you file bankruptcy, it is a good idea to look into other alternatives if at all possible. New bankruptcy laws make it more difficult to file than it used to be.

Why Has Filing For Bankruptcy Doubled?

From the period of 1994 to 2004, filing for bankruptcy has doubled. Bankruptcy filing has spun out of control with consumers being targeted with easy credit. This has become a major cause for bankruptcy cases.

New Bankruptcy Laws?

There is now a new law for bankruptcy that was passed called the “Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act”. People struggling to pay their credit debts are now going to have to deal with this new bankruptcy law.

Bankruptcy Can Stay On Your Credit Report For 10 Years

Filing for bankruptcy can be on your credit for up to a decade. It’s a good idea to look into alternatives for bankruptcy. Buying anything on credit can be a real challenge for many years after you file bankruptcy.

Alternatives To Filing Bankruptcy

Contacting creditors is an alternative to bankruptcy. Instead of filing for bankruptcy, you work out payment options with your creditors. In many cases they are very willing to work with you. It’s to their advantage to keep you as a customer. The creditors know the alternatives for bankruptcy will bring them more profits if you don’t file for bankruptcy.

Getting a debt consolidation loan is a good alternative for bankruptcy. Financial services can combine all your debts into one loan payment every month. A consolidation loan as an alternative for bankruptcy, can help pay off debts. For bankruptcy consolidation loans, you can shop online for the best terms and rates. Lenders are very competitive to earn your business online.

You may also consider a debt workout for bankruptcy alternatives. With a debt workout, an attorney contacts your creditors and makes arrangements. In most cases the monthly payments will be less than if the credit account was settled in full. For some cases they want the payment in full, but over a longer period of time than originally stated on the credit agreement.

Bankruptcy alternatives are a good idea to consider, before you rush off to file for bankruptcy. If you look into some of these alternatives, at least you will know you tried your best to avoid bankruptcy. Having bankruptcy on your credit report for 10 years can be a long time.

How To Find A Bankruptcy Lawyer?

If you have decided there is no alternative to filing bankrupty,you may be asking yourself, “how do I find a good bankruptcy lawyer? The best way to find a good bankruptcy lawyer is through referrals. Family members and friends who filed bankruptcy in the past can refer you to a good bankruptcy lawyer. The yellow pages in a phone book is another great place to find reputable bankruptcy lawyers. Another invaluable place to find a good bankruptcy lawyer and services in on the Internet. When you search for a lawyer, try to find a lawyer that deals with your type of bankruptcy. You can get free advice with the first meeting.

Is The Law Firms Bankruptcy Lawyer Experienced?

Find out if your type of bankruptcy case is right for the law firms lawyer. Has the bankruptcy lawyer handled similar cases in the past? Take time to look over the alternatives to bankruptcy with your lawyer. There may be a way out of bankruptcy. A good bankruptcy lawyer can give you free advice on what chapter bankruptcy you should file. Bankruptcy lawyers will have you fill out a bankruptcy evaluation to see what is right for your debt and financial situation. To save yourself from wasted time and frustration, discuss in detail, options available to you with your bankruptcy lawyer.

What Information Will I Need For A Bankruptcy Lawyer?

With your first visit, it’s important to bring everything you can on the first consultation. You will need a list of all the creditors and how much you owe for your bankruptcy lawyer to consider. This includes any insurance, medical bills, auto loans, taxes, student loans and any personal loans. Your bankruptcy lawyer can give you the advice you need with this important information. This will make the filing process easier if you do decide to file bankruptcy.

Thanks to Dean Shainin for contributing this article to our Bankruptcy blog:

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The New Bankruptcy Laws - Truth about the unconstitutional new BK law changes. On April 20, 2005, George Bush signed the new “Bankruptcy Abuse and Consumer Protection Act” into law.

Bankruptcy Abuse? Do you know anyone personally who has abused the Bankruptcy laws, and are consumers really protected? Or, should this new bankruptcy bill be called the “Abuse the Consumer and Protect the Fraudulent Banks Act”?

We’ll soon see…

In order to understand these unfair new bankruptcy laws, and to help you see that you must avoid bankruptcy, lets cover the original purpose of the BK laws.

According to U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, the primary purpose of the old bankruptcy Chapter 7, bankruptcy Chapter 11 and bankruptcy Chapter 13 laws were: 1) to give an honest debtor a “fresh start” in life by relieving the debtor of most debts, and 2) to repay banks and creditors in an orderly manner to the extent that the debtor has property available for payment.

Apparently the primary purpose of the new credit card bank BK laws is: 1) to repay banks and creditors in an orderly manner to the extent that the debtor has property available for payment.

However, with the new BK laws, giving an honest debtor a “fresh start” in life by relieving the debtor of most debts has been done away with.

The finance companies and credit card banks all blame the necessity of the bankruptcy changes on the .003% of abusers of the old bankruptcy laws.

Sponsors of the bill claim that most bankruptcy personal cases involve irresponsible spenders who have shopped or gambled their money away and now do not wish to pay their creditors so the new BK legislation, will eliminate “filing bankruptcy for convenience”.

There is NOTHING further from the truth then these claims alleged by the credit card banks and finance companies. And, as you dig deeper into these pages, you’ll see who’s really abusing who in America’s credit, finance and banking game.

They claim that bankruptcy costs the credit card banks billions of dollars each year and that those costs are passed on to customers in the form of higher interest rates.

That of course would be true if the credit card banks were actually lending any of their own money, or their customer’s deposited money. For more details, read our page a history of money and banking secrets that banks don’t want published.

And, by making bankruptcy filings harder for those with financial trouble, legislators say that more people will pay their bills, the credit card companies will save billions of dollars, and the resulting savings will be passed on to consumers in the form of lower interest rates.

We’ve never ever heard of a credit card company lowering interest rates voluntarily, and we know they never will.

New Bankruptcy Law Highlights

The key highlights of the credit card banks new bankruptcy laws are:

The new bankruptcy laws apply a means test for people filing bankruptcy. If a debtor has at least $100 per month left over after an IRS determined monthly expense plan, (can you picture that?) the debtor will be forced to file Chapter 13 and pay for five years.

Just imagine life after bankruptcy now.

They will not be able to file Chapter 7 of the Federal bankruptcy code, which would have eliminated all of their unsecured debt.

There are no provisions in the bankruptcy law for debt problems caused by job loss, illness or other traumatic events, despite studies that show that these are the cause of most bankruptcy cases.

Can you say Debt Slave?

With these new, credit card BK laws, attorneys are now responsible for the accuracy of paperwork filed by their clients. So in other words, your attorney must now search your dresser drawers for those hidden family heirlooms.

This will no doubt result in fewer bankruptcy attorneys, with the remaining ones raising their fees in order to cover this additional liability.

With the new bankruptcy laws most consumers are now completely unprotected from losing a job or having medical problems. They can no longer start over by filing for bankruptcy Chapter 7.

They will have less affordable help from capable BK attorneys due to the new bankruptcy law liability stipulation.

Giving an honest debtor a “fresh start” in life by relieving the debtor of most debts has been done away with completely thanks to the new bankruptcy laws.

However an amazing discovery has been made that you cannot miss learning about. Now that you must avoid bk as there is no PROTECTION for consumers provided by the new Bankruptcy Abuse and Consumer Protection Act if filing bankruptcy under the new bankruptcy laws.



Thanks to Mark Cella for contributing this article to our Bankruptcy blog:

Auto Loan After Bankruptcy