The North Carolina Bankruptcy Information Blog

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 Part I of the Preventing Foreclosure series, you received an introductory look at how to stay in your home, either through bankruptcy proceedings or via negotiations with your mortgage lender. In Part II of this six-part series, we’ll elaborate on the ins and out of working with your mortgage lender, including timelines, terms, and what to say when starting this important dialogue.

Part II – Working With Your Lender

The best time to contact your lender is when you’re current on your mortgage and haven’t missed any payments, but you recognize tough financial times are ahead and that this may change in the near future.  Now, more than ever, lenders are willing to negotiate with home loan borrowers, if only to reduce the number of foreclosures they’re currently dealing with.…

“CONGRATULATIONS! You’re eligible for a new mortgage modification program we’re offering exclusively to homeowners in your area. We can save your home from foreclosure, cut your mortgage payments, and even reduce your principal! And you don’t have to do anything! We’ll negotiate directly with your lender. Our team of experienced loan modification consultants are here to help you. Call right now!”

If you’re behind on your mortgage payments, you’ve undoubtedly received offers like this from various companies making pie-in-the-sky promises to fix your troubles. You’ve probably tossed out most of them, thinking they’re too to be true – and rightly so.…

Despite the defeat of the mortgage cramdown bill that would have allowed bankruptcy judges more power to renegotiate mortgages on behalf of those seeking relief, the Obama administration is realizing some slow success with its heavily touted foreclosure prevention program.

Mortgages eligible for the program started to be serviced last month and to date, 55,000 home loans have been subjected to modification as a way to alleviate the financial pain caused by sub-prime loan interest rate spikes. Based on the early success, the administration announced that the $75 billion dollar program is being expanded and will offer additional incentives for lenders who participate and to homeowners in need of relief.…

If your debt problems are beginning to wear you down, like they are for so many people today, it’s important that you remain aware of the fact that there are people looking to further erode your unstable financial position to better their own. Unfortunately, financial “help” begins to show up in many forms, from payday lenders to credit counselors to phony financial counselors. Even though some of the pitches may sound like a great way out, the odds are that if it sounds to good to be true, it is.

In the same manner that so many banks were handing out home loans in the last few years, with a smile and a pat on the back, mortgage relief scammers are becoming all too common.…