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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 […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Managing Money

The Most Powerful Debt Management Tool

By Cathy Moran

debt management tool

The most powerful debt management tool isn’t a software program. It isn’t a website, nor a consulting firm. It isn’t even a calculator. The most powerful debt management tool is a letter opener. If you don’t open the mail, you don’t really know where you stand with your creditors. If you don’t open the mail, […]

Filed Under: Featured, Managing Money Tagged With: debt management

Get Annual Credit Report For Free

By Cathy Moran

free credit report band

When is FREE not FREE? In a world seemingly driven in all matters by credit reports, getting that report for nothing ought to be a good thing, But the commercial entities beat the federal government to the web address freecreditreport.com. And they also got a better ad agency that wrote catchy tunes promoting their product, […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Managing Money

The Worst Reason To Choose Debt Settlement Over Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

The guy with an old debt asked if bankruptcy or debt settlement would cause greater damage to his “credit”. The money advice columnist gave the right answer to the wrong question. She got it backwards. She advised that bankruptcy was more damaging given that the nagging debts were already three years old and would drop off his […]

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

Pay Down Debt Or Save? Which Should Come First

By Cathy Moran

Pay off debt first or start saving now? It’s a debate almost as convoluted as which came first, the chicken or the egg? Experts heatedly take opposite sides. You get rid of debt faster if you put all available cash into paying off balances. BUT You have no reserves for the unexpected if you spend everything that […]

Filed Under: Featured, Managing Money Tagged With: 2016

Caution: Freedom Debt Relief

By Cathy Moran

Here’s the consent decree obtained by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against Freedom Debt Relief in mid-2019. Freedom Debt Relief stip. For some perspective on debt settlement as a solution to serious debt, see these posts over more than a decade from Bankruptcy Soapbox. Debt Settlement Is A Dud How Debt Settlement Really Works The […]

Filed Under: Managing Money, Uncategorized

Bankruptcy and “Ruining your credit score”

By Cathy Moran

  No matter how precarious their financial situation, almost every client I meet thinks bankruptcy will ruin their credit score. Not only ruin it, but damage it for all time, precluding normal life after bankruptcy. Some resolve to stagger along, burdened with their debt and the fear of escaping debt. So, my encounter with a […]

Filed Under: Featured, Managing Money

Financial Literacy Building Block: Compound Interest

By Cathy Moran

financial literacy building blocks

    Albert Einstein said compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world. Those who understand it, earn it.  He who doesn’t, pays it. In other word, it’s a double edged sword. Terrific if you’re earning it.  Debilitating if you’re paying it. And compound interest is a fundamental building block of personal financial literacy. […]

Filed Under: Featured, Managing Money, Student loans Tagged With: 2016

Smoke, Mirrors, And Budgets: Are You Missing Where Your Money Goes

By Cathy Moran

Budget tricks keep lots of us from seeing where our money goes. If you don’t know where it’s going, you don’t know whether your spending priorities are sound. As a bankruptcy attorney, I hear this alot:I can’t save anything because it takes every dollar I make just to get by. Sound like a description of your […]

Filed Under: Featured, Managing Money Tagged With: budgets, cost of living

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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 on how I think law should work for the consumer and small businesses when it comes to debt.

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

How Bankruptcy Works

High Income Earners Pass Bankruptcy’s Means Test

ALERT:   Being above the median income on the means test is not an automatic bar to filing bankruptcy I'm so used to railing against deliberate campaigns of misinformation about bankruptcy that I forget that there's a lot of innocent ignorance out there. Start with "qualifying" for bankruptcy. A very … Read more

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