Administrative discharge is not available according to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio in the case of Donna Gregory v. U.S. Department of Education  (April 1, 2008), which ruled that the requirement of undue hardship must always apply to the discharge of student loans in bankruptcy. The court then used [...]

Recently, Jill Michaux discussed, the “33 Don’ts For Preparing To File Bankruptcy“. My staff reviewed the list and found it to be excellent, but then, they started discussing their own list, recognizing that the “33 Don’ts” involved mostly dealings with the attorney and consequences from the Court. The staff believes [...]

There are lots of street myths about debts and payments. One prevalent one is that the credit card company can’t do anything if you are making even bare minimum payments. This simply isn’t true.
The statement you receive from the credit card company each month has a minimum payment amount. This will change [...]

What is a Debt Collector?
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) defines the term “Debt Collector”  to include ”…any person who uses any instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails in any business the principal purpose of which is the collection of any debts, or who regularly collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, [...]

Millions of Americans have been affected by identity theft.  Identity theft happens when someone else uses YOUR personal information to commit a fraud in your name.   Your personal information can be your name, your social security number, or anything that identifies you as YOU.    Identity thieves can do an incredible amount of damage before they [...]

If you have been researching the Chapter 13 process, you know that your Chapter 13 plan amounts to a three to five year repayment plan in which you send money to the Chapter 13 trustee, who then disburses that money to your creditors.
There are a number of things that can go wrong in a Chapter [...]

Just when you thought you had heard it all in the world of credit card rip-offs, debt collection and bankruptcy, something interesting happened in the office last week.  I met with two different potential clients who stated that their credit cards were cancelled, despite the clients having zero balances on the credit lines and decent credit [...]

Well, yes and no. Yes, a creditor can garnish, but no, they can’t just start garnishing without going through a series of steps first. The first thing that has to happen is the creditor has to file a lawsuit. (There are two exceptions to this first step–the IRS [...]

Whether you qualify for a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13 depends in large part to the Means Test. The Means Test uses a standard for the “Operating Cost” of a vehicle as set by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  The IRS defines Operating Costs as “The operating costs include maintenance, repairs, insurance, fuel, registrations, [...]

People contemplating a bankruptcy filing either already have bad credit or are about to.  You may be perfect with your payments, but you’re running out of steam.  Bankruptcy can improve your credit, since discharged debts must be listed as having a zero balance owed.
Bankrate.com published today about many different ways a bad credit score can [...]