Hi, I'm Kathi and due to divorce/medical/unemployment/etc, plus my own stupidity, I've got a big mess to sort out. I'm very scared and don't know what to do first. When we split 2 years ago he agreed to pay my cc bills (which were for our kid's medical expenses). Then a year ago I found out that not only did he not pay, he also had opened a bunch of new credit cards in my name over the years and run them up and stopped paying. Insert web profanity here . . . Our lawyers worked that out, or so I thought. Well, I was over at his house and picked up some old mail and discovered that I'm being sued because a bunch of my credit accounts haven't been paid for over a year. There were a lot of them, so it's probably not a small thing to fix. I found this site and I've been reading like crazy, and some of the abbreviations are beginning to make sense. Is the first thing I do (after killing my lawyer and my ex - just kidding, mostly) to get my credit reports and see what is on them? Or should I go thru his house and try and find as much old mail as I can? These bills are going to my old address; do I update the address??? Then what?? Of course, our son has been acutely ill for 7 months and I've been scrambling with freelance work and borrowing $ from my friends to eat. There's no $$ to pay my current bills, let alone the older stuff. Advice? What to do? What bad things are going to happen and when? Courts, attachments, etc? Bankruptcy is not an option because I still own half of that paid-for expensive NJ house, even though I can't sell it and he can't afford to buy it from me. It's a dead asset to me, but it's still in my name. Besides, I do owe the money, and I want to take care of it. And I won't throw him in jail - only advice I got from a new lawyer - because he provides our son's health insurance, his medical care in in the 7 figures, and his dad's policy still covers him, but no new policy will pay for him since he's over the lifetime limit. Also it's not good for our kids to have mom put dad in jail.
you should order all of your CR's and see exactly what is on them If he opened accounts in your name and forged your signature, then you are not responsible for those bills. The creditors, however, may or may not go after him criminally depending on the amounts involved
IF your FICO scores are less than 500-600 on your credit reports after all of the mess I would definitely file Chapter 7 bankruptcy. You can keep your home when you file bankruptcy and normally a vehicle. By filing CH 7 you can wipe out all of your unsecured debt - credit cards, etc.... and potentially some medical bills. Credit repair in my opinion is not an option now. You need cash and to get the needed cash you need to relieve your debt. After the BK is discharged, I would immediately begin your credit repair.
