I already explained about the car. The child tax benefit is safe and your trustee is obliged to prepare the filing person's tax returns, both the current and next one. Probably only one of you needs to file but it depends on whether the debts are joint.

I don't know why you didn't contact a trustee in bankruptcy directly and are wasting time and money with these credit repair clowns. Usually, they have little education and all they want is your money - a lot of hucksters who can't or won't get a real job.

Ray

Hello Sir ,

Its me again. im sorry to contact to take your time again , i just want to see if im missing something after meeting somebody about bankruptcy, I did met some people from clear debt solution they did told me about proposal and bankruptcy which made me more confuse, they are not a trustee so first thing they told me is i have to pay them $1700 and $2000 for the trustee that is for two file between me and my husband , proposal is something i cant consider because of the fact that if i miss paying then it will be more problem for me , So they said bankruptcy is the only option. i have so many things the person said i can call them if i have question but after the meeting they never answer my call. Im a little bit furstrated most of them are just concern about their payments , once they fount out that im really broke they all runaway from me , I do have so much question like what will happen from the child tax benefit , my income tax , my car and so on, Sir on your personal opinion where should i start? i do need to talk to someone who can advice me to whom i should go ... i

I do understand that this is all depend on us on what decision is best for everybody. Thanks for your time reading my email .

Regards

Maritess

Well, not a pretty picture to be sure. Still, if your husband can get working again, you can always find someplace to rent even with bad credit. With 2 young kids, no one is going to let you starve; certainly not the government.

I don't know what province you're in, but bankrupts can keep a car that's necessary for work that has up to around $5650 equity (depending on where you are). In practice, it might be a bit more than that. Of course, if the car is in the sole name of the partner who is not filing, then it doesn't matter how much it's worth. In the case of a car that is worth more than the threshold retention value, but is solely financed and owned by the spouse who isn't filing for bankruptcy, the nonfiling spouse would still have to be able to continue making payments on it obviously. So the fate of the car you need for work will depend on several circumstances.
I hope you can keep it.

A couple of points are worth mentioning. It's true that it needs to be determined in whose name the debts are in since the debts of each spouse are separate when included in a bankruptcy proposal. But any decent trustee will go over that with you in the initial consultation. It may be that some credit cards or loans are in both names, in which case the debts are joint debts. In that case, if one spouse declares bankruptcy, it doesn't help much since the debt just gets shunted onto the other partner.

The ideal situation would be to have all the assets in one spouse's name and all the debts in the other's, with the latter one filing. However, if you try to do that before a year or so of filing, the court will disallow the application on the basis it being a fraudulent transfer of assets to the detriment of creditors. It's part of the trustee in bankruptcy's duties to investigate those matters before the creditors' meeting is held.

As well, you may need to find a different trustee. The one who told you that you should file a credit proposal doesn't make any sense.

On a more positive note, your husband should be able to get a job with an AZ licence. Perhaps, you live in Ontario, since you said "AZ" instead of "Class 1."

Unfortunately, for truckers, the wages haven't increased for the last 10 or 12 years. In fact, in real adjusted for inflation dollars, they've significantly decreased for reasons that I can't go into here. Nonetheless, he could make some kind of a living driving any kind of truck, even if it was just a "DZ" or "G." I know if I had a wife and 2 kids at home, I would take anything if I couldn't get something good to put food on the table.

I don't work in trucking but I do know something about it as I also have a AZ licence, and you don't need to have 3 years experience to get hired.

However, it can be hard to get on without at least 6 months to 1 year's experience. That's because insurance companies, through their premium rates, largely decide who a company will be able to afford to hire. Many of the companies in Ontario hire right out of the major truck driving traing schools as long as the schools are TTSO (Truck Training Schools of Ontario) affiliated. Not that they are are necessarily any better than other ones, but the owners have done a bit of a snow job on many company recruiters dissing other training schools as being merely "licence mills" compared to theirs. That's mostly a pile of rubbish as far as I can see; but in any event, they've convinced companies, along with their insurers, that their graduates are better.

