Bankruptcy

[mcan]

Anybody here ever do it? What was your experience with it? I have a lot of very old credit card debt that I couldn't afford to keep paying on, and a lot of student loans that I have yet to really start on. Got my degree (in theater = dumb). I was teaching guitar lessons for cash through most of college and living off of student loans, then I was out of work for a while and now I'm living back home at the age of 29 (ouch). I did get a job on the production line of a fiberglass company for now, but the job isn't supposed to last past November. Got my summons a few weeks ago for a Discover Card debt. They want their money, and I don't blame them. But man, I really don't want to get my wages garnished and bank accounts frozen. This is a HUGE hole. Need out.


Any advice?

[Demonpenz]

you could find some people with cracked siding and give a reasonable estimate for it, then fill in the cracks with white out.

[Mile High Mania]

GoChiefs was on track to being a male model until the Planet shot down that dream... you should reach out for pointers.

[Demonpenz]

hang out in a price chopper parking lot and let any person with a honda accord hit you, then claim soft tissue damage

[Mr. Flopnuts]

70k in student loans and 10k in personal debt. The 10k is the only thing you can file banko on, as most student loans are backed and guaranteed by the guberment.

10k isn't enough to file bankruptcy. The fact that you're living with your parents, and have more disposable income means you have the ability to get this paid off in a year or two. It's going to be hard, and it's going to suck. Especially paying high interest rates on credit cards to pay for shit you don't even have anymore.

But I promise you, it won't be nearly as hard as having that bankruptcy on your credit bureau for the next 7 years. I will be the very first person to tell you to file bankruptcy if it's warranted, and there are a couple members of this board that could tell you that.

That being said, don't do it. Not unless the great majority of your student loans were not borrowed with a FAFSA application and your parents personally backed them. Then, you can only do it if they'll file banko too.

We'll talk some more about this privately if you want, but I'm telling you right now, bankruptcy is just not a good decision in this case.

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Here's my general bankruptcy advice for people. If you owe more money in unsecured debt than you make in a year, file. If you don't, you're only prolonging the inevitable.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Mile High Mania

GoChiefs was on track to being a male model until the Planet shot down that dream... you should reach out for pointers.

IIRC, mcan says he's got a way with the ladies so maybe he could make a go for it as a gigolo. He could put his acting education to use with some older, less attractive rich ladies.

[mcan]

and hilarity ensues... Don't mind the jokes. Just kinda worried about my real life situation. Appreciate the advice.


Anyway, I really don't have any problems working my ass off. My problem before was that I didn't manage my credit responsibly and it just started piling higher and higher and interest and penalties became unsurmountable. I was in college and trying to pay minimum payments with a cash paying job. But I didn't make enough money to cover everything. So I had to take out more for in student loans to make up the difference. It got to the point where I couldn't pay the minimums and still eat and pay rent so I missed payments which caused fees that made my account go overlimit that caused more fees. Then I was on payment plans where they automatically took money out of my account. But what they took out was mostly just interest and would overdraft my bank account every so often causing 100s of dollars in overdraft fees, and/or penalties with the cards that made the debt actually INCREASE even though I wasn't using them. Then my income got slashed because I told the owner of the store I was working that I was going to move during the summer and I ended up with fewer and fewer students every week, putting me further behind. I sold all my stuff just to make my last two months rent and move. After awhile I did just say "**** it" and stopped paying everything. Now it's time to pay the piper. And I'd really like to do the best thing possible.

[Demonpenz]

sounds like you did what you could, not really much you can do when you are going to college, you still need rent and food money

[mcan]

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts

70k in student loans and 10k in personal debt. The 10k is the only thing you can file banko on, as most student loans are backed and guaranteed by the guberment.

10k isn't enough to file bankruptcy. The fact that you're living with your parents, and have more disposable income means you have the ability to get this paid off in a year or two. It's going to be hard, and it's going to suck. Especially paying high interest rates on credit cards to pay for shit you don't even have anymore.

