Newbie filing bk in near future

[mizzgee]

Hello All,

Been lurking around and finally decided to jump in

I have a question....I am married, in PA and I am thinking of filing bk due to $40k+ of cc debt. I stopped paying on all cc June 07 so I am receiving the calls and some of my accts have been sent to CA. This debt is mine alone, my husband is not on any of the accts. The house and car is in his name...so tech I have no assets. He probably will need to file bk due to $50k cc debt.
He is working and I have recently rejoined the workforce after 9yrs as a stay at home mom. I started working in catering Nov. of last yr. but now there is no work during off peak of Jan thru March...I am actively searching for work but I have 3 small children so my availability is limited at times.

I don't have the money for a lawyer right now to file bk. I was thinking of filing pro se for myself because I don't have any assets.
My husband will def need a lawyer due to assets. I'm not sure what to do at this point. We have no savings and are robbing Peter to pay Paul trying to keep up with my husband's cc payments.

My husband owns a rental prop, 3bd house, but we cannot find a reliable tenant and have tried to sell the prop with no luck. With two mortgage pymts, 3 kids, et al..it's a real stressful time

[rrockinggramma]

IMO file together. Why pay for 2 attorney's to file separate. Your husbands income will factor into your filing and vice versa. In a chapter 13, the fees can be rolled into the plan. But your first order of business is to see what chapter you qualify for. See a few attorney's in your area. Initial consults are usually free.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

I think you could go either way, actually: you could file 7 and your husband could file 13 separately to save the assets in his name. If you did that, you'd only be structuring a repayment plan around hubby's debts and income, which seems to be a good idea since your own income is not stable right now and may not be for some time to come, and on your own you may still qualify for a Chapter 7. But rockinggramma's advice to file jointly is good too, so it really depends on what you qualify for. Good luck to you!!!

[mizzgee]

When filing bk, if one wanted to not include a particular cc in the bk, is that allowed?

[FreshLikeADaisy]

No, sorry, you have to list *every* debt (not necessarily every account, but every debt). But it wouldn't really matter; cc's generally pull your credit bureau on a regular basis anyway, and once they see you're in bk they close the acct anyway, even a $0 balance. So you're not winning anything by leaving it off. Hope this helps. Good luck!!!