What is the name of your state? Texas
The odd issue is, that I even though my credit score is near 750, my debt has gotten a bit unmanageable.
The income max for a household of 3 is $73,948.00, and my salary plus COLA is $74,000, and I have some bonus income. The other issue, is the 2 kids are exchange students on temporary visas, so I don't know if those would count.
How do they verify income though? If I have a monthly paycheck, do they just multiply it by 12, or would they go by my last tax return? I have enough losses, deductions, and my job didn't start until end of June, so my income for 2022 won't be over the cap.
The question though is, how much do I really have to do to be eligible to get the debt discharged? A lot of people I asked with no experience as an attorney made suggestions such as consolidating the date and working with the banks to lower the interest rates, but that does absolutely no good. Most of the debt is no interest, a few thousand of it is only 2.99%, and the high interest balance I'll have paid off after I get my tax refund.
I know my credit score would drop and my credit cards would be canceled if I declared bankruptcy, but the problem is that it is getting close to 20 thousand now accumulated over the years where I was paying it off in small chunks, but after getting my new career, I moved into an apartment and decided to house teenagers from Europe to volunteer, and the move-in expenses and bills started to really pile up. Back in 2016, I wasn't making really any money at all except for driving Uber and my credit score was only in the 600s, but all my credit cards were offering 0 interest balance transfers. Now, only one of my cards of the many I have has an offer with a much higher credit card and income.
I have a new bed mattress that I have 3 years to pay off without interest. The rest are limited to a year or less and if I don't get them paid down drastically, after they expire, the interest is going to be outrageous and too much to keep up with. When my student loans start becoming due, I don't really qualify for income based repayment because my income is too high, but that is still going to add several hundred more dollars per month.
I cut spending on eating out significantly. I lowered some bills. I may even have to get lesser insurance coverage on my car to drop by 45 dollars per month. I also drove Uber in addition to my job for more supplemental income, and even cashed in on my substitute teaching FICA, and it still wasn't enough to not increase debt one of the months.
I'm done buying furniture and appliances. I'm tracking expenses. I'm cutting some costs. However, I still don't think it's enough to pay it off in a reasonable time frame. Even after the kids go back home, if I rent the other room to a friend for 800 dollars per month, it will still take almost 2 years to pay it all off only if it doesn't increase due to other unexpected bills.
As far as things I own if they do seize assets. I have a smart TV worth a couple hundred, my 3 year old laptop, and a 1200 dollar digital piano. My car has negative equity. I own no jewelry or anything very expensive.
On top of this, I get collection calls for medical bills I cannot pay. I have told one of the collectors to contact the police department to pay one of the hospital bills, because they put me in the hospital by 48 hour suicide prevention order, so they should have to pay the hospital bill, but no luck on that.
I'm not really interested in credit counseling and consolidation, because I can figure out that myself. I only want it discharged without having to prove beyond a reasonable doubt I can never pay it back. If that's possible.
If I get the credit cards and medical bills discharged, I can start over and rebuild credit with a secured card and continuing to be on time with my car loan payments and put money in my bank account instead of in debts I don't know if I can ever pay off in the next few years.
My income is going to increase by $1500 per month next summer assuming I'm with the same company, but that still won't do much except help pay my student loans, but I'll still be in the same position for the rest of my bills.
The odd issue is, that I even though my credit score is near 750, my debt has gotten a bit unmanageable.
The income max for a household of 3 is $73,948.00, and my salary plus COLA is $74,000, and I have some bonus income. The other issue, is the 2 kids are exchange students on temporary visas, so I don't know if those would count.
How do they verify income though? If I have a monthly paycheck, do they just multiply it by 12, or would they go by my last tax return? I have enough losses, deductions, and my job didn't start until end of June, so my income for 2022 won't be over the cap.
The question though is, how much do I really have to do to be eligible to get the debt discharged? A lot of people I asked with no experience as an attorney made suggestions such as consolidating the date and working with the banks to lower the interest rates, but that does absolutely no good. Most of the debt is no interest, a few thousand of it is only 2.99%, and the high interest balance I'll have paid off after I get my tax refund.
I know my credit score would drop and my credit cards would be canceled if I declared bankruptcy, but the problem is that it is getting close to 20 thousand now accumulated over the years where I was paying it off in small chunks, but after getting my new career, I moved into an apartment and decided to house teenagers from Europe to volunteer, and the move-in expenses and bills started to really pile up. Back in 2016, I wasn't making really any money at all except for driving Uber and my credit score was only in the 600s, but all my credit cards were offering 0 interest balance transfers. Now, only one of my cards of the many I have has an offer with a much higher credit card and income.
I have a new bed mattress that I have 3 years to pay off without interest. The rest are limited to a year or less and if I don't get them paid down drastically, after they expire, the interest is going to be outrageous and too much to keep up with. When my student loans start becoming due, I don't really qualify for income based repayment because my income is too high, but that is still going to add several hundred more dollars per month.
I cut spending on eating out significantly. I lowered some bills. I may even have to get lesser insurance coverage on my car to drop by 45 dollars per month. I also drove Uber in addition to my job for more supplemental income, and even cashed in on my substitute teaching FICA, and it still wasn't enough to not increase debt one of the months.
I'm done buying furniture and appliances. I'm tracking expenses. I'm cutting some costs. However, I still don't think it's enough to pay it off in a reasonable time frame. Even after the kids go back home, if I rent the other room to a friend for 800 dollars per month, it will still take almost 2 years to pay it all off only if it doesn't increase due to other unexpected bills.
As far as things I own if they do seize assets. I have a smart TV worth a couple hundred, my 3 year old laptop, and a 1200 dollar digital piano. My car has negative equity. I own no jewelry or anything very expensive.
On top of this, I get collection calls for medical bills I cannot pay. I have told one of the collectors to contact the police department to pay one of the hospital bills, because they put me in the hospital by 48 hour suicide prevention order, so they should have to pay the hospital bill, but no luck on that.
I'm not really interested in credit counseling and consolidation, because I can figure out that myself. I only want it discharged without having to prove beyond a reasonable doubt I can never pay it back. If that's possible.
If I get the credit cards and medical bills discharged, I can start over and rebuild credit with a secured card and continuing to be on time with my car loan payments and put money in my bank account instead of in debts I don't know if I can ever pay off in the next few years.
My income is going to increase by $1500 per month next summer assuming I'm with the same company, but that still won't do much except help pay my student loans, but I'll still be in the same position for the rest of my bills.