Missouri mortgage lenders that charged a “document preparation” fee were breaking the law. Many have already settled and others may now face paying triple damages in class actions at a time when many are already facing pressure from the current credit market meltdown.
The case involved a mortgage company charging its borrower a “doc prep” [...]

You or a family member has been ill. Even if you have health insurance, co-pays and insurance company games may leave you with thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars in medical debt. And if you don’t have health insurance, a serious illness can be a financial nuclear bomb.
Can you file a “medical bankruptcy” just [...]

Yes, but it won’t help.  Current Chapter 13 bankruptcy law does not allow you to change the interest rate, or the loan balance, on the mortgage on your residence.
National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys President Henry Sommer proposes a solution here.
Most of the current version of Chapter 13 dates back to the 1978 enactment of [...]

Bankruptcy courts in all but one circuit rely on the so-called three-part Brunner test for determining whether a student loan is dischargeable in bankruptcy based on a claim of undue hardship.  This test is based on a thirty-year old U.S. Court of Appeals decision (Brunner v. New York State Higher Education Services Corp., 831 F.2d [...]

Borrowers often turn to Chapter 13 bankruptcy when they fall behind in mortgage payments. Chapter 13 can usually stop foreclosures by giving the homeowner three to five years to cure the missed payments while maintaining the ongoing monthly payments. Chapter 13 can not change the ongoing payment amount or lower interest rates. Homeowners turn to [...]

A Northern District of Illinois decision says no. In re Gossett, No. 06B14628 (NDIL April 24, 2007). Judge John Squires interpreted 11 U.S.C. 109(h)(1) and “during the 180-day period preceding the date of filing” to require a calendar date separating the credit counseling and the bankruptcy filing. Judge Squires determined that Congress did not [...]

Cathy Moran’s recent article about the importance of the meeting of creditors drove home the point that the thorough and honest preparation of your court documents is crucial. The most important part of the Meeting of Creditors, however, is just making sure you show up. Full disclosure in the schedules and statements filed [...]

Not long!
A new study reports that nearly 100% of families who file Chapter 7 bankruptcy get credit card offers within a year.
The figures were lower for those who had filed Chapter 13 payment plan cases.
A shocking 20% of those offers are from credit cards they discharged in their bankruptcy case.
This flies in the face of [...]

Yes.
They usually have a reason, but it has nothing to do with your use of the card.  Now, they are worried about credit in general, and all the bad loans they already made, according to today’s Wall Street Journal.
Raising rates after you increase your balance is particularly insidious.  You are in a position where your [...]

Since the first of the year, more than 38,000 mortgage company employees have lost their jobs, and mortgage lenders are themselves going bankrupt or simply shuttering their businesses, 24,000 of them in the last several weeks, MSNBC.com reports.
America’s largest mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial Corp., began an undisclosed number of layoffs this week. Last week, Arizona [...]