Get Out of Debt and Into Financial Freedom

I have a credit card debt. The debt collection company is located across the country and told me they are suing me there. Can the debt collector sue me somewhere other than where I live?
A: This question deals with venue. Venue is the legal issue of where a lawsuit can be brought. So, the question is what is the proper venue for a debt collection lawsuit?
Under the Rosenthal Act, or the California Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, proper venue is under Civil Code 1788.15. That section states that a debt collector can sue in the county where the debtor lives [...]

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It is not often that I ask my readers to do something. But, today I am. There are two bills that are going to affect you and no one is even talking about them.
SB 94 and AB 764 are two bills that are going to force attorneys out of helping people with loan modifications. The bills make it a crime to charge a client up front for a modification. Is that the end of the world? Probably not. Is that bad for consumers? Yes.
Why? Because our legislators are convinced that banks are helping people get modifications all on their [...]

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Why am I writing about A&W Root Beer? Because we are in a recession. And the government isn’t doing us much to get out of the recession. So, A&W is trying to do something this weekend. Since most people reading this are looking for information about getting out of debt, one way is to not spend money and A&W is making it so you don’t have to.
Today,
in my mail, I had an overnight package. It came from A&W. Yes, that
A&W. Apparently, A&W knows about my blog, which you can find here! And so they sent me a
letter and some [...]

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It seems as though more and more people are concerned with whether or not they will be able to sufficiently recuperate from a Fort Worth Bankruptcy. Having a skilled bankruptcy attorney with you throughout the whole bankruptcy process is important for your success.

The economy today is in a really bad condition nationwide and recovering from a bankruptcy anyplace in the United States is more difficult these days than it would have been just a few years ago since there just isn’t any open opportunities for people to make money. All types of businesses have been forced to cut back jobs or shut their doors so the only hope that people filing for bankruptcy have is that their current income will be able to support them once their debt has been discharged.

Just because the outlook isn’t the best, that doesn’t mean that you should give up on hope for a recovery from a Bankruptcy In Fort Worth. The potential to get back on your feet and in good standing financially is still very much there, it will just take a lot of hard work and dedication for that plan to come to fruition.

This is precisely why it makes sense to get yourself a good Fort Worth bankruptcy attorney to help you with all of the particulars of your personal bankruptcy claim. A good lawyer will help you get through the difficult filing procedure and ensure that all of the moves that you make during your personal bankruptcy claims are the right ones.

With the state of the economy it’s urgent that you get through your personal bankruptcy claim as promptly as possible with no errors if you desire to have any advantage of making a successful recovery from your financial problems. It would be incredibly difficult for you to concentrate on the filing process with your creditors hounding you through letters and phone calls, but dealing with this type of situation is second nature to a good bankruptcy attorney.

In circumstances where you would feel extreme amounts of pressure, situations that you would be likely to have a misstep or make a mistake, your attorney will be entirely un-phased. This will permit you to get through the discharge of your debt in a much shorter period of time and give you that much bigger of a chance to make a successful recovery from your financial troubles. In a time where it’s doubtful that you could even make a thriving recovery due to the state of the economy, you want to give yourself any advantage possible and hiring a good attorney is the best possible advantage that you can have.

