The North Carolina Bankruptcy Information Blog

In the “new economy,” full of novel financial realities, we often hear a lot about how cash-strapped kids are often coming home to live with and borrow from their better-positioned parents. And now a new report tells us why.

According to a report from the Associated Press, the wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record, “worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt.”

Based on analysis by the Pew Research Center, the AP says “The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35, according to an analysis of census data released Monday.…

We talk a lot here about the trials and travails of underemployment, a perpetual condition of post-recessionary America, in which many, if not most, workers face stagnant wages and/or part-time jobs that fail to keep up with the rising cost of living in the new economy.

In particular, retail workers struggle for hours amid a weak economic recovery, clamoring for extra work in this lower-skilled and paying field. In fact, according to a new article by The Huffington Post, the difference between full and part-time employment can often be the difference between eking out a living or earning a quick trip into insolvency.…

Need signs that credit card companies are getting more aggressive with their credit card tactics and tricks? Well, there’s 346 million reasons from one particular credit card purveyor, Citigroup.

Based on a new report from The Wall Street Journal, in the third quarter alone, the bank mailed more than 346 million credit card offers to unwitting customers. Keep in mind, that’s more than the approximately 308 million people in the U.S, according to the Census Bureau.

Despite this high volume of consumer credit offers, according to the financial experts at Bloomberg, revolving credit usage, which includes credit cards, dropped the most in six months in July.…

As active duty service members come home from wars winding down abroad in Iraq and Afghanistan, they are welcomed to friends, family and staggering unemployment. Now, tens of thousands of veterans are flooding the job market at a time when millions of civilians can’t even head back to work.

According to a new report from Reuters, unemployment among recent veterans grew to 13.3 percent in June, more than 4 percentage points higher than the national average. “From 2008 to 2010, that rate rose from 7.3 percent to 11.5 percent, and it’s expected to climb further as more troops come home this year — 10,000 from Afghanistan and, unless Iraq requests some to stay, the remaining 46,000 from that country.…

Three years back, Iceland’s entire financial system collapsed and despite being unable to bail itself out of its economic troubles on its own, the country is already recovering quickly and strongly.

As a result, there are valuable lessons anyone considering bankruptcy here at home (or even other countries) can learn from the this spate of Icelandic insolvency and what the Nordic nation ultimately did to solve it and emerge stronger than ever.

Iceland’s total financial collapse in 2008 culminated in all the banks and savings institutions — even insurance companies — going bankrupt in a day.

Neverthless, three years on, the President, Olafur Ragnar Grimmsen tells Marketplace that Iceland is doing better than ever.…

According to last week’s Federal Reserve report, U.S. consumer credit rose by another $5.08 billion in May–a figure that suggested a willingness for millions to keep borrowing despite an exceptionally tight job market.

In a recap of these new figures by Reuters, the news agency said, “The May rise, coming after a revised $5.67 billion increase in April, handily topped forecasts by Wall Street economists for a $4 billion increase and marked the eighth straight month of growth in consumer credit. The total of all consumer credit outstanding in May was $2.432 trillion, up from a total of $2.427 trillion in April.…

As millions will see in 2011, a personal bankruptcy can relieve you of your post-recessionary hangover, helping you dispense with debts accumulated during tough economic times and get you back on the road to financial freedom. And, while choosing bankruptcy has become an easier for so many average Americans seeking respite from their economic woes, which bankruptcy to choose can be a tougher decision.

Whether you choose a Chapter 13 repayment plan that allows you to save your home from foreclosure, or the quick disposal of unwieldy debt under Chapter 7, you can stop creditor harassment and drop your debt load with either personal bankruptcy.…

Two years after experts found the recession to have ended, real estate prices continue to fall in major cities all across the country according to a new report—in some cases to their lowest level since the housing bubble burst in 2006—signifying a true recovery has yet to materialize in the beleaguered housing market.

According to a report from Arthur Delaney for The Huffington Post, this latest data “confirms that the housing market’s ‘double dip’ is at hand, and many economists say prices will continue to decline through the rest of this year. Home values dropped from February to March in 18 of the 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index, which is widely considered the leading gauge of the housing market’s health.…

Just as Baby Boomers shaped the counter culture of the 1960s, this storied generation of robust lifestyles, risk-taking rebellions, and Rock-n-Roll significance is ready to yet again make its mark on America—this time, in their mid 60s. Today, Boomers now represent one-third of the total population of North America, with their highly populated presence standing as a testament to the hard lessons learned from the new economy: poor financial planning converging with uncertain economic circumstances at a vulnerable age in a working life, can have a apocalyptic impact on our nation’s more plentiful citizenry. And being that so many people are having such a tough financial time, this mature fiscal meltdown has a ripple effect on the overall American economy as millions of men and women prepare to retire in 2011 and yet are seemingly unprepared to do so.…

New data shows that 2010 was marked by more personal bankruptcies than any other year since stricter federal bankruptcy laws were enacted in 2005. Roughly 1.53 million consumer bankruptcy petitions were filed in 2010, up 9 percent from 1.41 million in 2009, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, citing data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center.

What’s more, this five-year high in the number of U.S. consumers seeking bankruptcy protections could rise even higher as other Americans continue to drown in debts accumulated during the economic meltdown.

