Question Should I file for bankruptcy?

[Swim4Heaven]

Hello All

I am wondering if someone could offer me some help. I am wondering whether or not I should file for bankruptcy.

I have recently graduated from college, but the summer afterward I had to go in the hospital for a day and had some surgery and basically having no insurance or anything, my bill came to close to 5000. I have credit cards from paying for my year of school and some other medical bulls and together they are between 5000-7000. I worked for a few months, but was laid off and basically the money I had was in montly payments. I live at home, which helps and all.

I want to file for bankruptcy and clean my debt up. I know I can not get rid of my student loans and I am not looking to do that. If I can get rid of the other bills, it can be a huge help in me getting back on my feet.

I believe that I am young enough (24) that I can clean my credit up from the bankruptcy in a few years. I hate credit cards and have put mine away forever and just want to be able to move on and not have creditors for medical bills calling me.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[maxfax3]

One thing to consider is waiting until you have some sort of health insurance... Say you file for BK and something else happens and you end up with a pile of medical bills again?

[Never_Again]

You said the total was $5-$7K, or is that plus the other $5K, for a total $13K?

Either way, I would NOT file over that small of an amount. If you file with a lawyer, it is going to cost you at least $1300.

Also, cleaning up your credit should be the least of your concerns! It sounds like you have made a good decision in putting away your credit cards.

Seriously, if you are living at home, you can make the money to get these paid off relatively quickly. I would also be concerned in that you will not be able to file for eight years, so what if something really big came up in that amount of time?

[catleg]

The alternative to filing BK is to simply stop paying. Once they ratchet up the interest rate to the level where you cannot afford to pay down the principal you may as well just stop. You have no assets or income and are not worth suing. They will hassle you a lot but that's what you get for playing with the devil. There is no moral imperetive to pay 29.99 APR. Eventually they'll offer to settle for a fraction of the (inflated) balance. Then it's probably worth paying cause eventually some junk debt buyer will probably sue you and you don't want to carry this around forever.

[Flamingo]

Hello All

I am wondering if someone could offer me some help. I am wondering whether or not I should file for bankruptcy.

I have recently graduated from college, but the summer afterward I had to go in the hospital for a day and had some surgery and basically having no insurance or anything, my bill came to close to 5000. I have credit cards from paying for my year of school and some other medical bulls and together they are between 5000-7000. I worked for a few months, but was laid off and basically the money I had was in montly payments. I live at home, which helps and all.

I want to file for bankruptcy and clean my debt up. I know I can not get rid of my student loans and I am not looking to do that. If I can get rid of the other bills, it can be a huge help in me getting back on my feet.

I believe that I am young enough (24) that I can clean my credit up from the bankruptcy in a few years. I hate credit cards and have put mine away forever and just want to be able to move on and not have creditors for medical bills calling me.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

First you need to determine if you actually can file since you are living at home and receiving assistance there and also due to the fact that the amount you apparently owe for debt other than student loans is so low. At age 24, you should investigate other options to try not to file. Have you talked with your parents? Family? Can they be of any other help to you while you are at home? Many just out of college are having a hard time with the burden of loans and heading out on their own. My youngest is 21 and at home working part-time going to college and I know how hard it is out there for your age group (early to mid 20's). Also know that if you file, it could have a bearing on a good future job for you depending on the field you are in.

Just so you would know, I would suggest making an appointment with a BK attorney in your state/area to go over this matter so you know exactly where you stand and what you can and cannot do. But I would seriously at your age and the low amount you owe try to investigate other options if at all possible.

Best of luck to you.

[freshstartfl]

For such a low amount of debt, I would def. examine other options. I agree w/ the other poster that you should get yourself some health insurance before even considering it, otherwise you could find yourself back in this position a month after filing bankruptcy. I don't know about your student loans, but mine have an interest rate of 3.375. If yours are that low, what about putting them in a deferment and using your money to pay down your cc's, which no doubt have a higher interest rate than your student loans?

[Swim4Heaven]

I have looked at my credit cards, taken the amount for them and my medical bills and added them all together and the total is close to 15,000. It is 14,947.06.

I have no included my student loans in here, because they are not part of the debt, I know they are separate and only go away if I die.

No in my family has the ability to help me in any of this, they barley make it by. I would not stop making payments, because even if they can not get anything from me, it may still look bad for me in the long run.

I am just confused on what to do and want this all to go away.

[ansky0007]

You are very young and your debt is very small to ruin your credit with a BK which will last 10 years on your credit report. Keep trying to find a job because with such a small amount of debt you should be able to easily pay this back even if you had to work for minimum wage.

As for the medical bills just check with the hospital and apply for charity... Many times they will provide funds under the charity program for people that can not afford to pay their medical bills.

[Swim4Heaven]

I have been talking to the hospital and they basically said they do not care and that I can apply and try for a payment plan, but other then that, I am out of luck.

My credit card payments have a high APR or whatever it is, so the payments are always so high and with interest, I feel like I am not paying them down

[StartingOver08]

Well, the high interest you can fix. All you need to do is call the hardship dept of the credit card companies and request assistance. They have several programs, short term and long term. For you, the best would be a long term program. You can get zero interest (or 2% or 4%). In order to qualify for the program they will ask all about your financial situation so be prepared before you talk to them. The short term program is less than 1 year and the long term is 5 yrs. They will ask you to close your account (don't close it before you speak to them...this is one of the benefits you are giving to get the low interest rate). You pay back 100%, but all or almost all is going to principal, not interest. They usually want you to have a auto draft feature out of an account - if you decide to do that - do not do it out of your regular account in case you ever need to stop it. Do it out of a separate account that you have set up just for these drafts. Maybe even set it up in a different bank than you typically use. This is like doing a self imposed BK. It will help you in the future to not get in over your head and you will really see a difference in your balances.

To file BK over $15,000 is just like hitting a fly with a sledge hammer, the long term damage to your credit is not worth the BK.

[sl128]

My credit card debt is around $18,000 and my income is around $25,000 annually. Should I not file chap 7 based on my debt being so low compared to others. Im 27 yrs old and Im a single mom to one child. I thought it didn't matter on how much debt you had,I thought it depended on debt and your income. I welcome any opinions on my situation.