Pay Off Debt Consolidation

The idea behind the bankruptcy law is to allow the honest debtor a fresh start financially by eliminating all of the debts owed by the debtor.

So, if you are filing bankruptcy, why would you want to hold on to one of your credit cards?

To me, it appears the answer is simple: Emergencies. Many people are afraid that if they don’t have access to a credit card, they won’t have funds for an emergency. This brings to mind my freshman year of college. As an 18 year old, I was taken in by that free t-shirt! I did ask my parents if I should get a credit card. Their answer, “It’s a good idea to have one for emergencies”. The only thing wrong with this statement, I found that I found myself in a lot more situations I felt qualified as “emergencies”, where I would use that dependable credit card.

While my “emergencies” may not have qualified, there is no question there are real emergencies in life, and it is always good to have a backup plan to get you through those dilemmas. However, wouldn’t it be satisfying, if, instead of relying on that credit card to bail you out, to be able to do it yourself? This is returns us to the financial fresh start intended by the bankruptcy law. Once you have liberated yourself from the burden of your debts, you can concentrate on building your savings. After filing bankruptcy, take that $100/month you were devoting to credit card payments and pay it to your savings account instead. Now you can apply yourself to rebuilding your credit without the worry of getting caught in the same trap.

Within a surprisingly short amount of time, you can create an impressive emergency fund. Get a flat tire? You’re covered. Tooth starts aching and need to run to the dentist? No need to pay for that trip to the dentist for a year after your tooth is fixed if you have an emergency fund available to cover the cost.

The court requires that all people filing bankruptcy list every creditor they owe money to on their bankruptcy petition. When signing their petition, I advise all clients filing Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 that they are declaring they have done so under penalties of perjury. I am not an 18 year old college freshman anymore, so as much as I would like to think that my advice is being followed, I know that is not always the case.

I am well aware of clients who have attempted to keep one of their credit cards off of their bankruptcy with the goal of continuing to use it. Unfortunately, your creditors can still find out about your bankruptcy filing if you do not list them on your petition. Credit card company subscribe to a notification service that will deactivate accounts of customers who file bankruptcy. Once this happens, they are left with no credit card, and they have failed to disclose the debt in their bankruptcy, as required by law.

Why not free yourself from that ball and chain and take control of your financial life by saying “goodbye” to the idea that you need a credit card to help you out of a jam and, instead, rely on the emergency fund that YOU created!

Want to find out more about bankruptcy? Then visit K. Hunter Goff’s site on how to choose the best bankruptcy lawyer for your needs.

It helps to have a plan. In life. In business. In relationships. Plans are good things. So to, in Chapter 13 bankruptcy, having a plan is not only a good idea, it’s the law!

As an Orlando bankruptcy lawyer, I help my clients formulate a Chapter 13 payment plan to accomplish their financial goals. Depending on my client’s situation, through their payment plan, which can usually last anywhere from 36 to 60 months, I can help them catch up a mortgage payment, eliminate a second mortgage altogether, wipe out credit card debt, save money on a car loan, or handle IRS debt.

The Debtor, the person filing the Chapter 13 bankruptcy, has to file a payment plan at the outset of the case. The plan’s job is to tell everyone what goals the Debtor wants to achieve during the time the Debtor is in bankruptcy. The plan also instructs creditors how they will be dealt with, and tells the Chapter 13 Trustee who to pay and how much to pay each creditor.

The Debtor has several options to choose from when creating a chapter 13 plan. Too often in Court I see folks try to develop a plan with no idea how to express what they want to do in the plan in a way that can be understood by anyone. The result is that the plan gets objected to, or the Debtor’s case gets dismissed by the Trustee. This is bad because then the Debtor has filed bankruptcy and got nothing from it.

Hiring an experienced Orlando bankruptcy lawyer is a greta first step to getting the result you want in your Chapter 13 case. Most of the time in my cases, when my clients make their Trustee payments, they never even have to go to the Bankruptcy Court at all during their case. The most important thing, though, is that my clients succeed in meeting the financial goals they set at the beginning of their case.

In Chapter 13 cases, it’s all about having a plan. A plan that gets you through the Chapter 13 process and wipes out your debt is even better.

Learn more about Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Stop by K. Hunter Goff’s site where you can find an experienced Orlando bankruptcy lawyer and learn how he can help you.

As an Orlando bankruptcy lawyer, one of the first things I advise my clients to do when they decide they are filing bankruptcy and hire me is to stop paying on their credit cards. Recently, though, before I could offer that advice, a client asked me: “What happens when I stop paying my credit cards?”

The short answer is, the collection process will begin. It usually goes something like this:

1. Non-stop, for about 60-90 days, the original creditor will call. They will call you, your family, your job. All in an attempt to get you to make some type of payment over the phone. They will threaten to ruin your life, at least financially, if you do not pay them.

2. In about 90 days, your original creditor will give up and sell your account to a debt collector. This third party agency will then repeat the actions above.

3. Then, around 180 days from the time you stop making payments, you may hear from an attorney. This attorney will simply try to collect on the debt, following the same protocol in 1 and 2 above.

4. Finally, the attorney may file a lawsuit against you seeking a judgment that would allow the creditor to attempt to collect on the judgment. By the way, then, and only then, can your wages be garnished.

Kind of a long process until a judgment is obtained, right? Over 6 months from the time payments stopped being made if I added correctly. So why, as a bankruptcy lawyer, do I advise my clients to stop paying on credit cards when they hire me?

You see, the objective is for my client’s bankruptcy to be filed well prior to a judgment being entered against them. As long as no judgment is entered, garnishment is not possible. Now, my client can catch up on car or house payments, for those secured debts they intend to keep through filing bankruptcy. They are not wasting that money on payments to malicious debt collectors, for credit card debts that will be discharged in their bankruptcy. They can also use the money they have saved to create that safety net, which I advocate as their Orlando bankruptcy lawyer, to be used as part of an overall, start fresh, strategy when filing for bankruptcy.

And what about those abusive debt collectors? Florida has some of the toughest laws in the country against the type of abuse described above creditors engage in on a daily basis when collecting a credit card debt against my clients. There is also a Federal Law that prohibits those abusive acts by third party debt collectors in the collection of a debt. You can sue your creditors to enforce your rights, and you should.

The debt collection process can be an intimidating experience, or an empowering one. If you know how it works and you know your rights, the empty threats the debt collectors hurl at you in a typical phone call from them will seem laughable, and more often than not, actionable.

Get the Free eCourse to find out how an experienced bankruptcy lawyer to assist you in successfully navigating the debt collection process and help you achieve that fresh start you’ve been craving.