Dec 09 2011

Bankruptcy Law Firm Fresno CA

Category: Tipsadmin @ 10:54 am

A bankruptcy filer is a person who is facing financial crisis; it can be credit card debts which get bigger because of an injury, uninsured medical expenses and loss of job; as a result, he incurs various monetary penalties piling up his debt. The U.S. constitution allows bankruptcy under article1, section8 and Clause 4.  You can file your bankruptcy in the USA Bankruptcy courts through a Fresno ca bankruptcy lawyer; the USA federal law governs the legal procedure; while ascertaining property rights, state laws are also applied.

The US Bankruptcy law firm bay area really assists those debtors who need help to start afresh, and want to avoid spending the rest of their life under the unbearable burden of debts. If you have unclear debts, you may not necessarily require bankruptcy law to protect your assets because there are several rules called “Asset Protection” which are a mixture of laws that give you freedom to retain certain property even if you are in the red.

Every state has designed its own laws to specify property you can keep to live a secure and protective life; that’s why you cannot be forced to sell off your bungalow in Texas and Florida, even if your debt amount is bigger than a billion dollar of debt.

In the US law, Chapter 7 and 13 are two types of bankruptcies; Chapter 7 finishes unsecured debts in a few months for all your non exempt properties; people, who generally go for chapter 7 bankruptcy law firm Fresno, do have non-exempt property; at the time of filing up cases, the debtors have their property either protected by exemption laws or pledged as a collateral security for a debt or secured creditor. 

In case of chapter 13 bankruptcies, you do not have to give up your property; you live within a limited amount of money and repay a part of your debts; your monthly budget is strictly monitored by the bankruptcy court trustee; if the fixed monthly payments are not cleared, the chapter 13 bankruptcy fails and the debt amount remains the same unless it is converted to chapter 7 bankruptcy. Chapter 13 Bay area bankruptcy lawyer are mainly for those who have secured debts like mortgages and want to catch up their unpaid debts over a period of time.

A mathematical formula, which is known as “means test” under the new bankruptcy law that took place in October 2005, determines whether you qualify for chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcies. Under the formula, your monthly income, nature of debt and amount and other financial factors are considered. Depending upon the outcome of the formula, you can file for either Chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcies and can seek help from a Law firm Fresno ca to protect your property and restart a new life full of financial freedom.

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Jul 04 2011

Federal Debt Relief Options

Category: Dan Federadmin @ 11:12 pm

Federal debt relief programs have recently taken up centre stage in achieving debt relief. A federal debt relief program may be in the form of a grant from the government in the form of financial assistance. This newly launched stimulus program that has been begun by President Obama, is meant to provide some financial relief to those who have found themselves deeply in debt. Many might feel that there might be few options available to get away from the problem. The federal grant program known as Federal Grants Aimed at Debt Relief for Citizens is aimed directly at those who owe too much and cannot afford to repay it all. So the first step to avail these grants would be to qualify for the grant. Most of these grants focus on one thing- stimulating the economy. This means that one would be far more likely to get a grant if he or she can prove that their debt would negatively impact the economy. For example, a small business that may have to cut jobs or go out of business would be a prime target to receive the grant, and an immediate benefit to the business owner would be a low interest loan or completely free money to use to save the business.
 
Another federal debt relief program that one might find right now would be free credit counseling. This would be something that almost anybody would be eligible for, regardless of how their debt impacts the overall economy. The only requirement may be that the person has debt at all. This can be an excellent alternative for any family that might be considering bankruptcy or debt settlement, especially since the counseling offered is typically part of a government-funded non-profit organization. This means that there is likely a no profit to the organization that offers these services. The new Obama’s Credit card relief program too would be a good option to take to reduce the burden of credit card debts as this program may bring down about 50-60% of the interest charged.
 
Some of the reasons for seeking debt relief may be because of overuse of credit cards, payment of only minimum amounts for a debt thus increasing the interests charged and piling up of debt, mismanagement of finances, spending more than the earning, loss of job or downsizing in the job remuneration. The first step towards debt relief would therefore be to take a hard look at ones finances. It might be a good idea to draw up a list of one’s avenues of income and the individual expenses that cannot be avoided. It might also be a good idea to prioritize the expenses and debts. It would be better to keep the debt with the smallest outstanding on top of the list and start paying off the smaller debts before tackling the larger debts… Being on a budget might be difficult, but it would be beneficial in the long run. If sticking to a budget would be difficult, approaching a reliable debt relief services company for credit counseling by their credit counselors might prove to be beneficial.
 
Some of the popular debt relief options that may be prescribed might be going on a budget, credit counseling, debt consolidation or debt settlement. Budgeting might be difficult to stick with, but by far might be the best solution to get out of debt. The credit counselors at a debt services company would counsel the individual taking into consideration his or her financial status, debts and obligations before chalking out a plan of action. Usually these counselors have to be certified counselors. It would be advisable to check out the debt services company before availing any of their services. The next step might be consolidating all debts into one single debt by availing a debt consolidation loan that might have a comparatively lower interest rate to all the debts put together. This might be helpful as it would be easier to pay a single payment per month rather than multiple payments. The debt consolidation service would then pay the other creditors. Care must therefore be taken while selecting a debt services company by doing a research on the company and by being watchful of fraudsters. It might be a good idea to try and avail the government sponsored programs.

