a couple of questions

[monkatom]

I was planning on meeting with a debt consolidation person but it appears they may not be the best people to talk to. I have also recently begun thinking about bankruptcy since my debt is so large. I have about 120K of CC debt plus student loans of 30K a 440K mortgage and a second 128K mortgage that was used 3 years ago to pay of my old CC debt. i do not want to lose my house but I am struggling to pay the minumum payments and have been borrowing against my CC to pay my monthly bills. so it appears BK might be the best option but how do i find a good BK lawyer or should I try debt consolidation? also will I have to sell my home? any help would be greatly appreciated.

[BassBoy]

First thing you need to look at and figure out is if want to keep the home, can you pay your monthly expenses with your income, and maybe even have a few bucks to save. If you can not do so, you'll need to re-think this. If you have more home than you can afford, BK will do you no good in that aspect. You said your using your CC's to pay your monthly bills, so does that include your regular expenses, like utilities groceries, gas, insurance and ect?

Second, having over $120K in CC debt can raise a red flag with your case. It may not cause any issues, but your case may be scrutinized.

Finding a good BK lawyer is pretty much on you, unless you know a family member or friend who can recommend one. Consultations are free, so you can talk to as many BK attornies as you wish and chosse the one you feel will best represent you.

[monkatom]

thanks for the advice. i feel I can pay my mortgage, student loan, utilities, and even my second mortgage. What is killing me is the monthly minumums on the cc is over 2K a month and this i can not afford. In addition the wife and I really need to stop spending which we have discussed. I checked the BBB and found some attorneys in my area that I will need to talk to. will the
120K of CC debt raise flags because it is so high?

[Minnymouth]

As always the high cc debt will raise a flag...... they might want to know what all it was for...?? If you used it to pay bills, etc they may let it slide by.

As for the house, if its more than you can afford, then you might consider downsizing or renting until you can. You can normally buy another home with a decent interest rate within 2-3 years of filing bankruptcy. Your home may be your worst enemy right now, eating up a chunk of your income plus along with the chunk that credit cards is consuming.

Find you a couple of bk attorneys and have a chat with them and see what your options are. And then take it from there.....

Keep us posted.

[keepmine]

To have that sort of overall debt, you must be a high income filer as well. That plus, the amount of cc debt will very likely put your filing under a lot of scrunity.
One other point about the house-what sort of equity do you have and what does your state allow as an exemption.

[monkatom]

Thanks for the advice. Should i also meet with a debt comsolidatio place? i have a meeting with a company called CCCS of san diego but not sure if this is a good idea or not. based on my calculation not levaing any extra money for emergencies right now my monthly bills are 1600 higher than my income and this does not include property taxes. by my calculation if I get rid of the cc debt get a part time job and sell one of the cars I can do it so maybe BK is better than debt consolidation? thanks again and sorry about so many questions.

[monkatom]

I live in CA and have two mortgages on the house one at 440K and one at 128K for a total of 568K. not sure about teh value of the home due to declining market but soemwhere around 570 is about right. so if teh property is valued at say 630K does this mean the trustee would sell the house pay of the loans and use teh additional 62K to pay off CC's?

[keepmine]

Here are Ca. exemptions.

http://www.bankruptcyinformation.com/CA_exemp.htm

If your equity is negible, you may well be better off surrendering the property in bk and starting all over again.

To answer your example, The trustee would first have to pay the mortgage holders the amount of the loans and then, you would get up to the amount of the exemption. After that, unsecured creditors get whats left.