Accounts have gotten so past due ..

Welcome to the Forums James :D Alot of us have, or are where you are! There is help and hope here,though. First I would pull up all of the credit reports and go from there. There may be items that are wrong, or in dispute. Since you have registered, someone from your area will contact you for your free credit counseling. They will offer solutions to your debt problems, such as consolidation, where you can put all your unsecured debt into one monthly patyment,with lower interest. You are free to choose an option, or not.There is also a Do it Yourself section, located under "Our Services", you may want to look at. You need to know where you stand debt wise before you can begin to take control of it, and it can be done. If you have any questions, please ask..Karen

thank you, I'm relieved to know that my credit is at the point of filing bankruptcy. But its so stressfull and hard knowing that you cant make the bill payments because you have to send 1 of your 3 kids to school and buy groceries and keep the phone lines and television running. such a pain having to ignore the phone calls. Well thank you for the encouraging words and I'm excited to get the help that i need so much.

If at all possible try to avoid bankruptcy, especially with the new laws. I know that with the new laws you don't have a choice as to whether to file a 7 or 13. I know a few people who have filed and were forced into a 13 rather than a 7 by the trustee, and they are worse off now with the excessive payment than they were if they never filed and dealt with the creditors on their own.

Hi James - welcome!

I definitely second what Steelers is saying about bankruptcy - been there, done that, got the holy old t-shirt to prove it, because after filing, couldn't afford anything else! :lol:

All kidding aside, though - please try to avoid bankruptcy. The new laws are very tough on the consumer. Your income and assets will be put through a means test - and if the test determines you have the means to pay back even a portion of your debts, you will be forced to file Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. Chapter 13 is called the "wage earner" plan, and it repays a portion of your debts over a 3-5 yr period.

In a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, ALL of your assets are considered up for grabs - including your home. If you own anything of value, you have to state it in the test, and the Trustee has the option of selling it to pay your debts before you are allowed to be discharged. (State allows for an exemption up to a certain percentage of the equity in your home, however. But if you don't meet the criteria, your home may also be considered a saleable asset.)

Bankruptcy just isn't an easy option anymore - the days of the quick fix Chapter 7 filing to eliminate your debts are over. Bankruptcy now is a very long, expensive process, and it alters your life pretty drastically. If you think you have a difficult time living on your income now, try living on what's left after the court determines how much your payment will be for a Chapter 13 plan. The court determines what your "disposable" income is, and takes ALL of it to pay your plan payments - it gets garnished from your paycheck (at least in my state). What they call disposable income is anything left after you pay your basic expenses - home, food, utilities, childcare and transportation.

One other thing to keep in mind - after filing bankruptcy, the bills don't stop coming. You just get new ones. New medical bills for the kids, new auto repair bills when it breaks down, new home repair bills, etc. The Trustee and court do not make allowances for these new bills, nor are you given a "break" on the plan payments for even one month if something happens. You also will not be able to make any large purchase (like a car, if something happens to yours), without the permission of the court and the Trustee.

Sorry for the long speech, but having dealt with the Chapter 13 issue under the new laws, I just hate to see anyone consider that an option, unless they know for certain what they're getting themselves into. For some people, it works out fine, because they have a spouse's income to fall back on, etc. - but for many, it's not at all what they thought it would be.

Sorry, just thought of something else to add in here.

If you want to check your credit reports for inaccuracies, as Karen mentioned in her post above, go to annualcreditreport.com. It's a free service, sponsored by the government and the three major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Transunion and Experian). You are allowed one free report from each reporting agency, once per year - or whenever you have been denied credit.

Pull those reports for yourself and your wife, and go over them line by line. Dispute any debts listed there that are not accurate - you can dispute them online at each reporting agency's website.