appt. My mortgage I can pay on the day of the appointment and only be assessed a nominal late fee.

Not paying my cc's freed up extra money to pay my atty & keep my other bills current. BK is going to kill your credit anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it right now. If you don't mind your FICO dropping before BK, then stop paying your cc's. If you do pay them tho, make sure you do not pay one creditor more than any other one as that could be looked at negatively by the trustee as favoritism (forgot the other term).

STOP using your cards!!! DO NOT Charge anything anymore. Cut them up and delete the numbers from any online accounts you have.

I did have to pay one cc and a line of credit in January because my bank froze all my accounts and I couldn't access my $$ at all. That was a *****, but I on;y paid the minimum.

Sorry for the ramblings. Basically, I would suggest stop paying your cc's and use that $ to pay your atty amd stay current with other bills or loans that you want to reaffirm. Double check with your atty before doing this tho.

Good Luck & Hang in there!
Clover

[inpain66]

1500.00

I had to starve to come up with it fast

[novayalife]

$1500 and that included the filing fees. Was pretty easy to come up with since i was saving almost 800 a month not paying credit cards and also with my tax return back.

[DebtStinks]

I met with like 10+ attorneys and it ranged from $950 to $3500 for a chapter 7. I ended up going with my favorite attorney and he was $2000.

[jeb]

$1250.00 + filing fees.

I am in central Florida and very happy with my attorney. - jb