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Debt settlement: how it really works

By Cathy Moran Leave a Comment

debt settlement behind the curtain

Debt settlement companies thrive on tapping the consumer’s genuine desire to pay back their debts. They don’t tell you how debt settlement works, in reality. They promise that they will compromise with your creditors for a sizable discount and all will be well with the world. There are any number of reasons that isn’t so, […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Debt Collection Rights, True Stories

The Real Importance of Your Credit Score

By Cathy Moran

Questions about the real importance of credit scores

Getting credit after bankruptcy is the most frequent search term that bring visitors to Bankruptcy in Brief, my encyclopedic sister site on bankruptcy. In these visitors’ minds, the impact of bankruptcy on their credit score is critical. It’s ironic that readers, saddled with enough debt to consider bankruptcy, worrymost about their credit score. After all, […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights Tagged With: credit score

Bouncing Back From Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

recover from bankruptcy

How long  does it take to recover  from bankruptcy? I started to answer the client’s question before I realized that the question was all backward. Recover FROM bankruptcy?  No…. It should be: recover  THROUGH bankruptcy! Bankruptcy is the tool for recovering from impossible financial situations. The ailment is debt: bills in excess of what you […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights, Life after bankruptcy

Who Needs This Kind Of Help With Debts

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy alternative

Eliminate your unsecured debt sooner than you ever thought possible. That’s the promise of one debt settlement company. It’s in their contract, not just their ads.  It must be so. The pitch preys on people’s profound desire to do the right thing.  Most people want desperately to pay their debts and avoid the “horror” that […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Debt Collection Rights Tagged With: bankruptcy alternatives

5 Lies About Bankruptcy That Enrich Creditors

By Cathy Moran

lies about bankruptcy

If the truth will make you (debt) free, your creditors are motivated to lie about bankruptcy. After all, if you think there is no palatable alternative to making payments to them forever, you’ll keep filling their pockets each month. So, there’s no upside for a creditor in feeding you good information about bankruptcy. After all, […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights

Stop Making Quarterly Tax Payments & Stay Within The Law

By Cathy Moran

quarterly tax payment

Uncle Sam expects a quarterly tax payment from the self employed.  Since you don’t get a paycheck with regular tax withholding, the burden’s on you. Lighten the burden. Make this the last quarterly tax payment you pay. Seriously.  Don’t make any quarterly payments for this coming year. Think I’m advocating tax resistance?  No way. The tax collectors […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Taxes Tagged With: self employed taxes

What Is Really Scary About Debt Collectors

By Cathy Moran

Debt collectors as sharks?

When I tell a client to stop paying credit cards, they look at me as though I’d suggested they jump into shark-infested waters. “But they’ll start calling me”, they wail. “I’ll be sent to collection“. In their mind, “collection” is a real place, with manacles dangling, barred windows, and water dripping down moldy dungeon walls. Turns out […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Debt Collection Rights

Why File Bankruptcy? It’s Your Life Expectancy

By Cathy Moran

paying debts

Increasing life spans and the demise of pension plans is why filing bankruptcy now makes sense. Old debt has a way of sucking the air out of today’s budget. You can’t make repairs to your car or see to needed health care or accumulate an emergency cushion because you’re still paying for stuff you bought […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights Tagged With: 2017, IRA, retirement, savings

The Tax Deductions That Hide In Chapter 13

By Cathy Moran

tax deductions bankruptcy

It’s tax time: don’t overlook tax deductions in Chapter 13 bankruptcy case. Tax deductions lurk in the most unlikely places. If your Chapter 13 plan is catching up home loan arrears, there’s a deduction hiding in the trustee’s disbursement records. Most likely, the lender’s filed proof of claim in the bankruptcy case is full of […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Taxes

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Bankruptcy Basics

About The Soapbox

You’ve arrived at the Bankruptcy Soapbox, a resource of bankruptcy information and consumer law.

Soapbox is a companion site to Bankruptcy in Brief, where I try to be largely explanatory and even handed (Note I said “try”).

Here, I allow myself to tell stories and express strong opinions. We dig deeper into how to consider bankruptcy and navigate a bankruptcy case.

Moran Law Group
Bankruptcy specialists for individuals and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area

How Bankruptcy Works

Cheat Sheet For Passing Bankruptcy Means Test

The bankruptcy means test has a fatal weakness in its attempt to keep people out of bankruptcy. Like so much recently, it's health care. It's health care, in the future, to be paid before your creditors get any money in your bankruptcy. It works because, in a logic that only Congress could employ, the means … Read more

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