Cosigning a loan links you and your cosignor together for the life of the debt. If you get in financial trouble, your troubles are your co signor’s troubles too. If you can’t pay your debts, the standard bankruptcy discharge will get rid of your debt, but it doesn’t help your co signor. Even while you […]
New Bankruptcy Trends From An Old Hand
I’m seeing a real change in the people seeing me about filing bankruptcy. Used to be, the problem was credit card debt, unemployment, or divorce. A surprising trend over the past six months is developing. I acknowledge the sample size is small. Statistically, you can challenge the significance, but here are the trends. My office is […]
Will You Come Visit Me In Jail?
There’s a warrant out for my arrest, according to the message on my home phone. The charge is criminal tax evasion and tax fraud. The cops are coming for me, unless… Unless, the caller suggests, I call this number and send money. Who knew the feds could be bought off? Of course, it’s a scam. […]
Closing Up Shop
What can you do when it becomes obvious that your business should close? The hardest part of being in business is recognizing when the business has no future and needs to close. Yet the overwhelming majority of new businesses fail within 5 years. So you’re not alone. In fact, in the face of the pandemic, […]
Bankruptcy Is Not Your Last Resort
Every personal finance guru intones that “bankruptcy is the last resort.” In my opinion, they have it wrong: bankruptcy is the big gun in getting out of a financial mess. But it shouldn’t be the last thing you try to get financially healthy. You shouldn’t mess around with lesser solutions if those solutions don’t do […]
Get A Bankruptcy Discharge Even Without Making All Your Payments
You can get a Chapter 13 discharge even without making all the plan payments you promised. There are hoops to jump through and facts to marshal to get that discharge, but it’s possible. The Bankruptcy Code provides for a hardship discharge in Chapter 13 to those whose failure to complete their plan is due to circumstances […]
Sloppy Mortgage Servicers Prey On Borrowers
Given the way they behave, you’d think mortgage servicers actually flew a pirate flag over their operations. They cash your check for the mortgage payment, then who knows what they do with it and what they credit it to. Outside of bankruptcy, screw ups in handling your payments are a breach of the contract […]
Turned Down For A Bank Account? Fight Back
Turned down when you tried to open a bank account? We have a clue why. We all know the big three credit reporting agencies: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. But if you’ve been turned down for a bank account, you need to meet the other players in this space: the checking account screening companies. Certegy ChexSystems […]
List It Or Lose It: Why It’s Critical To Tell All
It is vital to include everything in your bankruptcy list of assets. Transparency is the essential ingredient in bankruptcy. The name of the game is disclosure. In exchange for that full disclosure in your bankruptcy papers of assets , debts, and financial history, you get a discharge. Do it right, everyone with notice of your […]
10 Top Tricks Of The Lending Industry
The tricks lenders use to sell you a bad loan are limited only by the imagination of the lender. And they’re all conceived with one end in mind — big profits, not helping you. And, unlike Pinocchio’s ever-growing nose, the consumer doesn’t see any tell-tale signs that warn of deception at work when credit’s being […]
