Question Benefits of not incuding spouse? Are they worth it?

[jmc]

I have been in a long "ramp up" period to filing Chapter 7 and all along the mind set has been to just file on myself and leave my spouse out of it - I won't go into all the details of our situation, but it could EASILY make sense to include her. My mind set had been "at least one of us will have good credit after all this"....

I suppose it's BETTER to have one spouse with a good credit score if possible I guess what I'm trying to do is quantify what some of those benefits are and if they outweigh including her on the BK - it is about $20k that she carries. (*I am not in a community property state.)

We'll be renting for a couple years for sure and on a cash basis, etc.... Is life SIGNIFICANTLY easier with one spouse with decent credit?

Bottom line is my pride is having a hard time dragging her into this.... otherwise the answer is real obvious to me. BTW my wife is super supportive and she would have no problem with it.

Thoughts from those who have been there?? Appreciate it....

[keepmine]

I'd include her. $20K is nothing to ignore for the sake of a credit score.
If you're on a cash basis post bk anyway the monthly payments on that $20K are gonna eat into a chunk of that cash every month.
BK is about a fresh start and there is nothing fresh about dragging debt through a bk that could have been discharged.

[jlybean]

I would include her also. I am in a similar situation. The majority of the debt was in my name and not my husbands so we were going to just have me file and leave him out (his credit card debt seemed manageable) but after my meeting with the lawyer we decided to file together. We will both have a fresh start and not have to worry about credit cards ever again.
Good Luck

[LeslieF]

i am kind of in a similar situation but it is more complicated because my ex is still attached to a 45K line of credit. in no way will he want to claim bk so now it is a question of having the debt completely discharged and then they go after him or what? i am still not sure about this one

[Mensa1]

i am kind of in a similar situation but it is more complicated because my ex is still attached to a 45K line of credit. in no way will he want to claim bk so now it is a question of having the debt completely discharged and then they go after him or what? i am still not sure about this one

not sure what you are questioning here Leslie, but there IS NO question that if you file Bk 7 and disch debt guaranteed by ex-spouse, they will look to him solely for repymt of the debt. If he does not pay (or you, which you could still voluntarily choose to do after disch), then the creditor can only look to him for repayment. Any hesitation to man-up on his part will result in the dreaded collection process.

[LeslieF]

so potentially he could default. if he refuses to pay will they sue him or will it just affect his credit? he may (at this point) be able to live with affected credit but i know he will be really pissed if he gets sued.

[Mensa1]

It all depends on whether he is collectable or not; meaning W-2 job or other assets that can be garnished. e.g. Bank account, stocks, equity in real estate, etc. Of course this depends on state laws as to what and how they can go about this. In order to garnish they will need a judgment which will require a lawsuit by the creditor to obtain the judgment. Yep, he will be pissed. The risk one runs when they guarantee a debt for another.