How much debt do you have to have to file bankruptcy and what are the pros and cons of a young single mother filing?

Bankruptcy will Discharge your unsecured debt, but not your student loans (would still have to be repaid). So it is a great way to get you out of the burden of most of your bills. The disadvantage is a bankruptcy gets reported to your credit report, but that is not all that bad usually since most bankruptcy filers already had a blemished credit report due to the unpaid debt.

There is no set amount of debt to make a BK filing appropriate. $10,000 is not much debt for some peoplefor others it is insurmountable. Ask yourself if there is a reasonable chance that you can pay your debts within a reasonable time. You need to schedule a consultation with a BK attorney.

You should seek counsel to discuss all options, but the major drawback of a bankruptcy filing is that is remains on your credit report for a long time10 years from filing date for chapter 7 & employers often check credit reports. Please know that student loans are not currently dischargeable in bankruptcy. And you can only file a chapter 7 bankruptcy once every 8 years, so timing is important. If, however, you feel your debt is overwhelming, perhaps you will choose to file. It's a personal decision.

What state do u reside in so I might better help u?

This is a very complex question to answer in an e-mail. Perhaps the following will help you. Bankruptcy is a very complicated process. It is wise to talk to an experienced bankruptcy attorney before deciding to take this important step. Most Arizona bankruptcy attorneys offer a free consultation about the basics of bankruptcy.

First of all, in general you may not discharge student loans in bankruptcy at least not unless you are incapable of supporting your family and also paying even a few dollars a month on the loans. So, subtracting the student loans from the $10,000, consider how much you are discharging, and how many creditors there are. If there are only one or two, it would be worthwhile trying to work out some kind of settlement or extension of time to pay with the creditors. More than that usually does not work. The negative is that bankruptcy has various costs with it: a filing fee, a legal fee, a fair amount of effort on your part to assemble the information, two online 'briefings,' must be done. Your credit score will go down, but you can repair that with 24-30 months or meticulous regular payments on the bills that will remain, such as rent, utilities, etc. You would do well to discuss the whole thing with an experienced bankruptcy lawyer.

Although bankruptcy laws do not require someone to have a certain amount of debt, it just makes sense to only consider bankruptcy when it will do you some good and you get the biggest "bang for your buck." After all, you are only eligible to file bankruptcy once every eight years. Student loans cannot usually be eliminated in bankruptcy unless the borrower has a serious disability so exclude that from your total debt. What does that leave in debt? Would you be able to pay 1/4 of the balance of your debts over 60 months? Assuming that you still had $10,000 in debts, could you pay $2,500 off in 60 months. That works out to less than $42/month. Kind of hard to make an argument that someone couldn't pay that by tightening their belt. With this argument, the US Trustee could argue that the bankruptcy is not "in good faith." My criteria is to have my clients owe at least 50% of their annual income in debt that can be eliminated through bankruptcy. Otherwise, I want to consider other options. I have seen too many people who have eliminated a small amount of debt in bankruptcy (with someone else) only to have overwhelming medical debts or other problems a year or so down the road and be ineligible to get rid of debt that is truly overwhelming.

Student loans are largely non-dischargeable. So, you might want to rethink this. There is no minimum for filing a chapter 7 bankruptcy, but you can only do it once every 7 years or so. It will be on your credit report for around 10 years. You have to look at the overall financial picture to determine what the best thing to do is. It might help you to contact a consumer credit counseling agency, rather than to file bankruptcy. Sometimes, and especially with low debt like yours, they can help.