My question involves bankruptcy in the state of: Arizona
Here's my situation: Husband was very ill a couple years ago and could not work for about a year, so we lived off credit cards. He is now working and doing well but we incurred a lot of debt and it seemed to get worse as things came up that had to be paid for. Now, we're struggling so much to make the minimum payments and to pay them on time. It's up around $42,500 just in credit cards and 3/4 of our paychecks go to credit cards and bills. Our rates are about to go up to 20-30 percent as we cannot pay, which will make it even more. I also have a Student Loan that has been on hold and we'll have to start paying soon.
It would take about 22 years to pay off those credit cards and thousands of dollars in intrest.
~ Is it worth filing Chapter 13 to pay off the debt (I do want to pay it, not looking for an easy way out) in 5 years or should we just suffer through it and work with the credit companies and loan institutions? ~
As my credit stands now, I'm pretty sure I'm not elligible for a consolidation loan. And we don't have much equity in the townhouse yet as we've only been there a year. I suppose we could do a home equity loan but that would mean we would owe more on the house than it's worth.
Please let me know all your thoughts and suggestions. I'm trying to get as much information as I can before taking this step.
Thank you for all the help.
New75