Certainly you’re a learned and smart person, you know a reasonable amount about financial problems and just happened to fall into an unfortunate situation of debt that you can’t seem to work your way out of. You know that bankruptcy is close and you feel with certainty that you could file the claim on your own with precision – so why would you bother conferring with one of the many Bankruptcy Lawyers From Oakdale if you don’t really see the need for it?
Even is filing your personal bankruptcy claim on your own is an option that you feel extremely confident in, selecting one of the many Bankruptcy Lawyers From Oakdale to at least speak with prior to filing your claim is still a very good thought. You don’t have to necessarily file your personal bankruptcy claim through any of them, but you could regard any of the Oakdale bankruptcy lawyers that you decide to meet with to be your “safety net.”
There are lots of things that could potentially get neglected when you are filing a personal bankruptcy claim on your own – things that are integral to the success of your claim. It never hurts to have a second pair of eyes, skilled eyes, to help you look through your paperwork and determine the best possible course of action.
An initial consultation may be sufficient for you to have the information you need to feel confident in proceeding with your claim, or you may see that after your meeting that there are too many things that you weren’t heedful of when it comes to filing a personal bankruptcy claim. Once your meeting is complete you may come to the recognition that you may, in fact, need some master assistance from a certified attorney in order to get over your case properly.
In many events, it would be no better to represent yourself in a bankruptcy claim than it would be to represent yourself in any other type of court case. Merely because bankruptcies are becoming more and more popular and because they aren’t treated in quite the same manner as a criminal law case, that doesn’t mean that they should be approached with any less seriousness. Merely because you want to file the claim on your own and spare the money that would come from legal fees, that doesn’t mean that it’s completely safe or smart for you to do so. Even if you’ve got your heart and mind set on filing on your own you should first at least confer with an attorney to get as much information as possible regarding the process and how you’ll go about it. The fee that you’ll pay for this consultation will be well worth it if the information keeps you from making a big mistake while filing your claim.

Nowadays it appears like virtually every consumer is having financial problems due to the turbulence in our economy. Weeks and months continue to pass by and the financial system dosen’t seem like it will be getting any better. The bare facts are more consumers continue to lose their income; the national deficit is ever increasing, and home loss are also still on the rise. One issue that is also destroying Americans is that credit card debt is going up with no end in sight. With all the other financial problems it is no wonder people have such tough times attempting to get out of debt.

The creditors intent to make it as difficult as they can for people to get out of their debt trap. The trap they set up is by using monthly minimum payments and high interest. Consumers get so used to only having to pay the minimum and this behavior creates ever increasing debt balances. Once people are trapped with a balance then the credit card companies will surprise them with interest rates well over twenty percent.

Even with an standard interest rate it takes over 30 years to get out of debt with the minimum payment scheme and over four times the original balance will be paid in interest alone. Now you toss in the fact that the interest rate has now been increased these figures drastically go up. And the debtor could very well be dead before they end up paying off their credit cards.

Unite this minimum payment plan with the issues our economy is facing and you have a formula for financial disaster for tens of millions of US citizens. There is one resolution that has been assisting people and that solution is credit card debt settlement, a program for saving funds and more importantly time.

Credit card debt settlement gives the debtor a possibility to get out of credit card debt within a couple of years, instead of three or more decades. In addition with credit card debt settlement debtors will be saving a tremendous amount of cash on what they currently owe towards their creditors. This is amazing for those people who are caught real far in credit card debt right now and have been hit pretty badly by the ailing financial system. Debt settlement can offer these people hope that one day their financial situation will get back on track and they can enjoy a much more joyous life.

It should honestly be everyone’s number one priority as of the moment to escape this mountain of credit card debt. No one should be left in such dire circumstances and lose all they have struggled for their entire lives to the scandalous credit card companies.

The overwhelming majority companies have a Credit Control Department. Even the majority 1-Man firms have a policy and system of some sort. The upset for many companies comes when the debtor simply doesn’t pay. The Accounts Team send out statements and reminders, until, at a certain point they send out a final demand, before finally handing the responsibility for the debt over to a specialist debt recovery firm.

At this point the business relationship with the debtor is thoroughly damaged beyond repair, and you, the Creditor have lost control of how the debt will be recovered.

A much better way to overcome this problem is to use a little psychology. If the debtor is made to understand that he’s being closely monitored and to some degree pursued by a relentless system that clearly convinces him that once he’s crossed a certain line, inevitable additional costs will be imposed, he’s much more likely to start to play ball. Especially when it’s further made clear to him that the more he delays, the greater the additional costs will be.

