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.

…

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.

…

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.…

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.…

You may already understand some of the dangers of debt settlement: the fact that Americans rarely emerge from debt settlement programs with their credit card balances eliminated; the fact that many wind up worse off than when they started their consolidation; and that many emerge from these plans with severely damaged credit, ceaseless threats from collection agents and lawsuits from creditors.

But, you may be wondering, why is bankruptcy any better than debt consolidation?

Well, it turns out there are many reasons.

While debt consolidation and settlement firms have done a great job at selling their side of the bankruptcy alternative story, Chapter 13 bankruptcy needs no sales pitch.…

Imagine it: Oceanfront resorts. Leis around necks. Succulent buffets. Steel drum music in the distance. Beautiful hostesses serving plentiful drinks. Tanned clientele all around.

For many beleaguered Americans these images evoke a distant and faraway vacation-land entitled for only the endlessly rich and privileged few. But this background of tropical bliss isn’t only for elite individuals. They’re the type of settings now home to industry trade associations like the United States Organizations for Bankruptcy Alternatives, a group that recently convened in Palm Beach, Florida, amid the oceanfront confines of the Four Seasons Resort, to forge deals and plot strategy. And for these types of companies that are currently promising relief to Americans confronting overwhelming credit card debt, business is booming.…

You may have read on the blog, or elsewhere, that many are calling our current economy a “middle class recession.” This is because the numbers are way up on bankruptcies filed by those who make more than $60,000 per year, up 6.9 percent from 2008. Bankruptcies on the whole are up 36.5 percent from this time last year.

So why does it matter how much money a person makes when filing bankruptcy? Well, because bankruptcy is often considered an escape route for the financially unreliable or worse yet, “something poor people do.” It’s just not true.

Today, bankruptcies are increasing among people in the real estate profession, namely developers and agents.…