Promising to repay a student loan can be an expensive proposition. First of all, there doesn’t seem to be any determination as to how much you can afford to repay. The lending companies will simply write the checks so that the student can finish her education. When you guaranteed the loan, it was only a [...]
May 2009
Consumer credit is drying up – fast. We expect this will result in tens of thousands of new bankruptcy cases by the end of 2009 and even more through 2010. Every credit card issuer has been approving fewer new applicants, reining in credit lines and canceling unused accounts. Lenders are also eliminating teaser rates and ratcheting up [...]
Prospective Chapter 13 attorney fees are deductible from income for the Means Test. You remember the Means Test, don’t you? It’s that nasty form for Above Median Income Debtors to determine if they might be forced into a mandatory five year Chapter 13 case. Line 44 of the Chapter 7 Form B22A, and Line 49 [...]
Yesterday on Greater Boston (the PBS television program) Martha Coakley, the Massachusetts Attorney General, warned consumers against the increasing number of scams promising mortgage modifications for an upfront fee. The number of these scams have been increasing due to the economic crisis. Ms. Coakley language was very general and might have the unintended consequence of [...]
If you are currently participating in a debt management plan (DMP), you must read the following article by the Federal Trade Commission regarding what to do if the company administering your DMP goes out of business: What happens to your DMP if the credit counseling company that managed your debts shuts down? A counseling agency [...]
So its been 2 years now and you are wondering the current status of your Chapter 13. What is your payoff? What claims have been submitted? What is the balance of each claim? How do you go about finding out this information? Many times, debtors simply contact their attorney who they assume has all the [...]
