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Can't afford to pay both our payments anymore.

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telenator

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? IL

My wife was involved in a car wreck 1-1/2 years ago. She was T-boned by someone running a red light in an intersection and has back, hip, neck, ankle and knee injuries and has had knee surgery and still is in physical therapy. We were married 5 months after the accident and I have been paying her bills ever since. She had about $17,000.00 in credit card debt from college paying for her degree in teaching. She is not able to work and
we moved from Alexandria VA where her debts and cards originate to Chicago where
my company reassigned me. I had to adjust my W-2 to compensate for her lost wages hoping that she would recover enough this year to work part time and pay for the taxes I would owe by the end of the year. I could not afford all our expenses with out doing that.
We have been living on a very strict budget so I can make payments to my Credit card debt due to a backstabbing ex-wife who I divorced 4 years ago that opened cards in my name. I am paying on $14,000.00. My taxes owed are $2700.00 and I am paying $1200.00 a month on all our cards because of the new laws of doubling the minimum as of Feb. 06.

I cannot cover everything and have decided to sacrifice her credit to save mine.
We own no assets of any kind even our car is leased and I can take the $650.00 per month I am paying to her CC's and pay mine off and get my credit in perfect shape after paying my taxes and hopefully in the next year her lawyer will win her a settlement in her personal injury case that will allow us to pay off her debt.

Can you suggest anything regarding my thinking here? I have done a great deal of research on all the available options for us and its seems to me that putting her debt into default will be better since it will for one stop the accruing of late fees and penalties once it is written off. Also, because it will likly go to a collection agency I have a good change of being able to negotiate a lower payoff at least to get rid of some of the interest.

SHOULD I CONCIDER BANKRUPTCY ????

End of my rope in IL.
 
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GaAtty

Member
It seems like she should. Since she has no income, all those credit card debts wil just get bigger as the interest accumulates. She has no assets to protect, so she can do a Ch. 7, although I will warn you, that she must include her personal injury suit as an asset when she files bankruptcy or else she will be barred from getting any money on it later. If she files then you will not have to pay her bills. Talk to a banktuptcy attorney, they do not charge for initial consultaiton. However, under the new laws, she is required to go to consumer credit counseling and get a certificate from them that says she went before she can consult an attorney.
 

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