The North Carolina Bankruptcy Information Blog

A recent insurance company survey highlights the fact that a large percentage of Americans are not financially prepared for a sudden loss of employment. Saving an “emergency fund”, as the financial advice columnists and radio show hosts like to call it, is far easier talked about during afternoon drive time than done. Heck, it’s the emergencies that pop up while trying to save for an emergency that prevent us from being able to squirrel away enough cash to prepare for the worst. Have a few hundred bucks to put away? Oops, there go the brakes on the minivan.

MetLife’s report shows that close to half of all Americans would be unable to pay their bills if they lose their job.…

Just two months ago, the Obama administration reworked its troubled $75 billion foreclosure prevention plan. The revamped Home Affordable Modification Program (or HAMP), put into play an attempt to help those hardest hit by the housing crisis, targeting homeowners who were unemployed or underwater in their mortgages (owing more on their loans than their homes are worth).

While only 170,000 homeowners to that point had completed loan modifications under the President’s plan—out of 1.1 million who began the government’s HAMP last year—the current effort was designed to help a total of three million to four million homeowners avoid foreclosure by the end of 2012.…

Thus far in the Preventing Foreclosure series, you’ve received an introductory look at how to hold on to your home; learned the best ways to work with your mortgage lender; and were provided with a more permanent plan to keep your house through Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

But Chapter 13 isn’t the only option for average Americans struggling with mortgage debt and facing foreclosure. With Part IV of this six-part series, it’s time to get a better understanding of how filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy can also help protect yourself and prepare you for a stronger financial future.

Part IV – Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

Stop Foreclosure
As is the case with Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the Bankruptcy Code’s automatic stay is a powerful court order that kicks in as soon as you file your bankruptcy papers.…

One would think that with the country going through the worst economic downturn since the Depression years that the government would be a bit more concerned with people trying to commit fraud when they file for bankruptcy. Yet in the last fiscal year (ending September 30) the government had conducted the fewest number of fraud investigations since 1986.

In the last fiscal year the number of people filing for bankruptcy has increased by approximately 30 to 35%; nearly 1.4 million people filed in fiscal 2008. This increase comes on the heels of two years (2006 and 2007) in which there was a decrease in filings.…