Long story short... 23k owed to Chase on three accounts, hours cut due to injury, facing surgery and workman's comp for 3 months in January, can no longer pay Chase minimum of $500 every month. This week we sent in what we could but it wasn't much. We plan to continue paying what we can on all accounts. Bankruptcy is the new reality but we can't figure out how to pay for it short of taking out a cash advance from BofA. (big mistake I know) Things I know: We will be sued. Our credit will be trashed. We will get through this... My question: Are we handling this right? I figure paying something is better than nothing, and maybe we'll avoid collections while we struggle to come up with BK funds? Is there something we're missing here? Negotiations, lawyers, consolidation firms? I'm lost and my health is not benefiting from this. Thanks from California
How to pay for a BK? 1) stop paying ALL your creditors. IIRC, you can't pay any of them for 90 days prior to filing BK 2) take the money you would otherwise send to a creditor and send it to your BK lawyer 3) Sure your credit will be trashed but at least you'll be back on the path to recovery. Sometimes your credit score is the last thing you should be worried about. Good luck!
Thank you for the suggestions. What will happen if we decide to ride it out with Chase? They're pretty much all we're tied to right now.
Ride what out? The dirty little secret is that once you get behind, it's almost impossible to recover. With default interest rates, late charges, double-cycle interest calculations, etc. etc. Once you slip, it all comes down on top of you. I know the intent for many is to "do the right thing," but the banks (and Chase is one of the worst) make that as impossibly expensive as they can get away with. The way I looked at it when I was facing a similarly impossible situation was: Yes, I have an obligation to the banks, but I have a higher obligation to my family. Sure I shouldn't have gotten in over my head, but it's too late to change that now. I decided it was: Family first, ego and pride second, banks a distant third and filed for bankruptcy. That was the best thing I could do at the time, all things considered. If you can pay your debts and live, then that's what you should do. If paying your debts mean you go without food or shelter, then that's messed up, regardless of how you got there.
