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:

Making Money Online

If you are considering bankruptcy, you need to be aware of the recent drastic changes in the bankruptcy laws. It used to be that a person could file bankruptcy almost on a whim, simply to get out from under a huge burden of financial obligations. Then that person would start over, and a couple years later file bankruptcy again. This type of scenario is no longer possible for the most part due to the new bankruptcy law.

The bankruptcy laws still vary from state to state but much of the common foundation within the bankruptcy law is still there in all states. The variations and changes that are state specific are, for the most part, fairly minor points. In addition, one of the effects of the new laws are that if you are going to file bankruptcy, you must do it in the state in which you are a resident, and you cannot go to another state to file bankruptcy just because they may have more lenient laws in some areas.

With the new bankruptcy laws, the person who is considering filing must go through a process known as a means test. The means test can be very complex and the results of that test could mean the difference between filing bankruptcy and even not be allowed to file bankruptcy.

What this means to you is that the court looks at your financial situation with a very fine tooth comb. The court can determine that you do not need to file bankruptcy based on your level of income and that you can indeed pay your financial obligations, which still being able to maintain your reasonable and necessary living expenses. This is where things really get sticky, because while a consumer may consider “reasonable and necessary” to be that beach front condo in Miami, it is highly unlikely that the court would agree with your definition of “reasonable and necessary”.

Another change in the bankruptcy laws is that the consumer who plans to file bankruptcy is now required in almost all states to attend credit counseling sessions. To a certain extent, this does not make sense since the underlying reason that a consumer may be considering bankruptcy would not be financial mismanagement, but could be host of other financial difficulties, like a job layoff, extensive medical debts, an ugly divorce case, and other things that are totally unrelated to financial mismanagement, and in fact, the consumer may be the sharpest person in the world in terms of finances. But that person still needs to attend the credit counseling sessions, this is mandatory.

Because of the many changes in the bankruptcy law, consumers who may have wanted to file under Chapter 7 bankruptcy may now need to file under Chapter 13 or even Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Much of this determines how much of your personal assets can be retained, or perhaps sold out to satisfy your debtors.

One thing that has become clear with the new bankruptcy laws is that bankruptcy is no longer a “do it yourself” process. One mistake in filling out the mountain of forms can cause your bankruptcy application to be dismissed. You should work with a good bankruptcy lawyer who understands the bankruptcy law and also the variations in your state so that you can file correctly with the least amount of personal damage.



Thanks to Jon Arnold for contributing this article to our Bankruptcy blog:

Chapter 11 Reorganization Plan

You’ve got some serious debt problems. Take heart in the fact that a lot of people do these days. The key to getting out from under debt is to evaluate the situation you’re in, and then to decide if you’re willing to do what it takes to change it. Are you going to stop using the mall as your playground? If so then you have a chance to get out of debt without resorting to bankruptcy.

In fact there are many tactics to try before you even think of heading to a bankruptcy lawyer. Here are some important considerations and alternatives to help you avoid bankruptcy. New bankruptcy laws make it more difficult to file than it used to be.

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.

What About The 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.

3 Effective Alternatives To Help Avoid Filing Bankruptcy

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

Filing Bankruptcy And How To Find A Good 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.

What Will I Need For My 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.

If you’re not going to be able to change your behavior enough to get your debts under control, then you may, at some time, have to resort to bankruptcy.



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

Information On Filing Bankruptcy

Is there a bright side to bankruptcy? Yes there is, although bankruptcy should still be considered your option of last resort, and the bankruptcy option only employed after you have thoroughly investigated all other options and alternatives. There are many downsides to filing bankruptcy, not the least of which is that this will become a huge red flag on your credit report for the next seven to ten years.

But sometimes bankruptcy is the best option in a given situation and if that is the case, you need to understand that there are bright sides to bankruptcy. Keep in mind that, especially with the new bankruptcy laws, one cannot file for bankruptcy on a whim, nor can it be done if you have already declared bankruptcy in recent years. The bankruptcy court needs to APPROVE your bankruptcy before things can move forward, and that approval is not nearly as automatic as it once was. Yes, after looking in your particular financial situation in a great amount of detail, the court may actually decide that you are not eligible to file bankruptcy, and you have to seek another option out of your financial difficulties.

One of the bright sides of bankruptcy, if you are approved to be able to file, is that the harassing phone calls from your creditors come to a screeching halt. But here is where it gets tricky because you also have some responsibilities here. After you have filed your bankruptcy petition and it is approved by the bankruptcy court, knowledge of this fact is not known to your creditors automatically. So the next time they call after your bankruptcy has been approved, keep track of the information. Write down the date and time of the call, which creditor it is, the name of the collections agency, and the name of the individual calling. Let them know that you have filed bankruptcy. By federal law, that stops calls from that creditor.

The reason for keeping a notebook handy where you record this information is so that if a creditor calls again who has already been told that you have filed bankruptcy, again write down the name, phone number, name of the person and name of the creditor as well as date and time of the call. With that information in hand, you can inform the creditor that they are now in violation of federal law. The ball is now in your court. There have been cases where a creditor continued to call after being informed that you had declared bankruptcy, and as a result, the consumer filed a countersuit against that creditor for their continued calls, and the debt from that creditor was wiped clean!

Another bright side to bankruptcy is your potential ability to start over with a clean slate and no financial obligations. Getting new credit is going to be difficult and you will have to spend time getting things like a personal loan, car loan, or even a mortgage, but it can be done. But since your credit report will show your bankruptcy filing clearly, be aware that it will be a longer row to hoe than it previously was.

If you file bankruptcy under the Chapter 7 regulations, you will need to demonstrate and prove that you are unable to pay even a portion of your outstanding debts. If this can be proven to the court’s satisfaction, your slate will be wiped clean.

The decision to file bankruptcy is not an easy one to make, and again, you are encouraged to examine all your options and alternatives. But if bankruptcy is your most viable option, make sure you understand the bankruptcy laws and have a bankruptcy attorney who understands them, because you don’t want to risk making a bad situation worse.



Thanks to Jon Arnold for contributing this article to our Bankruptcy blog:

How To File Chapter 7 Bankruptcy