Could use some insight

[Crawf]

Good day all,

My wife and I are considering BK and have a meeting with an attorney on Monday. But I figure I would ask some questions here first. I have been lurking for around 2 weeks and trying to absorb everything I have read. Want to say thanks to everyone for sharing their stories.

Some background:

My wife is employed, I am not. My unemployment will be running out soon, like 2 more weeks. From what I can deduct we pass the chapter 7 means test.

Our debts mainly is credit cards. A car and student loan is the other part of the debt. We do not own a home and have $0 in retirement accounts or Whole Life, we have already cashed them out to pay bills. Total CC debt around 45k, Car owed around 18500. We will reaffirm the car. Payment of 450/month.

Right now we are current on all CCs, car payment and student loans but will not be able to make the payments Starting November 1st. We have only been using CCs for living expenses like food, household goods etc.

But we did purchase a laptop for me using a Dell CC around Oct 1st. The laptop will be for me since I will be going back to school for nursing. At the time we were thinking that I would qualify for extended Unemployment which would have paid for it. But I was denied.

My questions is, if we do choose to file, how bad does the laptop purchase look to the trustee? How bad does using the CCs every month for groceries and such look? How long should we wait to file after we stop paying the CC bills, which is the majority of our debt?

Thanks for your time. Hopefully the stress will end soon.

Chris

[keepmine]

First thing you need to do is stop paying those cards right now and use the minimum payments you were sending the cc's to pay your normal living expenses. If you can't make ends meet without access to credit, bk is not going to help. You still have to support yourself post bk.

The laptop may be an issue if Dell chooses to pursue it but, at the end of the day you'd just agree to reaffirm that account.
You won't be the first to use cc's for living expenses. Since they are non luxury items, it'll be no issue.
Timing your filing is something your lawyer can suggest but, make sure you're on a workable budget for life post bk before you file.

[OhioFiler]

Don't worry about the laptop purchase.

Stop paying cc's now. Save for an attorney.

Don't reaffirm the car loan.

[backtoschool]

You should not have any problems filing chapter 7.

Dell might file an AP on the laptop, but that should not stop you from filing. It would cost Dell around $5,000 to file an AP, so my guess is they won't bother. They might send you letters trying to get you to reaffirm that debt though.

Welcome to the board.

[AngelinaCatHub]

All excellent advice, I would like to add, attempt to put about 90 days between your last card payment. It is a shame to took you retirement to pay bills. It was exempt in all cases including suites. It does not take long to reach a retirement age. It was like yesterday that I started my family some 47 years ago.

When you become gainfully employed, make a real effort at that retirement. SS isn't going to get it.

How are you going to pay for your nursing education. If LPN, a PEL grant works in many Votec's and some colleges. RN I believe you need a BA. At least an AA. Wish you well. 'Hub

[whipster1]

I'm sure 'Hub meant put 90 days since last card charge...but yes you should just keep paying Dell since that could conceivably be called a secured debt, and of course the car.

[Crawf]

Thanks for all the advice.

About the retirement, my employer had promised me a job in a new market by November when I left in Jan. November is fast approaching and my daily contact with my old District Manager doesn't look good. So we took out the retirement, it was less than 5k to help with living expenses, thinking that I will be back out work. Luckily we are both under 30 so we have time for retirement again. At that time we were doing everything we could to avoid BK. But what can you do.

We can live off what the wife brings in by itself. Just can't live while paying the CC bills, with some left over to save. So thats good. The CC bills are killing us with me not working.

In regards to paying for the Nursing school. I already have a BA in Education (can't find a job so that don't get me anywhere) so already going back to school for nursing is cut in half. Also the wife works at Ohio State, while she is there we get 50% of tuition which puts it on par with community college prices. Once enrolled at OSU you are guaranteed student employment with the college if you choose to. After speaking with the Enrollment counselor I feel almost 90% sure this will pay for school. Books on the other hand are another story