Credit Links

The Average American Lawyer Makes $113,600 - But the Spectrum is Broad (The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog)

The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:35:55+0100

The Chicago Tribune ran an interesting article about attorney salaries last week. Of course, the general public has a vision of attorneys as lining the walls with money--and maybe once upon a time many of us did, too. In the...

Visit Start Fresh Today at NACBA! (The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog)

Finally - a Creditor's Organization that Tells the Truth! — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:02:36+0100

If you're in Las Vegas for the annual NACBA conference, stop by and visit the Start Fresh Today booth. And, if you're not familiar with Start Fresh Today's products, sign up for a free debtor education course demo. You can...

Thanks to All Who Attended Start Fresh Today's Fundraiser at NACBA (The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog)

NACBA Testimony Prompts U.S. Trustees to Change Audit Procedure — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:22:51+0100

With your help, we raised $3,000 for the Philadelphia County Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project. Thanks to everyone who attended and donated to the cause. Photographs of the fundraising event and the trade show itself are available on Start Fresh Today...

Student Loan Difficulties in Midst of the Credit Crunch (The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog)

The Average American Lawyer Makes $113,600 - But the Spectrum is Broad — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:18:27+0100

It’s the time of year when many high school seniors are deciding which college they will be attending in the fall. In 2008, this decision-making has been marked by growing concerns about student loan availability during these troubled times for the U.S. economy.

Start Fresh Today at NACBA (The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog)

Commercial Law League of America's BAPCPA Survey — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:25:23+0100

Visit us at the NACBA conference in Philadelphia this weekend to find out how Start Fresh Today's one-stop-shop can help save bankruptcy practitioners time and money, or just to enjoy the company of your colleagues and contribute to a good...

Sliced, Diced and Flipped Mortgages May be a Blessing in Disguise for Consumers (The Bankruptcy ...

Minimum Wage Increase Takes Effect Today — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:36:22+0100

The prevalence of flipping mortgage loans and chopping them up into securitized pools is providing an unexpected benefit for many homeowners facing foreclosure proceedings. As April Charney and other attorneys across the country have discovered, many mortgage lenders and purchasers,...

NACBA Testimony Prompts U.S. Trustees to Change Audit Procedure (The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog)

Sliced, Diced and Flipped Mortgages May be a Blessing in Disguise for Consumers — Mon, 21 May 2007 17:27:01+0100

The documentation required for a consumer bankruptcy petitioner during an audit has created problems for clients and consumer bankruptcy attorneys since the process was instituted. The standard document request letter required detailed records dating back six months--records that few debtors...

Minimum Wage Increase Takes Effect Today (The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog)

Credit Industry Implicitly Endorsing "Adverse Events" Model of Bankruptcy? — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:37:13+0100

Today, the federal minimum wage increases to $5.85/hour. The increase comes after nearly ten years during which the minimum wage remained fixed at $5.15/hour, and includes two automatic increases on July 24, 2008 and July 24, 2009. Two years from...

Judiciary Committee Passes Bankruptcy Bill (The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog)

Important Bankruptcy Median Income Data Update — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 19:27:49+0100

Many commentators have suggested that President Bush's mortgage plan was intended to sandbag the effort to make home mortgages subject to modification in bankruptcy. Naturally, mortgage lenders and investors would much prefer a plan that left the decisions in their...

Important Bankruptcy Median Income Data Update (The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog)

Donald Trump Knows How to Save Your Home...or Not — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:19:35+0100

Please note that bankruptcy cases filed on or after February 1, 2008 (today) will be subject to the Census Bureau’s updated median family income data and the Administrative Expense Multipliers. You can check out the updated figures at the U.S....

Finally - a Creditor's Organization that Tells the Truth! (The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog)

Judiciary Committee Passes Bankruptcy Bill — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:33:55+0100

After ten years of disingenuous representations by the credit industry as it lobbied for bankruptcy reform and the recent protestations of innocence over the BusinessWeek article revealing that many major creditors are selling debts that have already been discharged in...

Eight Ways to Avoid Business Debt and Do a Better Job of Providing for Your Employees (The ...

Student Loan Difficulties in Midst of the Credit Crunch — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:41:14+0100

Consumer bankruptcies are obviously a major focus of this blog. As bankruptcy lawyers, we have an interest in helping consumers attain a fresh financial start from debt by showing them how filing bankruptcy may be able to help them responsibly...

Donald Trump Knows How to Save Your Home...or Not (The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog)

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:29:57+0100

Donald Trump has done pretty well for himself financially, and that might equip him to give advice to those aspiring to become millionaires, but it appears that he's a little out of touch when it comes to issues like everyday people facing mortgage foreclosure.

Dollar Amount Changes Take Effect April 1 (The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog)

2005-2006 Bankruptcy Filing Statistics Comparison Misleading at Best — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 17:35:59+0100

Automatic adjustments to dollar amounts across several sections of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code will take effect on April 1, 2007, impacting Chapter 12 and Chapter 13 eligibility, maximum exemption values in certain categories, means test calculation, and more. The Memorandum...

