Well I feel better..sort of.
A quick review of my case:
70k credit card debt - roughly 7k in convenience checks used this year to survive - the last being around the end of June.
We have three cars:
Car #1: owe 9k and it's worth 9k
Car #2 paid for - worth about 2000
Car #3 - A restored vintage car with no motor or trans owe 3k - worth 8k
I was dreading calling to make the appts until one creditor called about 20 times (even my wife at work). That made it really easy.
Attorney #1 is a large firm that only does bankruptcies and they said we're a Chapter 7 case. We are 20 k below the median Said they could likely protect all but 3k of the vintage car and it would be no problem working out a deal with the trustee to pay the 3k post Chapter 7. I asked several times if the convenience checks would be a problem with the local trustees and was told no problem at all. They want to file around mid October. They didn't require a retainer and the total cost is $1400. They said I could give out their phone number to all creditors immediately without even giving them a retainer. I liked that part especially since my phone has gone brezerk after missing some payments a few weeks ago.
Attorney #2 is a small firm that is experienced but offers other legal services. He said basically the same thing that the cash advances were not a problem as long as they are outside the standard look back period. He thought we could file around Nov 1 and also mentioned that our trustees are easy to work with in this area. They quoted a cost of $1600.
They both want an appraisal of the car and if it were to come out higher than expected they said worst case we could do a Chapter 13 with small payments to protect the old car.
Based on all of the information on the forum I was really expecting to hear that we should wait longer because of the cash advances/convenience check issue. I wonder if the big increase in bk's this year has lessened creditor objections in this regard?
Also, I sure hope the trustee doesn't flip out over us keeping 3 cars but I suppose if most are protected by exemptions then it should be fine?
I hate to second guess the pros but I have to admit I'm still a bit nervous about this.
Anyway, after taking an enormous amount of information from the forum I wanted to offer my experience to try an give back a little.
I've learned that this is a process with different stages of emotion and when I get down in the dumps I keep reminding myself that better days are ahead.
A quick review of my case:
70k credit card debt - roughly 7k in convenience checks used this year to survive - the last being around the end of June.
We have three cars:
Car #1: owe 9k and it's worth 9k
Car #2 paid for - worth about 2000
Car #3 - A restored vintage car with no motor or trans owe 3k - worth 8k
I was dreading calling to make the appts until one creditor called about 20 times (even my wife at work). That made it really easy.
Attorney #1 is a large firm that only does bankruptcies and they said we're a Chapter 7 case. We are 20 k below the median Said they could likely protect all but 3k of the vintage car and it would be no problem working out a deal with the trustee to pay the 3k post Chapter 7. I asked several times if the convenience checks would be a problem with the local trustees and was told no problem at all. They want to file around mid October. They didn't require a retainer and the total cost is $1400. They said I could give out their phone number to all creditors immediately without even giving them a retainer. I liked that part especially since my phone has gone brezerk after missing some payments a few weeks ago.
Attorney #2 is a small firm that is experienced but offers other legal services. He said basically the same thing that the cash advances were not a problem as long as they are outside the standard look back period. He thought we could file around Nov 1 and also mentioned that our trustees are easy to work with in this area. They quoted a cost of $1600.
They both want an appraisal of the car and if it were to come out higher than expected they said worst case we could do a Chapter 13 with small payments to protect the old car.
Based on all of the information on the forum I was really expecting to hear that we should wait longer because of the cash advances/convenience check issue. I wonder if the big increase in bk's this year has lessened creditor objections in this regard?
Also, I sure hope the trustee doesn't flip out over us keeping 3 cars but I suppose if most are protected by exemptions then it should be fine?
I hate to second guess the pros but I have to admit I'm still a bit nervous about this.
Anyway, after taking an enormous amount of information from the forum I wanted to offer my experience to try an give back a little.
I've learned that this is a process with different stages of emotion and when I get down in the dumps I keep reminding myself that better days are ahead.