Avoid Personal Bankruptcy

About two months and two weeks after your bankruptcy trustee hearing, you should get your bankruptcy discharge.

You should get your bankruptcy discharge about two months and two weeks after your bankruptcy hearing

When you get the discharge, it’s time to go to work on your after bankruptcy good credit.

To get back to good credit, you need to get a credit card.

Most people get a couple credit card offers in the mail.  You may have to pay $139.00 application fee to get a $300.00 credit card.

But a $300.00 credit card can get you something that you really need–good credit after bankruptcy.  Charge gasoline, or something you have to buy anyway, every month.  Pay it in full every month.

After about six months, you’ll start getting pre-approved $1000.00 credit cards.  I recommend you get three or four.   (It helps your credit score to have higher credit limits–as long as you don’t use those high limits.)

Each week, drive around with a different credit card in your pocket and use it to charge that week’s gas.  Each month when the bills come, pay them in full.  (You are NOT trying to get

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If you have fallen into a financial rut, digging yourself out can be challenging. Ideally, you should improve your credit score by paying off outstanding debts and establishing new credit accounts. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. The reality is, you may have difficulty getting approved for new credit with a low score. In a shaky economic climate, lenders are becoming more selective about who they work with, especially when it comes to mortgages. Many lenders require a 20 percent down-payment in order to guarantee a mortgage. However, take a second look before assuming home ownership isnt for you. Whether you are simply looking to improve your credit score or rebuild credit altogether, investing in real estate may be a suitable option. Below are a few avenues of financing (depending on your current credit score):

FHA Loans

Secure loans are a safer way to improve credit and establish a solid track record in real estate debt. If you have decent credit, a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan could be the best option. Backed by the government, this mortgage loan is a way to purchase a home with a down payment as little as 3.5 percent. Read more…

If you’re recovering from a bankruptcy filing, trying to get out of debt or otherwise attempting to improve your finances, there’s nothing quite as frustrating as thinking you’re doing well spending-wise, only to find unexpected charges on your credit card bill.

Now, thanks to a new law passed at the end of December, your chances of hanging on to your money when you shop online just got a little better.

The “Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act”

Here’s a summary of what the new law requires of online vendors and why Congress decided to pass it.

• Certain types of online transactions now illegal: Specifically, third-party, post-transaction vendors cannot charge (or try to charge) a customer for any good or service UNLESS the customer explicitly consents to the transaction and provides the appropriate account information and the marketer provides the full terms of the transaction.
• Online transfer of customer data now illegal: The second provision of this consumer protection law is that online vendors can no longer share consumer information with each other. In other word

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If you’ve been sued for unpaid debt, it’s easy to go into denial mode and ignore it. If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that denial is never a good solution. However, there are at least 5 actions you should not take if you’ve been sued by a creditor.

1. Don’t ignore. I meet with so many clients who will say things like, “well, according to google, I can just ignore it” or “the summons was just left on my doorstep so I thought it was safe to ignore because I was not properly served.” We’ll leave my thoughts on “googling” your problems alone for now. However, I will say that there is lots of false information on Google! Please do yourself a favor and call an attorney.
2. Don’t call the creditor’s attorney. I know. You’re probably thinking, if I can just explain my situation to the creditor’s attorney, he will understand and drop the case. WRONG! Creditors are after one thing – money. And believe me when I say this, they will take the clothes off your back or food out of your child’s hands given a chance. They are in it to make money. They don’t care if you’ve never mis

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Today’s top news headlines feature advice on how to use payroll tax deduction and reduce monthly mortgage payments. Plus, find out why bankruptcy filings were so high in 2010.

Itemizers Must Wait to File Taxes CNN Money The Internal Revenue Service announced taxpayers who plan to itemize their deductions must wait until mid- to late-February while the agency updates its systems to reflect the new tax laws. The delay will not affect all taxpayers, but solely those who plan to itemize deductions, which may relate to tax breaks for state and local taxes, education, medical and dental expenses and charitable contributions.

Recasting May Help Homeowners Save The New York Times Homeowners unable to refinance their mortgages are being urged to explore other options, such as recasting, to save money. Recasting, also dubbed re-amortization, allows individuals to reset their monthly payments after putting a large lump sum toward their principal. T

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Mimi Ash and her husband Robert loved taking weekend getaways to their mountain home in Truckee, Calif., to ski and relax. After Robert was stabbed to death in a road rage incident in 2005, Mimi brought his cremated remains to the ski house above Lake Tahoe in a wooden box with the words “Together Forever” inscribed on the lid.

But when Ash returned to the house in January 2009 for a weekend getaway, she found her husband’s remains gone, along with everything else in the house – family photos, furniture, her son’s ski medals.

The burglar was Bank of America. According to a lawsuit filed by Ash, a series of screw-ups by the bank forced her into foreclosure. As she negotiated to keep the house, the bank promised not to foreclose until her loan modification was decided.

Instead, Bank of America sent contractors to the house. They threw all its contents in the trash, including her husband’s cremated remains. And they changed the locks.

“It all ended up in landfills,” says Carlin Phillips, the Massachusetts attorney representing Ash in her lawsuit against the bank. “The loan servi

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