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Scared and CONFUSED in NV! Advice??
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Posted by BrokeinVegas (68.96.100.22) on March 04, 2004 at 13:05:28:
Okay, so just after I married my husband (and we bought our first home - and added a second mortgage) he was injured and left partially disabled. He was out of work for three years, during which I was the primary breadwinner. During the time he wasn't receiving a check, I also became pregnant, and we were forced to charge tens of thousands on credit cards just to eat and keep the lights on in our home. Despite the large debt, we kept on top of everything for years until these past four months when my own employment took a huge hit. He has since returned to work at a fraction of his old salary; We are now about 4 months behind on most of our bills, including our mortgage. I am 28 with about $45K in credit card debt for things I have nothing to show for (other than the food I digested in 2001) and I have no idea what to do. My most major debtor is Discover - I had a balance of $14K and they sent it to an attorney in my area and are threatening legal action. I also have two Citi cards and a few other minor ones. I know we are in WAY over our head, and I've stopped answering the phone entirely. Just getting the mail makes me slightly nauseous. I don't know if I'm about to be sued, but I work as an independent contractor and my wages are 1099'd and very unpredictable, so I don't know how they could garnish them. My husband makes DIRT at his new job, and we literally can't afford the utilities in this home right now. Our only light of hope isn't even very hopeful; we refied with Ameriquest Mortgage (type their name in at ripoffreport.com and you'll see why I'm scared); their shady tactics actually helped bury us last year by totally screwing us on taxes, etc... As we speak, I am preparing my home to sell, because if we can sell it before the foreclosure hits in three months, we can keep the equity. We have a fairly nice, but small, home in a very good neighborhood, and we're pretty confident that we will be walking away from this with some equity. Mind you, we have NO assets of any other form; no life ins, 401K, savings, etc. We are as broke as broke gets right now, and it's totally embarrassing. We actually had our water shut off the other day - imagine trying to clean up a ketchupy toddler with no water!!!! It's back on now, but the stress is killing our marriage. We are considering moving north to ID where we can afford a home and perhaps pay off some of this debt AND still afford to live, but we don't totally know what the right thing to do is. Would you file bankruptcy in my situation and just try to keep the home we're in here in Nevada? Or would you sell and try to repay the creditors and avoid more future trouble? Will we ever qualify for another mortgage with this kind of problem on our record?? We formerly had amazingly good credit, and only in the last 6 months has it totally been destroyed. And lastly, has anyone ever heard of Lexington Law Firm or Freedom Debt Relief? Lexington is supposed to clean up your credit report by fighting your charges; anyone had luck with that? Freedom Debt Relief is supposed to settle your debts for 25% of the original balance, but I worry about just getting my money taken by another vulture. So lost and confused on what I should do; I've honestly never been so depressed in my entire life!!! ANY advice or suggestions are totally appreciated...
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