To use this plan effectively, you need a Debt Collection Process which seamlessly follows on from your usual existing Credit Control process. A single Debt Collection Letter is not the solution. In order to get paid without going to court, your Debt Collection Process needs to include a series of Debt Collection Letters, each one stepping up the consequences, and warning of real financial penalties for none payment. These penalties are then seen to be automatically applied by subsequent letters in the process, until the debt is paid.

In well over 85% of cases, implementing a proper integrated Debt Collection Process into your relations with slow and bad payers will eliminate the problem of very slow and none-payers.

In the minority of cases where you may have to take your case before the county court, using a Debt Collection Process will make sure that you have all the relevant documentation in good order, and you’ll be able to put an unassailable case before the court. On top of that, you’ll have a very clear and accurate idea of the extra charges you’ll be able to claim for your administration and late-payment interest.

The best thing about integrating such a process into your systems, is that its seamless character & progressive build up of real financial penalties makes sure that you always become “the creditor who must be paid” regardless of how tight finances get.

Using a Seamless Debt Collection Process, you re-educate your customers into always paying you on time. You may even find that they go on to implement the same system as you. Then you know you’ll have a good secure customer for years to come.

About five years ago a term began circulating in the insolvency industry that became a by word for greed, un-professionalism, exploitation and idiocy. The term ‘IVA Factory’ was coined for companies who’s primary business model was built around providing IVA’s. The word ‘factory’ in itself provokes images of mass production, fuelling the idea that IVA’s had become an easily sellable commodity that devalued IVA’s as a legitimate form of clearing debt.

Three companies in particular became targets for the brunt of criticism levelled from not only from within the insolvency industry but also from the mainstream media and major financial organisations. Accuma, Debt Free Direct and Debt Matters had all manor of accusations levelled at them including miss-selling, poor customer service, corporate greed and a wide spread disregard for up holding the integrity of the debt solutions industry. Why these three in particular? Well, statically they were in the top five IVA providers. However, I feel the reason is far more simplistic. All advertised heavily on television, radio and print and all were PLC’s who published their accounts. Creditors, naturally have an issue with companies that make money from people in debt other than themselves. Seeing this published is bound to annoy, why should creditors write off so much only for other companies to make huge profits? That itself is another argument for another day, however, the simple fact was these companies were making A LOT of money.

Accuma, Debt Free Direct and Debt Matters became the unwitting poster boys for everything bad about the insolvency industry. During my time working in the insolvency I worked for a company who processed in excess of 300 IVA’s a month. Oddly enough the company was never considered an ‘IVA Factory’, nor was it ever part of any negative press about the IVA industry. Likewise, other high volume companies were never mentioned even through there output was on a par with the supposed ‘factories’. Why? The answer was the industry had its villains. Many who had avoided the ‘factory’ label simply got there heads done and got on with what they were doing allowing the evil three to cop the flak for being large volume providers. Smaller insolvency firms also had a new marketing tactic. They could position themselves as being the friendly, personal IVA firms that cared about you, not the big evil corporations that were there to steal your money.

After leaving the large provider I work for I went to work for a smaller company in the belief the focus would be on quality, not quantity. How wrong I was. The company in question charged more in fees (clearly to make up for the lack of quantity) and provided a level of service on par with the company I had come from. The insolvency practitioner who ran the firm was every bit as obsessed with putting the most amount of ceases through as the other company yet was deluded they were ‘better’ on the basis they were smaller. Rubbish. Smaller IVA insolvency firms exist to make money too and more often than not owned privately making A LOT of money on a smaller scale for the owners.

