Bankruptcy Questions Answered

bankruptcylawyers asked:

Debt is a major concern for many consumers today. Learn more about how to manage your debt and what to do if you are facing bankruptcy.

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bankruptcylawyers asked:

Federal bankruptcy. US federal bankruptcy law establishes the rights of consumers in debt. Learn more about how federal bankruptcy laws affect you.

Jon Arnold asked:


In recent years, the rate of filed bankruptcies has been closely tracked. From the recent high in 2005 of bankruptcy filing, the year 2006 represented a significant drop in the reported number of filings, but after the end of 2006, the rate of bankruptcy filing has started to increase again.

One of the factors for this may be the new bankruptcy ruling laws that requires consumers to attending financial management and credit counseling sessions before they can file bankruptcy. But since that law was put into effect, numerous studies have shown clearly that such counseling does little good for the consumer. The big problem with this law is that it makes the assumption that the consumer who is filing bankruptcy is doing so out of excessive financial mismanagement or credit abuse. Anyone who has spent any amount of time studying the underlying causes for why someone would file bankruptcy can tell you, almost after a casual glance, that this is not the case at all with the majority of consumers who file bankruptcy.

The studies bear this fact out. In fact, out of more than 400,000 consumers that were counseled via these mandatory classes before filing bankruptcy, more than 95% of them continued their bankruptcy filing after completing the classes. The biggest problem here is that by the time a consumer is in a situation to need to file bankruptcy, they have typically exhausted all other viable options, and it is too late to make any significant difference for almost all of them.

The following can be considered early warning signs of possible future bankruptcy that consumers should be aware of:

No/little savings cushion

Most consumers in the US have little or no savings to rely on in case of an expected huge necessary expense. Most Americans spend more than they earn, and they finance their greater lifestyle on credit cards and borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. Although saving is hard, a shift needs to occur in the minds of most consumers about putting a higher emphasis on savings instead of always “living for today”.
Consistently living paycheck to paycheck

Many people say they do not enjoy it but find themselves living from paycheck to paycheck, such that when something happens to prevent that next paycheck from showing up, like a job layoff, they are already in deep sneakers. Some reports have indicated that more than 60% of Americans are in this situation.

Higher than 20% non-mortgage debt to income ratio

If you are spending more than 20% of your net income to pay your credit cards and financial obligations outside of your mortgage, this is a problem, and a warning sign that financial troubles could be near.

Always making only minimum payments on credit cards

Almost half of all people who have credit cards carry a balance forward from month to month. If you pay only the minimum payment due each month, it will take you three or more times as long to pay off the balance, even if you don’t charge anything more to the card.

Inadequate insurance

Many people consider insurance to be a ripoff – until they need it. Many bankruptcies are due to very high cost of medical treatments or car accidents, where the consumer was inadequately insured to allow the insurance company to carry the burden of the majority of the expense.

If you find yourself in these situations, you should take action to straighten things out so that you do not become the next bankruptcy statistic. In addition, consider your alternatives to bankruptcy such as personal loans or debt consolidation, which offer some financial breathing room without the long-term negative effects of bankruptcy.



Bankruptcy Questions

Sergeant Vince Carter, USMC asked:


Do the newspaper unions not have as much suction with politicians? Or are old guard newspapers allowed to fail when their products are rejected by consumers in the marketplace?

Fill This Out For Free Bankruptcy Evaluation!

Marc Chase asked:


Every day thousands of consumers are harassed by debt collectors and many of them have their rights violated by these collectors. The good news is that you can use those violations to have the debts eliminated and your credit repaired in the process. If you know the law, your credit repair process won’t have to rely on generic dispute letters or luck. Let the debt collectors do it for you and you can have your credit repaired, legally and permanently. Here is how…

Debt collectors are governed by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). One section of the Act clearly states consumers cannot be contacted at inappropriate places, like work. I can’t tell you how many collection agents violate this section of the law. There is a caveat however. They may contact your work unless they know your employer does not allow it. Simply write the debt collector notifying them that you cannot be contacted at work and make sure you send it Certified mail, return receipt requested. Should they contact you at work after that, they are in violation of the FDCPA and in a position where negotiation of the debt is usually a piece of cake.

Why these mistakes are common Most debt collector’s phone systems are set up on an automated dialing system. These systems handle thousands of client cases. When your name comes up, the computer automatically dials the numbers it has on file. When you put in a special request (like not calling your work) your file has to be pulled manually and dialed by hand. This rarely happens and therefore, violations commonly occur and leaving the door wide open for you to sue to have it removed.

Negotiate to delete the trade line for their violation. Once the debt collector has violated your rights, simply send a letter with a copy of the following.

* The copy of your original letter where you said you could not be contacted at work

* A copy of the Certified Mail receipt you received which is proof they were notified

* A new letter demanding a deletion of the trade line from your credit report. You may include that you intend to file complaints with the FTC, BBB, Attorney General and you can add that you intend to sue for damages as well.

You will find, once they are caught red handed, negotiations become very easy.

How To Remove A Bankruptcy From Your Credit Report

Credit report repair can be a long, tedious process and one of the hardest items to get removed is a bankruptcy.

In order to remove a bankruptcy, you must remove everything else from your credit report first, here is why…

If you have a bankruptcy and several accounts under it entitled “included in bankruptcy” the credit bureaus will simply assume it’s accurate since you have accounts that are covered under bankruptcy protection.

