What would you do?

[pitts48]

I retired 10 years ago from my former employer with a pension and social security and a small 401K fund. Recently my former employer filed chapter 11 bankruptcy and it wiped out my pension. Now I have to get by on my social security check. I have about $60,000 in credit card debt and have a motor home that I have been paying on for 9 years which I can't sell because I owe about $10,000 more on it than its current value. I have considered filing chapter 7 bankruptcy and have retained an attorney and have completed the pre BK debt counseling and are waiting for the 6 month window before filing to clear out a 401K withdraw I made to cover some expenses (didn't know that I would be filing), but I have mixed feelings about doing it. I have thought about going back to work and trying to pay off some of my debt but I am 75 years old and not sure if I could get a decent job or if my health would stand up to it. What would you do? I appreciate your opinion.

[keepmine]

No way on this earth would I start working at your age just to pay cc debt.
File your bk and then maybe get a pt job and use the money to supplement SS. You need to take care of yourself first.

[HHM]

I agree, I wouldn't go back to work. Even if you could go back to work, realistically, how much extra would you have to pay down the credit card debt.

Your minimum payments alone are what...$1,200 to $1,500. If you paid $1,200 per month until you were out of debt (assuming a 9% interest rate), it would take you 63 months to pay that debt off.

If I were you, I would stay the course with the BK, it's seems to be the best option.

[niteflytes]

I filed BK to get out from under a mobile home that I owed more on than it was worth and because of CC debt. There's nothing worse than being upside down on a loan and having CC debt. I agonized over the decision to file but when I finally did it I felt very relieved that it was finally over.

niteflytes

[Faith]

First, I did file for bankruptcy after my husband lost his job and had medical issues. So I think in your situation, I would seriously consider filing. Even if you wanted to go back to work, I would rather see you earning extra money for yourself rather than working for the credit card companies. We did that for five years starting with a debt of about 100K and ending with a debt of about 120K in credit card debt. The debt built up in that first eighteen months when my husband wasn't working. And though we paid and paid, we never made significant progress. Now we are post-BK and we are living within our budget entirely.

Second, I'll throw out another thought. You have no income other than SS which creditors cannot touch. Why not simply stop paying your credit card debt. As for the mobile home, if you want to keep it, keep paying on it. If you don't want to keep it, let them repossess it. No real need to file bankruptcy as the creditors cannot touch you unless you go back to work. They will get the mobile home since that is going to be a secured debt.

Of course, you'll have to learn to filter out the telephone calls. Wait two years, and then you can probably settle those debts out at penny's on the dollar.

And if it gets to bad, you can always file for BK later. Of course, BK is cleaner and will provide finality. Just throwing out the fact that you are under no immediate pressure to file BK as the creditors don't appear to have many ways to go after your assets.

Faith

[9877donna]

IMHO Bankruptcy would be a better choice...

I retired 10 years ago from my former employer with a pension and social security and a small 401K fund. Recently my former employer filed chapter 11 bankruptcy and it wiped out my pension. Now I have to get by on my social security check. I have about $60,000 in credit card debt and have a motor home that I have been paying on for 9 years which I can't sell because I owe about $10,000 more on it than its current value. I have considered filing chapter 7 bankruptcy and have retained an attorney and have completed the pre BK debt counseling and are waiting for the 6 month window before filing to clear out a 401K withdraw I made to cover some expenses (didn't know that I would be filing), but I have mixed feelings about doing it. I have thought about going back to work and trying to pay off some of my debt but I am 75 years old and not sure if I could get a decent job or if my health would stand up to it. What would you do? I appreciate your opinion.

I would file Bankruptcy since Social Security and 401K is 'exempt'..I would not just let the cc's go only because the constant ringing of the phone with creditors calling constantly will drive you crazy.
Whatever you decide to do good luck to you.
Donna

[riverlady]

This is one of the major reason we need better protection on pension plans...

Have you filed a claim for your pension in the BK court? Also do you get to collect anything from the national pension insurance? I don't know much about this but have read aobut it in the papers when Delta went BK so please check it out.

I would probably file bk to just get it over with. Talk to an attorney asap to protect whatever claims you may have regarding your pension.