intros and BK questions

[KP29]

well to start off with hello eveyone my name is Karen I have been lurking for awhile and reading everyones posts now it is time to ask some of my own questions!!

I will start from the beginning...

Me and my husband was doing great a year ago, credit scores were good and everything, moved into our nw house in feb. living the good life so to speak, thinking everything was great and wonderful....boy were we wrong...

in march my husband signed for harley davidson for my brother (my fault, I felt sorry or him, before anyone tells me that was stupid, I have already beat myself up for it a hundred times) well he quit paying for it in august we went and repoed it from him 2 weeks ago I called HSBC retail services and begged them to let me catch it up and they told me that it was to late the repo man was already looking for it and he would be contacting me shortly and since they had already started the repo now I have to pay the whole thing at one time which is 7500 dollars well yesterday the repo man came toour house and picked it up... we are already struggling with our bills b/c of lack of work with my husbands company, he switched jobs but now everything is so behind by 3 o 4 months that I am thinking we will never catch up b/c of late fees and over the limit fees (fees and more fees of course) I looked at the means test and it shows that we are well below the average for a family of four I do not really want to file BK but it looks like I am probabl going to have to...

I do know that if you take my credit card payments plus all of my other bills then I am spending more than I am making every month

does it look like this is my only choice...??

if anyone has any advise it would be greatly appreciated!!! I have stressed so much over ths situation that I am losing track of what I need to do b/c I have thought about it so much!!!

[jq26]

I went through a BK. Its not the end of the world. Make a list of all of your assets & liabilities. Include your family income and a COMPLETE list of monthly expenditures. Gather up the last three year's tax filings. Then get an attorney. You may or may not qualify, but at least they will let you know. Some on this site recommend going it alone but I don't recommend it. There are a ton of tips on this site and things to watch out for, etc., so read along. My attorney cost me $600 for a BK7, but I think fees have gone up since the new BK law requires additional work.

The best advice I can give you is to shed any feelings of guilt you have associated with this type of situation. Its a business decision. The business of providing for yourself and your family. Corporations file all the time to protect the wealth of their bond holders- certainly a less noble reason than putting food on the table for your family.

If you do go through the process, it can be tedious and painful at times, but you will likely emerge grateful to get the debt off your back and (hopefully) be a bit wiser. A little hard work and you can rebuild decent credit within 2 years after discharge.

Good luck.