But I promise you, it won't be nearly as hard as having that bankruptcy on your credit bureau for the next 7 years. I will be the very first person to tell you to file bankruptcy if it's warranted, and there are a couple members of this board that could tell you that.

That being said, don't do it. Not unless the great majority of your student loans were not borrowed with a FAFSA application and your parents personally backed them. Then, you can only do it if they'll file banko too.

We'll talk some more about this privately if you want, but I'm telling you right now, bankruptcy is just not a good decision in this case.

I appreciate the advice man. You're good people.

[Demonpenz]

ll

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Originally Posted by mcan

I appreciate the advice man. You're good people.

I'm stacked today. But at some point let's get together privately and go over where you're at, and some of the things you can do to gain any bit of leverage you can back to your side. I can't promise to prevent a wage garnishment at this stage, it sounds like that train has left the station but we can get you on track to get stuff paid back on your own terms, as long as you're serious about it.

10k isn't enough to go through 7 years of bad credit. I know 10k may seem like a million dollars right now but I promise it isn't. The problem is, once you get sued you're on the hook for legal fees and attorney costs. That right there will add a grand on top of your debt. Let's talk about this in a less public place and figure out a solution for you.

www.thenegotiationstation.com

That's what I do. That's not what I'm proposing for you because I think it's too late for all of that. But I will give you some free advice that will put you back on track and make all of this a lot more manageable.

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Penz is ****in cracking me up in this thread.

[Dayze]

Hard decision to make; but I’ve seen Mr. Flopnuts provide some good advice in previous threads; including a ‘bankruptcy’ thread of my own.
Everyone’s situation is different, but I think it’s important to avoid it if at all possible. We contemplated it as we were staring down a foreclosure etc…

But we’ve done everything we can do, and we’re moving/being foreclosed upon (house goes up for auction Thursday). Worked our butts off for a year trying to stay/pay everyone etc. So we’re moving to an apartment for quite a bit less than what we were normally paying; we’re paying off debt with cash we have stashed; and the increased cash-flow will be applied towards the unsecured payoff. It’s a huge change for us, but it’s what we decided to do rather than file BR.

Good luck man; it’s a tough call. But I’ve found there are a lot of knowledgeable folks here on CP that can provide candid advice outside the forums if need be.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Demonpenz

http://sellkidney.com/

Coincidentally, I just read an article this morning about a guy who bought kidneys, and in what can only be seen as a message from a higher power, the price he paid was exactly the price that mcan needs to get out from under his CC debt: $10,000.

With the right ingredients of salaciousness and scandal, the news appeared to be straight out of a Hollywood screenplay: corrupt politicians, money laundering, people being arrested by the busload, raids on synagogues, an Apple Jacks cereal box stuffed with $97,000 in cash, and rabbis trafficking organs. Allegedly, one paid $10,000 to an impoverished Israeli for his or her kidney and tried to sell it for upward of $150,000 in the United States. The criminal complaint quotes the rabbi as saying he was in the organ business for a decade.

What would really pull mcan out of the hole though is if he can cut out the middle man and sell his kidney directly to the guy who needs the transplant. He could sell it at a discount, say $100,000, pay off his debts, and still have $20k to restart his life. Win-win.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Demonpenz

sounds like you did what you could, not really much you can do when you are going to college, you still need rent and food money

We were piling up debt, not making much headway on old school loans, college tuition for the son looming, no retirement funds to speak of etc.etc. I was as high paid as anyone in the city for what I did, I needed a job in a better paying field.

I worked during the day, went to school at night, got home around 10:00 pm, studied until 2:00 am, got back up at 6:00 am and started it all over again. Did that for 2 years. That was some hard chit to pull off. You got to want it. We got ourselfs in a little deeper debt to do it also. But now I'm making twice what I was making then and potential for a lot more.

People have to take responsibility for their own station in life and try to change it for themselfs, not sit around and mope about your situation and expect the government to rescue you from your station in life.