Did you use a credit card prior to filing for bankruptcy? If so, there you need to know that those charges may be excepted from discharge on the grounds that recent use indicates an inability to repay a debt; this is a type of fraud. But take heart – courts are willing to hold creditors [...]
September 2007
Congress just passed The College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007. Â The name suggests that Congress has finally done something about the building crisis in student loans. Â Media sound bites may give this impression, but in reality this is nothing more than a smokescreen hiding those still stoking the fire. A recent post (New [...]
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today approved the assumption of the insured deposits of NetBank, Alpharetta, Georgia, by ING Bank, fsb, Wilmington, Delaware. NetBank, with $2.5 billion in total assets and $2.3 billion in total deposits as of June 30, was closed on September 28, 2007 by the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the [...]
Let’s say you file for bankruptcy and realize only after the fact that you have a possible claim for a violation of a consumer law – Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Truth-In-Lending Act . . . well, you get the picture. If you fail to amend your bankruptcy papers to disclose [...]
Student Loan debt has risen almost geometrically over the past decade or so. Illustrative of this fact is a statistic that tells us that private student loan debt rose 734% to $14 billion between 1994 and 2004. Student loans can present a vexing problem in bankruptcy, particularly in Chapter 13 cases where debtors are prevented from [...]
Public Citizen, a consumer watchdog, just published a new report showing that arbitration disputes between consumers and credit card companies overwhelmingly favor the companies. The report, “The Arbitration Trap: How Credit Card Companies Ensnare Consumers,” shows how credit card companies back consumers into a corner with mandatory arbitration provisions in credit card agreements. The report [...]