Smaller IVA firms have to fight hard for debt consolidation leads to generate new business. Without the funds to advertise on television, print and radio these firms present themselves as the friendly alternative to the faceless corporations. This is still advertising, which in itself is a form of manipulation. Take the site for Debt Divas, a genius idea at aiming debt solutions at women. The site is bright and breezy in appearance and is a great counter to other sites showing distressed couples looking worried at bills. It’s selling point is the idea of ‘all the girls together’ and its laid back approach (note the debt divas coffee cups on show) and handy tips on holidaying on a budget give an aurora of calm and dare I say ‘fun’. But lets look at it from another perspective. Is this not as every bit as exploitive as any other advertising by large insolvency firms? Should consumer debt be presented with such unassuming niceness? The site is aimed at a niche market, the very fact it is displayed in the paid searches on Google indicates it is generating money, otherwise it wouldn’t be there.

Accuma were heavily criticised for an advertisement they ran on radio which was a parody of ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’. Many within the insolvency industry actively spoke out against the advert claiming it was misleading and showed the industry in a bad light. Is Debt Divas any better as an advertisement for the debt industry? I would argue not. However, Debt Divas is not run by a large company, its run by a smaller firm who are simply trying to get leads under the guise of being ‘nice and personal’. Don’t get me wrong, the forum aspect and the guides on the site are really useful and well meaning but its purpose is still to generate more leads and more revenue for the company who own it. The notion of ‘small is better’ is also evident on sites like IVA.co.uk. Several insolvency practitioners post on the forums helping people with their queries. The advice they give is brilliant, yet they find time to make comments about other companies they know nothing about. Why? Because they are positioning themselves as the a more acceptable other to the larger firms. Undeniably, their advice helps, but also undeniably the site generates more leads for them hence the reason they do it.

Another, altogether more darker side of the whole ‘IVA Factory’ debate was a sub industry that sprung up offering to help the ‘victims’ of these companies. The most notable example of these was The IVA Council, a supposed consumer action group who were going to help ‘victims’. Helping ‘victims’ meant helping them go bankrupt at a massive expense whilst making out the company who sold them the IVA did so under false pretences. I was amazed at the amount of people on IVA’s who suddenly began claiming the were the victims of mis-selling and criticising the firms they were with. This is a quote from a consumer forum in 2007 where people were discussing ‘IVA Factories’:

‘My husband and I never read our IVA proposal before signing it but I certainly wish we had, we are paying over three thousand pounds in fees and have to remortgage our house in the fourth year. We were told everything would be ok and now we just feel cheated and lied to’

The reply:

‘It sounds like you have been well and truly conned. We are in a similar position, we only found out after our proposal was accepted we had to pay half our overtime to our IVA company’

Okay, lets look at the first quote. The figure for fees quoted is not excessive in anyway whatsoever. Indeed, for a joint IVA this is totally acceptable. The biggest and most incredible line however is the fact they NEVER read the proposal. How can they have grounds to complain about the terms of their IVA if they never read the proposal? The reply is also equally idiotic. The overtime rule applies to most IVA’s and the money goes to creditors, not the IVA firm. Both these complaints were levelled at one of the evil three and it could be argued that the firm in question should have explained these points more carefully. Yet all the points they are making could have been addressed if they had read their proposals. My experience suggests that in times of great stress (as debt causes) people will only listen to the parts that they want too, like how much debt is being written off and that they will be debt free in five years.

Firms like the IVA Council exploited these types of fears and misunderstandings to damage the insolvency industry to further there own gains. In a way the insolvency industry itself helped create this by being so vocal about high volume providers purely because they processed a lot of IVA’s. I question how the most vocal critics of the ‘factories’ had such intimate knowledge of their business practices. Or was it more of a case of jumping on a bandwagon for there own gains? Thankfully, an insolvency practitioner called David Mond put an end to the IVA Council yet it is sadly not the only company of its kind that is in existence who continue to exploit those on IVA’s.

