First off, I'm glad I found this forum. I never thought there would be a bk forum, but here we go.
I guess first off, I'm nervous about everything. I'm in my low 30's, was divorced 2 years ago, recently lost my job and have about $40,000 in unsecured creditcard debt. I do not own a house, although my new wife does but it is in her name only. I do have a new car in my name only which I want to keep.
I have never been late on anything before, so it is hard for me to have to do this. I just can't keep up with the payments anymore. Unemployment barely pays the bills and I'm having a hard time finding a job even with my experience and education.
I have not seen a lawyer yet, but I'm not sure I need to? I basically have 3 credit cards, two with a balance of 15k and the other about 8k. I have 50k in student loans, but I don't believe those can go away and I owe about 13k on a car.
My brother-in-law is a financial advisor and he is telling me that I should file, it's no better time than now with the divorce, job loss and economy. He is telling me that if I decide that I need to stop paying my credit cards now and then file in 4-6 months? If I do this, I want to file Chapter 7 to completely get rid of all the debt, not 13.
I have some questions though. I've been laid off since 12/19/08, I got severence pay for 1.5 months.
Will this affect my spouse? We have nothing together joint.
Will this affect my job hunting? Some employers run background checks.
Will this effect my auto insurance or my spouse's insurance rates?
I have some money in savings, I don't want to have to use this, should I withdraw this amount and close the account?
I'm sure there are more, but I'm just so scared and feel almost worthless right now, but have nowhere to turn.
Any help would be appreciated.
I guess first off, I'm nervous about everything. I'm in my low 30's, was divorced 2 years ago, recently lost my job and have about $40,000 in unsecured creditcard debt. I do not own a house, although my new wife does but it is in her name only. I do have a new car in my name only which I want to keep.
I have never been late on anything before, so it is hard for me to have to do this. I just can't keep up with the payments anymore. Unemployment barely pays the bills and I'm having a hard time finding a job even with my experience and education.
I have not seen a lawyer yet, but I'm not sure I need to? I basically have 3 credit cards, two with a balance of 15k and the other about 8k. I have 50k in student loans, but I don't believe those can go away and I owe about 13k on a car.
My brother-in-law is a financial advisor and he is telling me that I should file, it's no better time than now with the divorce, job loss and economy. He is telling me that if I decide that I need to stop paying my credit cards now and then file in 4-6 months? If I do this, I want to file Chapter 7 to completely get rid of all the debt, not 13.
I have some questions though. I've been laid off since 12/19/08, I got severence pay for 1.5 months.
Will this affect my spouse? We have nothing together joint.
Will this affect my job hunting? Some employers run background checks.
Will this effect my auto insurance or my spouse's insurance rates?
I have some money in savings, I don't want to have to use this, should I withdraw this amount and close the account?
I'm sure there are more, but I'm just so scared and feel almost worthless right now, but have nowhere to turn.
Any help would be appreciated.
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