We’re so used to thinking about married folk as a couple, rather than as two individuals: George and Gracie; Bill and Hillary; John and Abigail. The Bankruptcy Code feeds that perception when it allows a married couple to file a joint case. Two people, one set of papers, one filing fee. But while filing together […]
Dead Debts Haunt Home Purchase
Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. It’s also the price of freedom from old debts, as my former bankruptcy client learned. He was about to close escrow on a new home a couple of years after his discharge. But the sale came to a screaming halt when an old, discharged debt reappeared on his […]
Why Creditors Should Get Less in Chapter 13
Spending every dollar they make, and then some, is often how our Chapter 13 clients got into financial trouble. Yet Chapter 13, as practiced, validates the practice of continuing to spend 100% of each month’s income during the life of the plan. In doing so, we, as a society, squander the chance to use Chapter […]
At Risk Of Arrest For Not Paying Your Debts?
This fake arrest warrant is wrong in so many ways. Repeat after me: we don’t jail people for debt. More on scams and scammers We’re from the IRS and we’re here to help Phone tip to avoid arrest
Mix Old Debts & Good Faith Payments For Bad Results
Old debts don’t live forever. The shell of the debt may hang around, like this mummy, but inside the shell, the debt is dead. But just like a bad mummy movie, old, dead debt can be brought back to life. All it takes is an attempt on your part to be honorable , or an attempt by […]
The Collection Call That Terrifies
Nothing strikes terror in someone behind on their bills like the fear that the collector will call their family. Sheer terror. It works, too. That fear is second only to a wage garnishment for bringing people to see a bankruptcy lawyer. The only flaw in the collector’s strategy in contacting your family about your debts […]
Money Troubles Plague My Vacation
I needed a vacation, badly. After a long year launching Money Health Central, practicing bankruptcy law through the Great Recession, and teaching new bankruptcy lawyers at Bankruptcy Mastery, I was drained. Three weeks away sounded like Nirvana. I had three weeks in which I didn’t have to post a thing to the three or four […]
Credit card “overspending” parallels housing crisis
Forbes has compiled a list of cities where credit card spending is highest. My scan of the list suggests that this list is simply another version of the areas of the country where housing is in trouble. Homeowners with outsized mortgage payments rely on credit cards to make up the difference needed to support the […]
Taking my own advice Part Two
The return receipt on my “do not contact” letter to ATT arrived at my office showing receipt on July 6th. Between July 7 and July 10, we got seven calls at home about the disputed account; on July 12th, we got a call from NCO who announce that the account has been turned over to […]
The Price of Keeping the Car
Car manufacturers lobbied Congress to make it harder for debtors to keep their cars through bankruptcy. And they got what they sought. In Chapter 7, that was accomplished by eliminating the “ipso facto” clause, which said that merely filing bankruptcy was not a breach of the purchase contract. The expectation was that debtors would reaffirm […]
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