Credit Industry Implicitly Endorsing "Adverse Events" Model of Bankruptcy? (The ...

Bankruptcy Code Revision to Fight Foreclosure in the Works? — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:56:41+0100

Katherine Porter's recent longitudinal post-bankruptcy study revealed something that may be hard for the credit industry to explain--something we've all known though anecdotal evidence for a long time, but which can no longer be denied: credit card companies are very,...

Commercial Law League of America's BAPCPA Survey (The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog)

Thanks to All Who Attended Start Fresh Today's Fundraiser at NACBA — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:43:19+0100

Although October 17, 2005 is the day that lives on in infamy in all of our minds, it was two years ago this month that BAPCPA was actually enacted. The Commercial Law League of America's Bankruptcy Section conducted a survey...

Bankruptcy Code Revision to Fight Foreclosure in the Works? (The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog)

Visit Start Fresh Today at NACBA! — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 22:04:11+0100

Word on the street (and in the New York Times) is that Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) will soon propose legislation to amend the Bankruptcy Code in order to better protect American homeowners facing foreclosure. We don't yet know much about...

BAPCPA Provisions Declared Unconstitutional as Applied to Minnesota Attorneys (The Bankruptcy ...

Start Fresh Today at NACBA — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:09:54+0100

Yesterday, the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota entered its final order in the Milavetz case, granting the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment and declaring that: 1. Sections 526 (a) (4), 528 (a) (4) and 528 (b)...

2005-2006 Bankruptcy Filing Statistics Comparison Misleading at Best (The Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog)

BAPCPA Provisions Declared Unconstitutional as Applied to Minnesota Attorneys — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 22:44:58+0100

At long last, the Administrative Office of the Courts yesterday released the fourth quarter and annual 2006 bankruptcy filing statistics; the headline on the Courts' press release reads, "Bankruptcy Filings Plunge in Calendar Year 2006". Of course, the numbers and...

Credit score case study (Personal credit blog)

Personal credit blog — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 15:47:00+0100

This Motley Fool article details the effects that different actions would likely have on a real individual's credit score. Interesting....

What to do with unused credit accounts (Personal credit blog)

Credit score case study — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 21:27:00+0100

This article at Motley Fool offers advice about what to do if you have credit accounts that you no longer use. As with so much else related to personal credit, the best choice is counter-intuitive: it's probably best for your...

Interest only mortgages (Personal credit blog)

What to do with unused credit accounts — Sun, 03 Apr 2005 22:44:00+0100

This is even crazier than adjustable-rate mortgages (discussed previously here and here): in southwest Florida interest-only loans (in which the holder only pays interest, no principal for a certain amount of time) constitute up to 75% of mortgates being taken...

How to buy a car (Personal credit blog)

Interest only mortgages — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 21:49:00+0100

This blogger has analyzed every possible financial factor related to buying a car. It's pretty impressive....

More about adjustable rate mortgages (Personal credit blog)

How to buy a car — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 21:24:00+0100

My previous entry was an attempt to understand why people are taking adjustable rate mortgages in the current realtively low-interest-rate climate. Well, a wire story out today confirms my conclusions--both about the reasons for people taking out ARMs and the...

Adjustable rate mortgages (Personal credit blog)

More about adjustable rate mortgages — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 15:27:00+0100

A while back, I was reading about the supposed housing bubble when something caught my eye: if interest rates start to go up significantly, people with variable rate mortgages might be in trouble, as their mortgage payments would increase. I...

Pre-nuptial credit check (Personal credit blog)

Adjustable rate mortgages — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 16:01:00+0100

This article in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette advises couples to examine each other's credit scores and reports before getting married, as part of a general goal of learning to talk about finances sooner rather than later. Seems creepy, but...

Credit counseling scams (Personal credit blog)

Pre-nuptial credit check — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 22:25:00+0100

Late night TV is littered with ads for credit counseling, many of which emphasize that they are 'non-profit'. I've long assumed that if they were truly public service agencies, then they wouldn't be advertising on late-night TV. More recently, my...

Personal bankruptcy case study (Personal credit blog)

Credit counseling scams — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 22:09:00+0100

This article on MSN Money, offers advice on how to survive personal bankruptcy. In that, it is like gazillions of other articles on the web. What differentiates this article from the pack, however, it that it incorporates a case study...

Marketing credit cards to students (Personal credit blog)

Personal bankruptcy case study — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 15:47:00+0100

According to this article, the Washington state legislature is considering a bill that would restrict the marketing of credit cards to students at state universities. I agree that aggressive credit card marketing--not just to college students--is a problem, but I'm...

The one true credit score (Personal credit blog)

Marketing credit cards to students — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 22:25:00+0100

These days, consumers are advised to periodically get and examine their credit reports and credit scores from the big three credit reporting companies (TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax). But as this article points out, the credit scores that the three companies...

'Stated income' mortgage loans (Personal credit blog)

The one true credit score — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 16:16:00+0100

If you don't believe that your credit score is all that matters, check out this article on stated income mortgage loans: For people whose credit is good enough, "stated income" loans work much like this. Consumers pay slightly higher interest...