Could your neighbor's foreclosure affect your ability to resell you home even though you are not personally facing foreclosure? Maybe. Many homeowners are finding that the large amounts of foreclosures in their neighborhood are having an indirect affect on their ability to resell their home at a profitable price or to break even. When a [...]
The first phase of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (aka Credit Card Act) goes into effect February 22, 2010. The new law will require certain disclosures to all credit card consumers. The following disclosures must be present on every monthly statement sent to credit card borrowers: The total number of months it [...]
Filing a lawsuit against a debtor is not a creditor's first choice. A lawsuit usually comes after many months and sometimes years of chasing after a non-paying debtor. Creditors know that even if they file a lawsuit, it can be quickly neutralized with bankruptcy. When a debtor fails to respond to a creditor lawsuit, the [...]
When a debtor fighting foreclosure receives a loan modification there is a possibility that it may have a negative impact on their credit report. Mortgage modifications are reported to the credit bureaus in one of two ways: Settled or charged off. If you were fighting foreclosure and received a mortgage modification that decreased the principal [...]
The CARD Act of 2009, limiting many abusive practices of the credit card industry, goes into effect in February. However, as we have previously reported, the credit card industry is slithering around many of the new law and is still finding out more sneaky ways of ripping off American debtors. Even in the months before [...]
In an effort to make up for the loss of profits expected when the Credit Card Act becomes effective, many credit card lenders are placing borrowers in "pick-a-rate" programs that gives the lenders a lot more flexibly to hit borrowers with interest rates way above their expectations. In a report released by the Center for [...]
In preparation for the impact of the Credit Card Act, all eight of the top credit card issuers have imposed larger late fees, even for borrowers with small balances. While credit card issuers claim that they impose late fees on a sliding scale with smaller balances taking less of a hit, that couldn't be farther [...]
Has it been 3 weeks, 6 months or a year since you first applied for mortgage modification so that you could avoid foreclosure ? Has your mortgage servicer lost important documents? Have they left you on hold for 30 minutes-an hour or "accidentally" dropped the line? What about the quality of information you receive about [...]
According to an article in the Star-Telegram, the home buyer tax credits have been approved and are expected to be signed into law by President Obama. For first-time home buyers (or anyone who has not owned a home in the past 3 years), legislators extended a tax credit of up to $8,000 which was originally [...]
Many debtors considering bankruptcy often want to keep their car while discharging their unsecured debts such as a credit card. But depending on how their car loan document was written they may not be able to keep their car without paying off both the car loan balance and the credit card balance. How can this [...]