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Dec 03 2010

Eliminate Credit Card Debt Without Debt Counseling

Category: Credit / Debt Managementadmin @ 4:50 pm



Unemployment rates are rising, home foreclosures are at record highs and personal debt levels are at an all time high. Unable to deal with all of these financial pressures, many people are looking for ways to eliminate their credit card debt. But before you contact a debt counselor, read this article. You can completely eliminate credit card debt and this article will show you how.

Before you consider debt counseling as a solution to your credit card problems, you need to look at a couple of other options: debt consolidation, debt elimination programs.

Debt Counseling

Before I go into your alternatives to debt counseling, let’s quickly identify who can benefit from it. Debt counseling works for only a small percentage of people. To find out if it can help you, ask yourself the following questions:

Is my situation a result of lack of self control? Is my situation a result of bad spending habits? Is my situation a result of heavy spending on my “wants” rather than spending on my “needs?”

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, than debt counseling might work for you. However, if your situation is a result of unexpected costs (medical bills, unemployment, etc) and not a result of lack of self control, than counseling will be a waste of your money and time. Let’s look at your alternatives.

Debt Consolidation

If you are considering debt counseling to help eliminate your credit card debts, then you’ve probably already considered a debt consolidation program. While not the best way to eliminate your credit card debt, these systems are worth considering.

Debt consolidation is simply a way of grouping all of your current debts (credit cards, car loans, mortgages, etc) into one, single loan. The best way to do this is through a home equity mortgage with a low rate. The big problem with these programs is that in this economy mortgage requirements are becoming stricter and fewer people can qualify for a second mortgage to pay off their debts. If you have only a marginal credit score and a large amount of revolving debt, qualifying for a mortgage may be next to impossible in this economy.

In addition, while these systems may lower your rates and payments making it easier to pay off your debts over the long term, your total debt amount remains the same. This is one of the many reasons I recommend a debt elimination program instead of a debt consolidation system. I have explained the debt elimination systems below.

Debt Elimination Systems

The most effective way to eliminate credit card debt without debt counseling is with a debt elimination system. Rather than rolling your obligations into one loan, these programs actually erases the amount you owe to your creditors.

These systems are available to anyone with credit card debt. You don’t need to qualify as you do with debt consolidation programs. In fact, most of my clients are able to erase 70%-90% of their credit card balances by using one of the programs I recommend.

I hope this article has convinced you that you can eliminate credit card debt without debt counseling. Using one of the systems I’ve reviewed for my clients, you can save your credit and get completely out of credit card debt.

You can do it!

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Oct 18 2010

Debt Free Programs

Category: Credit / Debt Managementadmin @ 12:50 pm



Debt free programs allow people to get out of the debts as early as possible so that one can lead a debt free lifestyle. Debt consolidation, equity loans, credit counseling, debt settlement, debt management plans, and debt acceleration plan are different debt free programs. All these programs require fixed monthly payments without exception.

Paying fixed monthly amounts may be difficult with respect to salespeople and seasonal workers whose incomes experience ups and downs depending upon the nature of the season and tastes and fashions of their customers. For making fixed payments, one needs a household budget plan to allow room for all the household expenses and the monthly debt payments as well.

Credit counseling helps the debt holder in controlling credit card debts. Another debt free program is debt settlement or debt negotiation, which is an alternative to bankruptcy. It is useful to those people like fluctuating income holders who cannot pay fixed monthly amounts towards debt payments due to the nature of their jobs. Under debt settlement, the person opens a separate savings account and deposits some amount at regular time intervals. Whenever he finds that enough money is piled up to discharge one debt, he makes an offer to his creditor. Afterwards again he will repeat the same procedure to get out of the next debt.

Debt repayment accelerator plan includes the following steps. First of all, the family has to prepare a budget that tells the amount of surplus cash available for the payment to creditors. Then the next step is gathering all the bills and preparing a list stating the names of the creditors, the outstanding amounts, and also the details about the corresponding monthly minimum payments. Subtract the total of the monthly payment minimums from the available surplus cash leaving the resulting value called the accelerator.

In the next step, divide the total balance owed by its respective minimum monthly payment for each and every bill. The resulting figure is called Priority Index for each bill. Then, arrange all the bills in the order, starting from the lowest priority index to the highest. As the final step, add the full accelerator amount to the monthly minimum payment at the top of the priority list and do that every month until it is paid off, paying the minimum on all other bills. When the debt with the top priority index is paid off, a new accelerator is to be calculated by adding the monthly payment of the bill that was just paid off to the old accelerator. Then this new accelerator is to be applied to the second bill in the same procedure explained above.

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