The North Carolina Bankruptcy Information Blog

In the wake of the lingering real estate reckoning, skyrocketing foreclosure rates, and high unemployment and underemployment, folks all across the U.S. had a lot to complain about in 2010. But last year’s well publicized economic troubles were matched by less-reported consumer outrage at a range of financial and privacy concerns sweeping the nation.

In an attempt to get at what’s really getting under the skin of average Americans, the Federal Trade Commission recently released a report of the top consumer complaints it received in 2010.

So, without further adieu, the countdown of top ten consumer complaints in 2010 includes:

#10 – Credit cards: This old standby on the consumer pet peeve list made the top ten despite new protections imposed by the 2009 Credit CARD Act, with well over 30,00 complaints filed about problems with plastic.…

The Best of National Consumer Protection Week: Part Five: Avoiding International Scams

To commemorate the Federal Trade Commission’s annual National Consumer Protection Week (March 6 – 12, 2011), the FTC is providing a budget-load of handy-dandy information designed to protect your money, your credit, and your overall post-recessionary financial future. So whether you’re rebuilding your economic life post-bankruptcy, or simply trying to speed up your savings, the NCPW blog can yield a wealth of resources exactly at a time when average Americans need a financial infusion, including information about:

• Avoiding foreclosure rescue and other mortgage-related scams;
• Knowing how to spot employment opportunity scams;
• Making the most of your money in the early stages of your career;
• Building and maintaining a budget to improve financial stability;
• Avoiding time-share and credit-card scams offered via text messages; and
• Learning what steps to take to save your home from foreclosure.

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To commemorate the Federal Trade Commission’s annual National Consumer Protection Week (March 6 – 12, 2011), the FTC is providing a budget-load of handy-dandy information designed to protect your money, your credit, and your overall post-recessionary financial future. So whether you’re rebuilding your economic life post-bankruptcy, or simply trying to speed up your savings, the NCPW blog can yield a wealth of resources exactly at a time when average Americans need a financial infusion, including information about:

• Avoiding foreclosure rescue and other mortgage-related scams;
• Knowing how to spot employment opportunity scams;
• Making the most of your money in the early stages of your career;
• Building and maintaining a budget to improve financial stability;
• Avoiding time-share and credit-card scams offered via text messages; and
• Learning what steps to take to save your home from foreclosure.

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In these tough economic times, nothing says “I love you” quite like saving money. And the best way to save this month is avoiding Valentine’s Day scams meant to separate you from your cash even as you try bring togetherness into your life—either by treating your partner with something special or by finding one.  This is especially true in an era of online propositions of all sorts, whether they be from online dating sites or unscrupulous vendors awaiting unwary consumers.

To give the gift of a rosier February, here are some tips from the Federal Trade Commission meant to keep your personal information (and personal wealth) under wraps in the days and weeks surrounding February 14, and beyond.…

Commonly we hear of bankruptcy coming to the aid of those drowning in credit card debt, underneath tons of medical bills, or otherwise underwater in their mortgages and facing foreclosure. But in these tough economic times, a sudden and unexpected loss of work can be just as damning to already beleaguered family budgets, sending many households searching for immediate ways to increase money coming in and reducing debts going out.

While bankruptcy is a great option for the latter goal, securing a new job and more income has become more difficult to come by. And now those desperate to find work are facing even more pecuniary pitfalls: an onslaught of job scams.…

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!…

Our recent, and lingering, economic recession has left many average Americans wondering how to keep their heads above the proverbial financial water. In a recent (and timely) article from AOL’s DailyFinance entitled, “Mired in Debt? Here’s How to Dig Out Safely,” the financial resources site discusses just that: strategies for success when trying to dig yourself out of mountains of debt.

In it, we’re able to take a closer look at debt settlement firms, one option many average Americans are turning to in these tough economic times—and an option that is leaving many with second thoughts about using this service ever again.…

Say you sought the help of a doctor to cure some ill in your life. However, instead of helping you heal, your physician actually makes you sicker. Realizing this, you would likely not only move on to a different doctor, but also report the offending physician—a professional, like many others, whose misconduct could mean malpractice, serious sanctions and a loss of licensure.

Unfortunately, this same kind of accountability hasn’t been as much a part of the debt settlement industry. In recent years, the lengthy recession has delivered to them an abundance of debt-saturated “patients,” suffering from the ills of unemployment and sliding toward the brink of bankruptcy; and until recently no one had really monitored the industry’s activities.…

Okay, so this post isn’t exactly keeping with the recent holiday spirit, but it’s a pretty compelling topic given the nature of our blog. And sometimes, it takes extreme colors to paint the right picture.

A Tampa, Florida woman is suing a debt collection company for wrongful death relative to her husband’s 2005 heart failure. Dianne McLeod is charging that the ceaseless and what can rather easily be deemed as remarkably unprofessional phone calls contributed directly to the stress that initiated her husband’s cardiac arrest.

In 2002, not long after her husband had to be airlifted to a hospital because of heart trouble, the following message from an alleged Green Tree Servicing representative was left on the McLeod’s answering machine:

“Stanley McLeod, you need to call Green Tree and get your act together and make your payments on your mortgage and quit playing these games … Why don’t you have that helicopter pick you up and bring that payment to the office?”

Making such a message even more hard to believe is the fact that it was because Stanley could no longer work that contributed to the family’s debt problem.…

Sometimes debt collection can have a humorous side. Usually, it shows itself when the collection is happening to someone else. Schadenfreude aside, here are some collection agent slip-ups that AOL gathered from a number of their users. See if you can’t relate to some of their situations.

• A family who runs a retail business was disputing an invoice that showed they owed double their original order for supplies. Turns out, a sales rep had inadvertently doubled their order. The timing was terrible, as the rep soon after left on maternity leave and the company stated only she could repair the mistake.

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