With so many average Americans seeking the safe havens of a bankruptcy petition, you may be wondering, “should I file?” While the answer always depends on the details of your individual financial situation, there are a few traditional factors in your situation that can (and should) point you to the reasonableness of your decision to file or not to file.…

Maybe you feel you’ve avoided financial calamity during the major years of the American economic meltdown: You’ve managed to avoid foreclosure and credit card debt, stave off a major medical injury or illness, without cutting into savings or retirement plans. You’ve possibly even avoided being fired or laid off from your job. As a result, you’ve been able to do it all without the benefits of bankruptcy—benefits that have already helped millions during the Great Recession keep their homes, dispense with unsecured medical or credit card debt, secure retirement savings, all while they kept working or continued to look for work.…

In 2010, the Obama administration reworked its $75 billion Home Affordable Modification Program (AKA “HAMP”) in an attempt to better help those hardest hit by the housing crisis: homeowners who were unemployed or underwater in their mortgages (i.e., owing more on their loans than their homes are worth). Within these changes, (1) the unemployed could qualify for up to a six month stay on their mortgage payments;  (2) in turn, participating banks would receive financial incentives to reduce mortgage balances for underwater homeowners; and (3) lenders could refinance mortgage loans secured by the Federal Housing Administration.

More information about HAMP can be found at the Making Home Affordable FAQ section.…

Hiring a bankruptcy attorney is your best first step toward a refreshed, healthy financial future. The decision can be a tough one, we know.
Once on track to file though, we’ll clear the path for you, assisting at every step and consistently communicating. There are a number of things you can do along the way, too. Many of which are quite simple but go a long way toward ensuring your next “economic life,” as it were, is as productive as possible.

You’ll also want to keep a keen eye on your credit reports after you file. Make sure the accounts that were discharged are recorded that way.…

Retirement is the time when we’re supposed to enjoy our money. With decades of work behind us, mortgages paid off and a healthy 401(k) ready to be cashed, retirement is when we hang it all up and really start to enjoy life. Right?

Hello? Anyone?

Yeah, not many of you there huh?

Recent surveys are showing that more Americans in retirement have simply grown tired of the constant frustrations with long-term debt and have decided to just push on, forget about the debt, and let the chips fall where they may.

A survey put together by CESI Debt Solutions and discussed more in depth in this USA Today piece, shows that close to 40 percent of retired citizens admit to accumulating credit card debt that they do not intend to pay off.…

At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s, most people—people just like you—contemplated resolutions for a better, and in many cases, more financially sound, 2011.  And with millions of Americans facing foreclosure in a lingering housing crisis, extended unemployment or job insecurity, mounting medical debts, and/or other tenuous financial situations during this lingering economic malaise, making amends to be more fiscally savvy can be as tough as post-holiday fruit cake. So, if economic prosperity joins “a healthier you” on your list of goals in the New Year, take this timely advice to get yourself on the road to financial fitness in 2011.…

The holidays. A time for figgy pudding, partridges zipping around pear trees and maids milking barn animals. Those are well and good signs of happiness and all, but we’re here to dole out gifts that really sparkle under the tree, the kind that keep on giving and never need be returned. We give you, joyous reader, the 12 Days of Bankruptcy.

On the first day of bankruptcy, the bankruptcy code gives to you: an automatic stay. This gem of a benefit to bankruptcy ceases all pending lawsuits filed against you by creditors upon the approval of your petition. You will probably still have to pay any tax lawsuits or student loans that you have out there, but hey, this is only the first day!…

If you’re without a job, and on the fence about whether to seek the benefits of bankruptcy, the latest news on the unemployment front should be proof positive that there’s no better time to take your financial future into your own hands.

Following three months of positive growth in what had been an extended period of recession-era unemployment numbers, business hiring slowed in November 2010 as national unemployment figures rose to a staggering 9.8%, the highest rate since April and up from 9.6% in October. According to a report by The New York Times, “The United States added a total of just 39,000 jobs last month, down from an upwardly revised gain of 172,000 in October, the Labor Department reported on Friday.…

You hear tons of experts advising you to pay off high interest debt before any other expenses. And in some cases this makes perfect sense. For example, it’s always a smart move to deal with credit cards with double-digit interest rates before handling the plastic with single-digit interest. But in other cases, you may want to pay off debts with lower interest rates in the interest of appeasing creditors who have more recourse against you when or if you get behind on your payments.

According to NerdWallet financial expert, Tim Chen, “When you have several different types of debts and your income isn’t quite keeping up with your total expenses, it can be tough to figure which debts to pay first.…

While some experts are calling the latter portions of 2010 a new era of economic recovery, bankruptcy filings remain in true recession-era form.  In fact, according to the 2010 Fiscal Year statistics from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the number of bankruptcies filed between October 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010 increased from 1,402,816 to 1,596,355, marking an increase of 13.8%. And even though Chapter 11 (business and large individual) filings decreased, from 14,745 to 14,191, a 3.8% drop, and business filings overall also went down, from 58,721 last year to 58,322 this year, a 0.7% decrease, non-business or personal filings went up under all other chapters of the Bankruptcy Code, rising from 1,344,095 to 1,538,033, or 14.4%.…

Even though the Triangle is one of the better performing real estate markets in the country, even being named by Newsweek as one of the Top 10 Places in America Poised for Recovery, it wasn’t enough to buoy the state’s foreclosure rate, which has surged during 2010.

In October, the foreclosure rate jumped more than 40 percent when compared to the same time last year. This was supposed to be the year of rebuilding, the year the recession slowed. RealtyTrac, a real estate data service, also reported that the number of foreclosures in October was 13 percent higher than September.

Oddly enough and accolades aside, our state is running contrary to the national foreclosure trend, which is down 4 percent from September.…