For the record, I have never worked for Accuma, Debt Free Direct or Debt Matters. I know nothing about how they operate internally or how they treat their clients. You can see from IVA.com what people think of them and I don’t mean this article to be an endorsement of these companies in anyway. Moreover, these companies became archetypal in nature and prime candidates as targets for a backlash that had been brewing for many years. I question the role the insolvency industry itself has played in tarnishing its own reputation. I have seen first hand an insolvency practitioner encouraging a major creditor to take action against a fellow insolvency firm by way of baseless accusations about business practices they could never have had any knowledge of. Likewise at an insolvency seminar an insolvency practitioner from a more ‘respectable’ firm answered a question put to the audience by the guest speaker. After answering the questions he turned around and smugly quipped to a colleague that he betted that ‘no IP from the factories could have answered that’. Really? I thought all IP’s studied the same courses and took the same exams regardless of who they worked for?

Creditors have not helped the situation either by exploiting fears and misconceptions about IVA miss-selling and quoting non existent statistics to promote themselves as the unfortunate victims of ambulance chasing companies who are coming between them and their clients. Then there are those on IVA’s. The vast majority of people I have helped in the past have been a genuine pleasure to deal with. There are some however who refuse to take reasonability for their situation. Who portray themselves as victims of there creditors and later on of the IVA company who is making them pay money back. It is these people who are the most vocal in criticising publicly, who complain despite never reading their proposals who unjustly bring into question all the IVA firms who help thousands of people each year sleep soundly for the first time in months.

The fact of the matter some companies are good and some are not so good. From what I know about IVA firms I would much rather find a smaller firm to help that are going to value my custom. Just please don’t make it out you are better or of higher moral standing than larger firms just because your small and friendly.

The views expressed in this post are mine and mine only. Feel free to tear me to shreds.

www.ausdebtsolutions.net

www.ausdebtadvice.net

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If you don’t have a degree in finance, steering your way through a Louisville bankruptcy would be borderline impossible. You’re already in a situation of severe financial duress; you certainly don’t want to make issues worse by trying something that you know you aren’t capable of. With the help of nearly any of the available Bankruptcy Lawyers In Louisville you could make your current position, and probably just about your whole life moving forward, much sweeter.

Depending upon the type of debt that you are suffering from and your level of gross income, the type of bankruptcy which you are able to file may be entirely different from what your neighbor or coworker may have filed. This means that you can’t hope to solicit legitimate advice from anyone in your neighborhood who’s had to file for bankruptcy in the recent past. Even if you and another individual had very similar incomes and very similar debt totals the kind of debt in which you have could potentially change the whole personal bankruptcy scenario from your position to theirs.

It’s unfeasible for someone with no experience or specific education to accurately gauge their own financial situations when it comes to the potential for filing a personal bankruptcy. It takes the knowledge and experience only available from one of the many top quality Louisville bankruptcy lawyers to determine exactly what the best course of action for someone in your position would be.

It’s a good thing that Bankruptcy Lawyers From Louisville aren’t too hard to come by, if you open your local Yellow Pages you’ll see a number of possibilities of attorneys who’d be willing and very capable of handling your personal bankruptcy claim.

The best part of having your claim professionally handled is the fact that you’ll be able to regain some semblance of order in your personal existence. The uncertainty of how you are going to make it the coming months will be over and the threatening letters and phone calls will have stopped. You’ll be able to focus on your case as it unfolds and feel confident about the results that you’ll receive because a consummate professional has taken over the reigns for you.

Their is a world of difference between trying to fumble through your personal bankruptcy claim on your own and having it capably handled by someone who’s more than certified to do so. With the help of a good bankruptcy lawyer you’ll know that things will turn out the way that they are supposed to and that you’ll benefit as much as humanly possible from having to go through something as challenging as a personal bankruptcy.

Bad news for consumers: credit card companies are closing cards and raising interest rates. The latest is Advanta announcing that they are closing accounts. From the press release: “the Company will shut down all credit card
accounts to future use at that time.”
In addition, Capital One has announced that it is reviewing all accounts and raising interest rates. Bank of America is also raising interest rates and closing accounts, in addition to cutting credit limits. American Express has been doing this for some time.
Your credit card company is entitled to do this. The credit card agreement states that [...]

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