Therefore many insurance companies have been willing to grant newly licenced AZ drivers from certain training schools, credit with 3 to 6 months of driving experience, since they are supposedly "more advanced." Well, a truck is a truck and the MTO test is the same for everyone.

Nevertheless, the industry is in a constant need for drivers because of the regular turnover due to what is effectively) increasingly lower wages. Thus a lot of companies (especially if they do the miserable Eastern Seaboard) will give someone a driving test which, if they pass half decently, will get them a job offer.

Ray

Thanks for the private email.

Sorry, I've been in the middle of helping some women with their resumes recently and haven't had a chance to answer any posts.

I was showing your letter this morning to a loan manager at a bank [as we were preparing for a wedding - his, not mine] and asking him how he would respond. So many sad letters, such as "athomemom's" are similar to yours, I showed him your post as an example of how many people are increasingly living on the edge due to the eroding levels of disposable incomes. Wages simply are not matching inflation. Heck, he and his fiance are bank managers and they're having, well, not the easiest time making a go of it, especially after having purchased an expensive house. (And these days, pretty well all houses are expensive.)

My friend asked if your husband had applied for or was getting EI. I told him that was probably a useless suggestion as EI payments are pretty small and temporary and I'm sure you were doing everything already that could be done.

When you get this far down, most of the remaining decisions will effectively already have been made for you - unless you can get a decent second income happening. A credit proposal would be waste of time, counterproductive and only postpone the inevitable. If you miss one more payment on your mortgage, many banks (but not all) will start foreclosure proceedings. If you did have any equity in your home, your unsecured creditors would have probably sued you and had their collection agencies slap a writ on your property. Surely, if you pull your 2 credit bureau reports and search your provincial property security registry, you'll find lots of recent inquiries by them on there sizing you up. Since you have virtually no equity in your home, they realize there would be no point in either suing you or petitioning you in to bankruptcy.

I wish I could be more positive, but given the situation, a frank talk with a bankruptcy trustee may well be your only option. Even if your husband got working again, he would have to be making a significant level of income to pay off all the debt. It would be just about impossible to get a consolidating low interest revolving line of credit, given what has occurred so far.

Ray

my husband and i have $45000 debt combine, this happens when my husband lost his job and i just had my second child . we tried to survive for a year using only one income from me which is not much . we have house but cant do anything we just got it last dec 2006 bank say no equity and cant refinance. i havent been paying with all our debts for 8 months now except my mortage , car and food for my kids but even my mortgage i can catch up im always behind two payments. some people said i have no options cuz there is no enough money even to file for proposal some people say leave it now . im so tired and dont know what to do and whom to ask. collection started calling me and harrasing me

please any thoughts or advice is really highly appreciated.

michelle...just takin' a stab in the dark, is your father maurice? if so, email me at keithcancilla@hotmail.com...its your brother.

My situation goes way back to the year 2001. I was contacted by iQor, Inc formerly CBCL - Canadian Bonded Credit Limited - Now Iqor Collection Agency regarding a student loan.

I wasn't working at the time due to being on maternity leave. I was contacted by a gentlman who was demanding payment. I explained to him my situation. He agreed to take a settlement if I paid half of what was owed. I did so.

I sent money orders for each payment and then called him to verify that I had made payment and for what amount. I completed my last payment in April of 2002.

I recently received a letter from another agency A.R.C stating that my debt is still outstanding. I was advised to reach iQor, Inc formerly CBCL - Canadian Bonded Credit Limited - Now Iqor Collection Agency and ask for a settlement letter or she couldn't do anything for me.

When I call iQor, Inc formerly CBCL - Canadian Bonded Credit Limited - Now Iqor Collection Agency all I get is automated service and am unable to speak to someone human. How do I get proof that the settlement was reached if nobody is willing to help me? This is BS. Why should I be doing the leg work for an agency that didn't do their job properly in the first place? It wasn't my responsibility to change the rating on my credit report after payment was received.

Please, I have no where else to turn. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.