I can't file bankruptcy now what

Tough Spot you are in there miska. I will tell you one thing. DONT Take out your 401k!! You are a young girl that needs to look to the future for that.

I will let others chime in on what you should do financially. Im still new at this myself.

You can't file for a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13? Or you can't file for either???

I am not suggesting it but can take out a loan on your 401K and then pay yourself back with interest.

Just thought you should know about that option.

Take the money from the 401k. Sometimes they won't let you contribute to your 401k for six months after taking an early withdrawal. Hopefully the market will still be low when you start contributing again.

If you are going to settle settle them ALL. Stop paying all of them and save. You are young so cash out everything and settle. If you go down the road don't blink - settle with everyone. The money you would be paying to CC start paying back to your 401K. The market is in the shitter so things will be cheap. Your credit will get blasted for a year or so but with no debt it will rise higher than it is now. Do not fear a charge off. Just settle it later. GL I settled about all mine. PS Capital One is tough - at least for me do not buy into any of their hardship programs - they all stink. Settle or take the charge off.

Ok the first thing is that you do realize that you need to do something. So here is what i suggest. save as much as you possibly can until you loose your job. It may be enough to settle your debts. I would only withdrawl your 401 k if absolutely necessary. Which you may have to do but fornow i would not. See what you can come up with until that point. Sell stuff, downgrade, and live very frugal. I got many tips on my blog if you wanna check it out. At some point you will say you cant go cheaper but trust me you can. I find new ways to save me money all the time. liquidate everything you can to earn a buck. even if it is only a 1.00 its a dollar in your pocket and it all adds up.

If you do have to withdrawl from your 401k dont sweat it. Im with ya girl im the same age and i had a 401k that was huge and completely got wiped out from the enron thing. Atleast yours will go to your debts. Iwill never put money in something like that again even though i should. but i wont.

we are still young enough to save it may not be as much as we like in the end, but you can pay yourself back with interest like the above post mentions. good luck

Thanks to everyone. I can't file chapter 7. What is the difference between Settle or take the charge off. What happens if I stop making payments and I try to settle on my own and they will not take my settlement? How long until they come try to sue me? I have not checked my 401 K lately I probably only have like 18,000. I know I could file chapter 13 but would have to wait until I lost my job. If I lose my job is that when I should stop making payment try to settle then if they will not settle file chapter 13. I can't sleep at night I just lay there and worry. Last week I was ok about loosing my job because I thought I had a plan. It if got to be too much I would file chapter 7 since all the debt was in my name. How can all these rich people file bankruptcy and my husband making 44,000 a year and me going to unemployment can't? The not knowing what to is killing me. And even with all the debt consolidation groups I don't know who to trust they all sound to good to be true. The last thing I can afford is to be ripped off. I have done research but it all runs together.

First of all if you take out money from your 401k there will be a 10% IRS penalty so you won't actually be getting 18k, you will get more like 16.2k.

Second, Don't do it. It's not worth it.

Third, if you did decide to file ch 13, 401k's are protected so you won't be at risk of losing your savings.

If you try settling yourself be ready for the risk of getting sued. It mat happen, may not. I'm only 60 days late on my cc's and I just ignore the calls for now. Maybe after 120 days or so I will start answering and trying to settle some. (if I don't get sued by someone prior).

Me personally, would not take out of my 401K, retirement or any life savings to pay these creditors. Most people say they will pay themselves back after it is all over-do they really? Not to say some don't but I know many that have not. Especially in this economy. You want to try and hold on to everything you've got. You never know if your husband can walk into a layoff tomorrow. I know, it sucks to think that way but it is a reality in this times.

What you need to do is not prolong it. Make a decision and stick to it. Like mentioned above-get frugal, sell stuff and try to get in any extra money to settle this debt if you want to settle. Try to stay away from all these debt settlement companies-as you can read here on the forums-most people are getting ripped off by them. I am sure there may be a few reputable ones out there but I have yet to find one. Debt Settlement can be done on your own if it is something you really want to do.

As far as filing BK, you may not qualify for Chapter 7 now but you can always wait a few months and try again. Did an attorney tell you that you could not file chapter 7? Did you do the means test if you made more than the median income? Chapter 13 is also an option.

I hope any info here helps you out. I know it is rough. Just to give you an idea. I came online and found debtcc at 30 like you and was clueless about my options, lost and honestly-scared of all this. I am now 32 and just filed for BK-Chapter 7. I could have done debt settlement had my husband not lost his income we never thought he would lose. We also had a few unexpected hardships that really doomed it for us. We didn't expect it-nobody ever does. Just to give you an idea-we stopped paying all of our CC's 12/07 and have not had a judgment or lawsuit filled against us in all this time. We just filed for BK a few weeks ago. When I last looked at our paperwork-we owed over $154k.

Good luck in what ever you decide. And P.S.don't stress out about it.

I understand everyones fear of debt settlement companies. But i must say that they really are getting a bad rap because of some scum bags. Trust me there are good companies out there i found one that worked perfectly for me.

I understand that alot of people here tend to promote self settlement, but just like everyones debt is not the same, not everyone can deal with it the same. If researched properly you will find a good settlement company. The problem is that people rush and dont research properly because they are so upset and effected that they just want to get moving on it and end up getting scammed because they havent done thier homework properly.

If you feel you need to use a company do so, but make sure that you do the research so that you are comfortable and confident that you are making a change for the better. If you can do this on your own, by all means do so it is cheaper. But i know from experience that some people need help and cant do this on thier own.