When you live and spend without following a budget, it can be easy to lose track of how much you are spending and what you are spending it on. Creating and following a budget can make it much easier to prioritize the things that money needs to be used for urgently, and to make sure you aren’t spending more…
Debt can be both confusing and scary, and while there are many people and organizations that will do their best to help, there are also some that see vulnerable people as a chance to make money. For someone struggling with the daily stress of living with debt, a TV ad that promises to solve your debt problem quickly for a fraction of what you owe may seem like a no-brainer. However, frequently the companies that provide these services overpromise and even lie about what they will be able to achieve.
Scammers, people trying to cheat money away from you, may pretend to be a debt collection agency that owns your debt to in order to convince you to send them money. Learn a couple of useful tips about how to identify them, and what to do if a scammer calls you.
If you have a loan on your vehicle, generally you will get to keep it, provided you continue to pay the lender just like you did before you filed bankruptcy. If you miss payments on your car, the lender can repossess your vehicle, but they usually need to obtain permission from the Bankruptcy Judge before doing this. Loans on cars…
If you’re considering bankruptcy, it is very likely you have received correspondence and phone calls from creditors. Creditor calls and never-ending threatening letters in the mail make your debt always on your mind. A recent study reported by Global Citizen in the article “This is Your Brain on Poverty: 5 Facts,” shows how constantly being reminded, let alone harassed, of your…
A lot of clients ask us if they will have to go before a Judge after they file bankruptcy, but in nearly all cases you will never see the inside of a courtroom. Instead, when you file bankruptcy you have to attend the “meeting of creditors,” also called a “341 meeting” after the section of the law that requires it. This…
Yesterday the New York Times reported that Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase have agreed to fix credit reports so debts discharged in bankruptcy are accurately reported as included in bankruptcy. The article states that “this move is a victory for borrowers whose credit reports have been marred as a result of the reported debts, imperiling their job prospects and torpedoing…
Most of the tasks that you will have to do as a client are at the beginning of your case. The bankruptcy process is “frontloaded,” meaning that most, if not all of the information that will be asked of you, must be provided to your lawyer before your case is filed. When you file bankruptcy you are required to submit…
The rumor on the street is that you will lose everything if you file bankruptcy. The rumor is completely untrue and is usually the opinion of uninformed people who do not know how bankruptcy works, or have heard second hand horror stories from other people who have handled their own case without a lawyer and screwed it up. The reality…
As a hardworking, decent and honest person, no doubt you want to be able to pay your bills as they become due. With the slow economy and difficult job market creating financial uncertainty in the workplace, many individuals and families find themselves having to be creative in stretching their dollars to go as far as they can. Sometimes, this is…