Forbes has compiled a list of cities where credit card spending is highest. My scan of the list suggests that this list is simply another version of the areas of the country where housing is in trouble. Homeowners with outsized mortgage payments rely on credit cards to make up the difference needed to support the […]
Keep the house? Deflector shields up
Logic and reality have been bouncing off my clients’ deflector shields recently on the issue of their houses. Confronted with the gap between their income and even the payment on a modified loan, I get the refrain, “But keeping the house is the most important thing in my case!” Yes, and how do you expect […]
Credit card for emergencies
Can I keep a credit card out of my bankruptcy for future emergencies, clients routinely ask. The short answer is that you can properly omit from your bankruptcy filing any card issuer with whom you don’t have a balance. Those issuers are not creditors at this point. The broader question is just how useful is […]
Student loans ensnare parents
Should you guarantee a student loan, asks my good friend Doug Jacobs. His is the cool, reasoned analysis. I want to jump up and down and say DON”T DO IT. It pains me to say that. My undergraduate education was funded in part with modest student loans. I believe education is the key to much […]
What if you choose an alternative to bankruptcy
I’ve continued to think about my response to David Leibowitz’s discussion of getting out of debt without bankruptcy. My first response focused on the choices inherent in paying off creditors outside of bankruptcy. I forgot to point out the efficacy issue: if you try to pay off your debts via settlement, it takes only one […]
The latest debt collector violation of law
A debt collector including the creditor itself must not contact a California debtor who it knows is represented by an attorney. Yet the collector violation de jour seems to be the refrain, “I don’t care if you have a bankruptcy lawyer, I’ll call you every day until you can provide a bankruptcy case number”. If […]
How long for California foreclosure
The time between a notice of default on a mortgage loan and foreclosure now averages 176 days. California law requires only 112 days. So, while the number of defaults is increasing, the interval between the statutory notice of default and actual sale is also increasing. Before the recent crisis, lenders typically issued a notice of […]
Financial products sold to the unsophisticated
Quick: how is a small Tennessee town like a California family facing foreclosure? The New York Times suggests it’s because they were both sold risky financial products to meet their borrowing needs. The unemployment-wracked town of 11,000 was not told about the interest rate risk in the bond derivatives that financial advisors promoted and sold […]
Financial education program worthwhile
Stand by: I’m going to say something nice about BAPCPA, the bankruptcy “reform” law of 2005. The debtor education requirement that is a condition of getting a discharge is a good idea. Just this week, two clients have reported that they learned useful stuff from the required program. Filing bankruptcy is a teachable moment for […]
Immigrants and bankruptcy disclosure
The culture you grow up in shapes your views of truth telling, business ethics and privacy. I see that day to day as I counsel clients who are immigrants from other parts of the world. It’s sometimes an uphill battle to convince them that the “price” of bankruptcy relief is full disclosure, and that it […]
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