The First Steps: Go over your credit report very carefully. If you live at an address other then the address where you filed, have it removed. Debts are often tied to addresses.

Then, dispute and remove every account showing as “included in bankruptcy”. This shouldn’t be hard since creditors have very little incentive to verify the information. Why would they? They can’t get paid on it.

This process can take several months be patient, I promise it will pay off. Let’s look at how bankruptcy files are stored; it is the key to successfully removing it from your credit report.

How your bankruptcy is filed and stored. After two years, your file is moved from the local court at which you filed, to a central storage facility. If you go to your local court and request to see your file, they will have to order it and have it brought back to the court.

Have them order it. The time it takes to arrive is about a week. Once it arrives they will put it in a special place and notify you that it has arrived.

Let me back up for a moment. Once you order your BK file, wait about 3 days and then send a dispute to the credit bureaus. They will then call the “storage facility” where your bankruptcy file should be - and discover it won’t be.

It will be either in transition back to your local court, or already there and waiting for you to come view it.

Stall tactics are key. Once your file arrives back to the local court, they will start calling you to come view it. It is very important that you delay as long as possible. Remember, credit bureaus have 30 days to verify any disputed debts and it’s very important you keep your file in that “holding room” for as long as you can.

Tell them, you’re extremely busy at work, but will be there Monday. Call Monday and inform them you had an out of town meeting and promise to be there Friday. What you’re trying to accomplish is keeping that file on hold the entire 30 days while the credit bureaus tries to verify its existence.



Bankruptcy Questions

Pnreddy asked:


Bankruptcy is one option to consider in order giving yourself a “fresh start,” when you have more debts than you have assets. There are in fact many types of bankruptcy provided under the law but the most common is Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which is also known as liquidation.

When filing under Chapter 7 bankruptcy, all your assets, excluding those that are exempt under the law of your state, are dissolved and liquidated. Generally, the person tasked to do this is the court-appointed official, called a trustee.

All in all, the vital task of the trustee is selling your properties and using the proceeds to pay your creditors. After doing such, the court will then cancel many of your remaining debts, thus affording you a “fresh start” to life.

Here is a step-by-step guide to filing a bankruptcy under Chapter 7 bankruptcy:

Step 1: Decide whether you should file bankruptcy or not.

Filing bankruptcy is a personal decision, influenced by many factors, such as the amount of serious debts and your ability to meet the original payments or pay the full amount. For starters, when you are broke, it is never a nice experience getting harassed by creditors for debts incurred. For another, your decision to file should not be made for the sole purpose of putting a stop to your demanding creditors.

This is a significant point as secured creditors may apply for “relief from stay,” thus allowing them to continue their efforts to repossess or foreclose even though you already filed for bankruptcy.

Step 2: Get an attorney

While the law on Chapter 7 bankruptcy does not need individual consumers to hire an attorney who would represent them in court, it is still advisable to ask for legal help, particularly concerning critical decisions involved in bankruptcy.

Step 3: Comply with the legal requirements.

File your petition with the bankruptcy court serving in your area. If you are a business debtor, then file with the bankruptcy court in the place where the business was organized or has its principal place of business or principal assets. Your attorney should be able to advise you on how to deal with these required legal forms.

Step 4: Pay the necessary fees.

As with any other court cases, there are certain fees required, such as:

• Case filing fee

• Miscellaneous administrative fee

• Trustee surcharge

Upon filing, you are usually asked to pay these fees to the clerk of court.

Note that the number of installments is limited only to four. Additionally to that, you are also required to make the final installment no later than 120 days after filing the petition.

Step 5: Notice to the creditors and meeting.

After filing your petition for bankruptcy under Chapter 7, paying the necessary fees, and complying with the legal requirements, an “automatic stay” is granted to you by operation of law. This stay will efficiently stop most collection actions against you and your properties. This means that as long as the stay is in effect, creditors cannot initiate or continue lawsuits, wage garnishments, or even telephone calls demanding payments.

After the bankruptcy case has been filed, the bankruptcy clerk will give notice to all creditors whose names and addresses you provided. Then, the case trustee will hold a meeting of creditors between 20 and 40 days after you filed your petition.

Step 6: Cooperate with the trustee.

The case trustee has a vital role in a bankruptcy case. His primary responsibility is to liquidate your nonexempt assets in a manner that maximizes the return to your unsecured creditors. He does this by selling your property, if it is free and clear of liens and as long as it is not exempt, or if it worth more than any security interest or lien attached to the property and any exemption that the debtor holds in the property.

In view of the broadness of a trustee’s power, it is significant therefore that you cooperate with the trustee. Provide any financial records or documents that the trustee requests and answer questions, which the trustee is necessary to ask at the meeting of creditors under the Bankruptcy Code.

Step 7: After the discharge…

If all goes well with your Chapter 7 bankruptcy case – that is, no one files a complaint objecting to the discharge or a motion to extend the time to object – the bankruptcy court will issue a discharge order relatively early in the case, about 60 to 90 days after the date first set for the meeting of creditors

A discharge order is an order issued by the bankruptcy court, releasing you from personal liability for most debts and preventing your creditors from taking any collection actions against you. As a rule, excluding cases that are dismissed or converted, individual debtors receive a discharge in more than 99 percent of Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases.

For someone filing under Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a discharge of almost all of your debts is the ultimate goal. With the release of all your debts and creditors stopped from pursuing any further collection actions against you, the opportunity for a fresh start is apparent.



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