Archive for the ‘Coping With Credit & Debt’ Category

Brad Perri is a Minnesota bankruptcy lawyer who will be guest blogging at Caveat Emptor from September 29th through October 10th.
Last week, I focused on talking about the attitudes taken towards bankruptcy. I emphasized that the American form of bankruptcy is fundamentally different from what bankruptcy was prior to the writing of the Constitution.
Since the [...]

Struggling couple live in tent with girl, 3 | CNN

Too little, too late. Mortgage forgiven for woman who shot self | CNN

Dennis Kucinich, before voting against the bailout: “This bill does nothing for the Addie Polks of the world.” Woman, 90, shoots self inside foreclosed home | CNN (via Credit Slips)

Brad Perri is a Minnesota bankruptcy lawyer who will be guest blogging at Caveat Emptor from September 29th through October 10th.
Welcome to another installment in Profiles in Bankruptcy!
Today’s vignette finds us in a grocery store on the prairie where a young man has invested himself in becoming a grocer.
Unfortunately, this young man doesn’t quite have [...]

Brad Perri is a Minnesota bankruptcy lawyer who will be guest blogging at Caveat Emptor from September 29th through October 10th.
Today’s profile begins on the south side of Chicago where a young boy is born. This young boy, our hero, soon moves to the hard streets of Kansas City where he and his brother become [...]

Brad Perri is a Minnesota bankruptcy lawyer who will be guest blogging at Caveat Emptor from September 29th through October 10th.
Like I said yesterday, bankruptcy is not a moral issue! It is a business issue!
Okay, fine; you’re right. It is a moral issue. How do I know? Because the Bible tells me so.
The Bible [...]

Brad Perri is a Minnesota bankruptcy lawyer who will be guest blogging at Caveat Emptor from September 29th through October 10th.
Really? No, not really.
But I think it is time for us to change how we think about bankruptcy.
After all, what is the normal story you tell yourself when you think about bankruptcy? I imagine if [...]

One of the great shibboleths of the Republicans is that the Community Reinvestment Act, which requires banks that receive FDIC guarantees must actually address the credit needs of the communities they are chartered to serve, is the cause of our great foreclosure mess. The line goes that in order to comply with the CRA, those [...]

Brad Perri, a bankruptcy attorney in Minnesota, will be joining us as a guest editor for the next two weeks
Bankruptcy is kind of the granddaddy of all consumer protection laws, but we don’t talk about it enough here, since none of the regular editors are bankruptcy lawyers.
Before bankruptcy, debtors had to work off their debt [...]

BillShrink lets you find the right credit card based on your spending and payment habits. Find the Right Credit Card at BillShrink | Lifehacker

This blog has a lot of great information for consumers dealing with debt collection harassment. Here is a roundup of some of the best posts for consumers coping with debt collection:

What to do when a debt collector calls
Stop debt collector calls with the TeleZapper
Debt collection complaints going up; what to do if you get a [...]

MarketWatch has an article, “How to deal with a debt collector” that reads like it was written by a debt collector. Read if you like, but the tips you can find on this blog will probably do you more good.
How to deal with a debt collector | MarketWatch

Pocketbook issues reveal deep pockets of real worry | Star Tribune

Along with apparently every other member of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, I just got a letter (PDF) from Federal Debt Relief System, which says it is “restoring America’s freedom” on its letterhead. In the letter, FDRS says “Every account gets reviewed by a paralegal and is submitted to you as a Federal Complaint [...]

How and When to Cancel a Credit Card | getrichslowly.com

The Twin Cities Daily Planet recently did a feature article on Sharon Hemmeke and Michelle Wallace of Phoenix Management Systems, Inc., a collection agency near Loring Park in Minneapolis. The article is a sharp departure from the recent reporting on debt collectors, which tends to be negative.
Wallace says collecting debts “can be very rewarding. Sometimes [...]

Consumers Union, the National Consumer Law Center, and Consumer Federation of America have published a scorecard evaluating how well the various states protect consumers from abusive lending practice by regulating interest rates. (They also  published the various statutes they looked at for all you wonks.)
Needless to say the picture isn’t rosey. While small loan problems [...]

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Featuring Buffalo, NY, consumer lawyer Ken Hiller.

In bad times…a little good advice Credit Card Basics: Five Essential Skills for Mastering Plastic | getrichslowly.org