Expert: Terry Leeders - 5/17/2007

Question
My wife and I are discussing filing bankruptcy due to a couple of credit cards that are out of hand, and a pretty decent amount of medical bills that are in collection.  At the moment we have 5 or 6 credit cards and we wanted to keep 3 of those.  But I wanted to know if it was possible to keep those cards, as they are still manageable.  We have also been discussing something like consumer credit counseling service and if you happen to know of a good program that would be great.

Answer
With Chapter 7 you need to list all of the debts in the case.  It would be up to the creditor if they want to let you keep the cards, and usually they won't let you keep them.  Good news...you will have plenty of credit card offers, with reasonable interest rates when you are done with the case....
The thinking is also...why should you stay in debt after bankruptcy? Go ahead and list them all, get a complete fresh start and don't look back.