Florida BK Questions-one spouse file

[KatCantPay]

I'm not sure this is the right catagory for this post, but I have several questions.

We are current on all debt, but can't/won't be for long. We have 40,000+ in CC debt! Some of it is from large purchases, but most is wal-mart/gas/clothes/dr bills debt.
After all bills are paid each month we have about 350 bucks TOTAL.
This is all we have for groceries/gas! So we use our credit cards...they're about full now and I'm quite upset.

Most of the credit is in my name, my DH is an authroized user but they are my cards. He has one card from Rooms to Go, and the payment is only 60 bucks a month and no intrest. We bought bedroom furniture for our sons. It's a year old.

I am a stay at home mom with a hobby business. I make a few hundred bucks a month, but my husband is the only real earner, and I used his "household" income on the credit aps (most I've had for 5+ years)

Question #1 We have a $225,000 mortgage, current, never more than 1 day late. We've had this mortgage for about a year also. The intrest rate is 6.8. I'd like to do a stream line refi on it, and get the rate down a bit, we get letters about doing this all the time, some say as low as 4%? I should do this ASAP, before BK right? I would like to do this because even if we discharge our debt, with our current mortgage money would be pretty tight.

Question #2 We have one car, title in hand...it's worth about 6 grand I guess.
It should be in husbands name only. I don't even have a DL! Would it be considered ours because it's our family car?

Question #3 We have some nice items in our household, but nothing to fancy. IE, a nice tv ( a year old), a decent computer( 6 months old) Some decent furniture, but it shows signs of wear. How do I value things? and if I file only does that effect what I have to list as assets, because they also belong to my husband/family? Would things that are MINE, like clothes and such only be counted We also have an ATV, and an old tractor which we need for our country land, we purchased both of these items used from a friend, these are also my DH's...not mine. If we even have titles for these, they shouldn't have my name on them.

Mostly I'm worried about losing our car, (we love that car and we can't afford a new car payment even it debt is discharged), and the atv (we live in the country down a long dirt lane and need to have it for certain things)

We meet means test for our area, so I'd like to file 7.

Thanks for any input you guys have, I've read quite a bit but this is my first post.

Kat

[KatCantPay]

no one? I'm really losing sleep over this. I have read a bit here and there but get no real answers for my exact sitsuation. My DH is scared to file and I want to be able to help him to understand the process so we can move forward with a decision.
Thanks.

[keepmine]

Similar questions have been answered over and over.

Yes, you are allowed to file individually without your husband.
Any sort of refi needs to be done prior to filing.
You list only your property. If you are not on the title of the car or the atv, it's not yours.
Nobody wants old consumer goods. VAlue it at basically garage sale prices.

Big thing here is life post bk. If, you intend to file stop paying all debt you wish to discharge and see if you can make ends meet without access to credit. Be absolutely sure you can afford that mortgage post bk.

Your husbands income will be used for means testing purposes but, the martial adjustment kicks in and he's allowed to deduct his contributions to hh expenses {sounds like he pays for nearly everything-so no big deal} and debts he is responsible for paying.
I'd suggest you see if you can refi that mortgage ASAP. If you can't,your obligation to pay will be discharged but, your husband will be on the hook post bk.
Most bk lawyers give free or lowcost initial consultations. Speak with a few and see what they say.

[KatCantPay]

Thanks for the reply. I know I probably posted this in the wrong cat.

We meet the means test no problem, we are a family of 5. DH makes about $52000. I just started my home based and make a few hundred here and there. Hopefully that will grow, but you never know.

Our current mortgage with taxes and insurance is $2000. The insurance will go down now that we are homesteaded, and property values fell a bit so that's a savings of $100 a month after the new tax rate. The new refi (if I can get close to what they are quoting) would save us $200-300 a month. Supposedly the streamline refi will not need a credit check to complete.

Also considering the Obama plan, which could get us even lower...but not sure about that one.

So, anyway if I didn't have to pay the current credit bills AND got the refi we should be fine. I do all my shopping at Wal-Mart, and we eat at home 5-6 nights a week. I can budget most of this and keep it low enough.
Our other household bills are around $700, which I am also working on lowering, but realistically it won't budge much.

Also I'm thinking if we didn't have my high limit credit cards then we couldn't make stupid purchases and run them back up. It would force us to grow up and use a budget, and save what we can. Something we should have been doing for the last 10 years.

I'm VERY thankful that my DH's job is secure. I know we have it easy compared to some others. But, to me, this is very upsetting and stressful, it causes alot of tension in our household.

Last year we came into this house with blinders on, just wanting to get out here in the country so bad we thought we could afford it. I wish I would have done a loan refi or loan mod months ago, when I first before the debt got so far gone.

Oh well I suppose I've learned something.

Anyway, thanks again for the reply.
I hope I get a few others as I really am looking for reasurance I guess. Sorry to sound needy. lol.

Kat

[paradiddle]

what little I know

I'm not sure this is the right catagory for this post, but I have several questions.

We are current on all debt, but can't/won't be for long. We have 40,000+ in CC debt! Some of it is from large purchases, but most is wal-mart/gas/clothes/dr bills debt.
After all bills are paid each month we have about 350 bucks TOTAL.
This is all we have for groceries/gas! So we use our credit cards...they're about full now and I'm quite upset.

Most of the credit is in my name, my DH is an authroized user but they are my cards. He has one card from Rooms to Go, and the payment is only 60 bucks a month and no intrest. We bought bedroom furniture for our sons. It's a year old.

I am a stay at home mom with a hobby business. I make a few hundred bucks a month, but my husband is the only real earner, and I used his "household" income on the credit aps (most I've had for 5+ years)

Question #1 We have a $225,000 mortgage, current, never more than 1 day late. We've had this mortgage for about a year also. The intrest rate is 6.8. I'd like to do a stream line refi on it, and get the rate down a bit, we get letters about doing this all the time, some say as low as 4%? I should do this ASAP, before BK right? I would like to do this because even if we discharge our debt, with our current mortgage money would be pretty tight.

Question #2 We have one car, title in hand...it's worth about 6 grand I guess.
It should be in husbands name only. I don't even have a DL! Would it be considered ours because it's our family car?

Question #3 We have some nice items in our household, but nothing to fancy. IE, a nice tv ( a year old), a decent computer( 6 months old) Some decent furniture, but it shows signs of wear. How do I value things? and if I file only does that effect what I have to list as assets, because they also belong to my husband/family? Would things that are MINE, like clothes and such only be counted We also have an ATV, and an old tractor which we need for our country land, we purchased both of these items used from a friend, these are also my DH's...not mine. If we even have titles for these, they shouldn't have my name on them.

Mostly I'm worried about losing our car, (we love that car and we can't afford a new car payment even it debt is discharged), and the atv (we live in the country down a long dirt lane and need to have it for certain things)

We meet means test for our area, so I'd like to file 7.

Thanks for any input you guys have, I've read quite a bit but this is my first post.

Kat

What little I know. I'm in Fla with you and have met with 2 different atty's in order to plan for BK. They will see you for free for one visit.

CC - 2 users - both will be responsible for the debt. They will come after both. If you go BK, then they will come after DH (what is DH?). They could wage garnish the DH, but the DH could claim head of household and get exemption.