When someone is struggling to meet their monthly bills, they can sometimes do irrational things. One of those things is to take out a payday loan. A payday loan is a small, unsecured, high interest, short-term cash loan. In most cases, consumers write a post-dated, personal check for the advance amount, plus a fee. The…Read more
How Long Will It Take to Pay Off My Credit Cards?
One of the factors that I ask people who come in for their free consultation to think about is, how long will it take to pay off their credit cards. If their debt-to-income ratio is out of kilter, it could take years and years before they make even a debt in their credit card debt. …Read more
Should I Use a Home Equity Loan to Pay Off Credit Cards?
Suze Orman is in a tizzy (see video below). She is ranting about some bad financial advice she heard on television, in which some “debt experts” recommended using a home equity loan to pay off credit cards. She and I agree: this is a BAD idea. Credit card debt is unsecured debt. Once you pay…Read more
What Happens When a Creditor Charges Off My Debt?
Whenever we prepare a bankruptcy petition, one of the things we do is run our client’s credit report. This helps to make sure that all of the client’s debts are listed on the petition and properly discharged. When a client reviews the petition, he’ll see an old debt and ask if it needs to be…Read more
Which Debts Should I Pay Off First?
How to Manage Student Loan Debt
If you have been researching how to discharge student loan debt in bankruptcy, you know that it is next to impossible. Check out the below video from CBS News about how to manage your student loans.
Can I Get a Secured Credit Card After Bankruptcy?
If you are like most people who file bankruptcy, one concern you have is how to re-establish your credit score. One of the more effective and sensible ways of doing so is with a secured credit card. A secured credit card is called that because it is secured by cash that you deposit with the…Read more
Scam Alert – Protecting Your Tax Return
How to Make Sure Debt Collectors Can’t Find You On Facebook
I’m a big fan of Facebook. It helps me keep up with what’s going on with my family who is strewn all over the country. And I have reconnected with friends that I haven’t heard from years and even decades. But that doesn’t mean that I like everything about it. I tolerate its nonchalance to…Read more
How to Stop Creditors from Garnishing Federal Benefits
The below information is from a Federal Trade Commission Consumer Alert: If you receive federal benefits and have an unpaid debt, a creditor or the debt collector it hires may get a court order to try to take money from your bank account to pay the debt. The court order is called a garnishment. What’s…Read more