BK Pre-planning? Help?

[AlohaAZ]

My wife and I ran into deep, deeeeeep debt. It’s out of control.

(Too many CCs, lines of credit...its B A D y’all. Real bad) anyways, So much so we are now considering filing for BK....we’ve had to let all CCs go because we cant afford them on top of our regular bills.

We plan on meeting an attorney the first of the year Jan 2020 (that’s when my legal plan starts—it pays for a BK attorney thankfully!) my wife and I think that paying off our Ashley’s furniture (synchrony) balance til Paid in full is a good idea to feel like we’ve at least done some good...we have 500$ left) but reading some forums it seems like that wouldn’t be advised especially since we can’t afford any other CCs/lines of credit...?

What advice/steps should we be taking leading up to meeting with an attorney and filing? I’ve been researching and reading so much to educate myself but doesn’t hurt to ask “what did you do before you met an attorney?” And should I not keep paying my monthly synchrony furniture bill?

[justbroke]

Welcome to BKForum.

The thing about "preferring" one creditor over the other, is that you are choosing. In bankruptcy, the Trustee can undue those transfers (payments) so that the other creditors can enjoy the payments. But, it really doesn't affect you personally. It only affects the creditor that you preferred. It affects them because the Trustee will "claw back" the money from them, in order to distribute it among all the creditors.

In general, if you're already insolvent and can't afford things, paying off a credit card or continuing to pay, when you really have no money, is simply... unwise. It doesn't help anything. It doesn't make. you more preferred by the creditor. If you're going to be filing bankruptcy then you should have already stopped paying "unsecured" creditors at some point in time (or at the time of deciding to file).

Now, I say to stop paying "unsecured" creditors, that makes paying Synchrony a special case. Just about every single furniture store card makes every single purchase an "secured" debt. When you purchase, you grant a "purchase money security interest" (PMSI) in the items that you are purchasing until paid in full.

For your specific example only, a furniture credit card with a PMSI, I say to continue to pay if you can afford to do so.

[AlohaAZ]

Thank you so much for the response! It helped alleviate that concern we had