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Why should you consider bankruptcy to relieve your debt and financial stress?  There are many ways in which bankruptcy can help you get a fresh start.  Here are just a few. 

You have been unemployed or have been laid off and you can no longer maintain the credit card payments that you had been making. 

You have suffered a catastrophic illness and cannot pay the medical bills.  You have just gotten in over your head with bills and see no relief in sight.  Filing bankruptcy can get you out from under the financial burden by reliving your obligation to pay credit card, medical and old utility bills.  Whether you qualify for a chapter 7 – which can wipe out all of your unsecured debt- or you file a chapter 13 – that can wipe out all or part of your debt over a repayment period – you can stop stressing about bills you cannot pay. 

You have gotten behind on your mortgage, whether due to job loss, illness, or just could not make the payments, you can protect your home by filing a chapter 13 bankruptcy. 

You can pay the amount you are behind (arrearage) and the current mortgage payments over up to a 5-year period to become fully current on your mortgage and keep your house.  Should you have fallen behind on your mortgage and do not want to keep your house you can file a chapter 7 bankruptcy to eliminate the obligation to pay the mortgage.  You will not be able to keep your house but when the bank takes it back – through foreclosure – you will not be responsible for the remainder you owe on the house. 

What about your car?  Bought one you can longer afford?  Owe more than the car is worth?  You have options through bankruptcy. 

If you no longer want to keep your car file a chapter 7 bankruptcy and discharge your obligation to pay on the car.  You will not be able to keep the car but you will not have to pay for it.  Under the current state of the economy, car dealerships will sell you a new or new-to-you car the day after your bankruptcy discharge as long as you can show you can afford to make the payments. 

However, you will be paying a very high-interest rate.  If you want to keep your car but it is too expensive you have options through a chapter 13 bankruptcy.  There is an option commonly called a ‘cram down’ in which you can pay what the car is worth when you file the bankruptcy and if you complete the chapter 13 plan the remainder you owe on the loan is discharged.  The car must have been purchased more than 910 days before you file.  It is possible to spread your remaining payments over the up to 5-year chapter 13 plan and that can lower your monthly obligation on the car. 

What about student loans? 

At this time the only way to get relief from them in a bankruptcy is to show that you have attempted to pay them back, you cannot get a job that you would need to pay them back or a job that could allow you not pay them back and that you can not afford to live if you have to pay them back.  This is a nearly impossible standard and it is rare to receive relief from student loans through bankruptcy.  If you pay your student loans through a chapter 13 plan, you will still be incurring interest and could come out of bankruptcy owing the same or more on your student loans than you did when you filed it. 

Contact Moseman Law Office for Answers

If you feel that you have no options and feel stuck in your financial situation finding out more about how bankruptcy can help you can give your life back.

Contact Moseman Law Office at 440-255-0832 for an appointment!