Yes! Making only minimum payments on debt, especially credit card debt will probably keep you in debt forever or at least almost forever. The real question is, can you pay off your debt and live your life. Are you able to save, invest in retirement, and provide medical insurance for you and your family? What [...]
According to an article in the Boston Globe , credit card companies will reduce lending by more than $2 trillion over the next 18 months. Prompted by rising credit card loan defaults, credit card companies want to take less risk and lend less money to even fewer debtors. In an environment where consumers are spending [...]
Many debtors filing for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy may have bank accounts open for their children and want to know if a creditor can seize the money in those accounts during a bankruptcy. Well, the answer is no, a child's bank account cannot become the property of the bankruptcy estate. But that is [...]
Banks and consumer advocates failed to convince Federal bank regulators that a program designed to forgive huge portions of credit card debt was in the best interest of the economy. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency rejected the proposal for a special program that would forgive as much as 40 percent of credit [...]
In both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the debtor is not allowed to give any creditor preference over another. But what often happens is that before filing for bankruptcy a debtor will repay family and friends while not paying anything to unsecured creditors. This is unwise because if a bankruptcy case is filed within [...]
Although there are definitely benefits to cash-out mortgage refinancing there are some risks that homeowners should know. Inaccurate Appraisals - When taking out a cash-out mortgage refinance there is a risk that your home appraisal may be higher than its true value. If you enter into a cash-out refinance loan based on an inflated appraisal [...]
The average American family now carries over $8,000 in credit card debt. That figure is likely to increase given the present state of the economy. In many cases, it has been the unfair practices of the credit card companies that have contributed to the debt of the average American family. For several years now, credit [...]