There has been a decrease from last year in bankruptcy filings due to new changes between banks and consumers. Banks have started tightening credit, and mortgage lenders have stopped foreclosures due to challenges in their internal processes. Some debtors will have already filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy in the past two years, or need to wait eight years from filing their last chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Continue → ShareOne of the Pentagon’s top defense suppliers, Lockheed Martin, recently announced a voluntary layoff program for 6,500 employees its Bethesda, Md. headquarters and business services unit. That announcement comes on top of 1,500 layoffs in the company’s aeronautics division, 1,200 layoffs in its space systems unit and 600 voluntary buyouts of senior executives earlier this year.
Continue → ShareIf a loved has passes away with debt their debt dies with them. Unless members of the deceased family co-signed with the loan, they are usually not legally obligated to pay. This doesn’t stop debt collectors from harassing families to pay the debt. The number of debt collectors using this deplorable tactic has grown in recent years. They work on the behalf of financial giants such as; Bank of America, Capitol One, and others. Targeting families when they are at ...
Continue → ShareFederal bankruptcy judge, Mary France, made a ruling last month that Harrisburg, Pennsylvania may not seek bankruptcy protection. Harrisburg is burdened with about $300 million in debts related to the city’s old trash incinerator. After the machine was hindered with environmental problems and fines for numerous years the Environmental Protection Agency shut down the incinerator. Harrisburg’s City Council attorney filed an appeal with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on Saturday about Judge France’s decision to ...
Continue → ShareThe U.S. Postal Service’s first-class mail will slow down next spring due to the company cutting costs to try and avoid bankruptcy next year. The cuts would close 251 mail processing centers around the country as well as cutting about 28,000 jobs. Changes are expected, such as delays and added costs to mail delivery. Public opinion is opposed to the cuts, Maine Senator Susan Collins the top Republican on the Senate committee overseeing the post office thinks the agency is ...
Continue → ShareAmerican Airlines’s parent company, AMR, filed for bankruptcy last week, leaving many DFW residents concerned with the airline’s future. Economic experts say AMR’s bankruptcy will have more have smaller effect than thought on Tarrant county’s economy. Director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University and economist, Bud Weinstein, said ” We won’t see any effect in the short term, but in the long term American’s impact in the region’s economy will be smaller than it is today.”
AMR filed bankruptcy ...
Continue → ShareBorders, the 40-year-old chain that helped define the age of the book superstore, filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, a widely expected move after years of increased competition, declining sales and months of missed payments to its vendors.
Publishers, who have anticipated the bankruptcy filing for months, said they hoped that it would be a chance for the beleaguered bookseller to reinvent itself. But they were also skeptical that the company’s deep-rooted problems could be overcome.
Borders, which began in 1971 as ...
Continue → ShareWhen the economy tanked in 2008, Alvin Ferdinand depleted his retirement nest egg and maxed out his personal credit cards trying to save his Michigan business. At age 64, he says, he had no choice but to file for bankruptcy, losing the three assisted living facilities he owned and administered.
Irene Froehlich, 61, dutifully paid her credit card bills on time, even after her commission-only income fell by 75 percent two years ago. But when the credit card companies ...
If a borrower defaults on a mortgage, the lender may seek foreclosure on the property. In Texas foreclosures may be ordered by a court or without court involvement. Typically, a non-judicial foreclosure is conducted by auction “on the courthouse steps.” Defaults that lead to foreclosure may be monetary or technical, and specified notice and other requirements must be followed if the foreclosure is to be valid.
Non-judicial foreclosure auctions are conducted on the first Tuesday of each month between the hours ...
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We are providing a great deal of bankruptcy information for those considering, or just researching, bankruptcy. This growing collection of information includes the complete bankruptcy code, and future sections will cover debt and all consumer options surrounding bankruptcy.
Federal Bankruptcy law benefits both debtors and creditors by seeing that debtors get debt relief and creditors collect some of the debts owed. The types of bankruptcy filings are referred to ...
Continue → ShareMortgage borrowers are offered help in several ways. They may have their rates lowered, balances reduced, be given grace periods or longer repayment schedules. But, surprisingly a number of homeowners who do get their payments reduced fall behind within a year.
This is one of the biggest challenges in the foreclosure crisis. With a weak economy employers may continue to cut jobs or salaries, thus increasing the challenge of a mortgage that has been modified.
More on this story – MSNBC.com
Continue → ShareThe government has expanded a program to help the unemployed buy health insurance. But, millions of people are not able to access the aid because of the programs design.
As a part of the economic stimulus plan, $25 billion was allocated to pay 65% of health-insurance premiums for workers laid off in 2009. Congress has extended the program for people laid off through February 2010. Because it is tied to the narrow parameters of Cobra, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, the program is not available to many people ...
Continue → ShareFamilies are struggling to cover the cost of a higher education with job layoffs, shrinking college funds, and fewer private loans available. There may be more help availble.
Many families are requesting reviews of their financial-aid packages to make sure they truely reflect their current financial situation. This allows families to have their expected contributions recalculated. Typically awards are based on prior year household income and this allows the family to have their current income reviewed.
This allows the school to re-evaluate students’ financial-aid packages, which could qualifying them ...
Continue → ShareThursday morning The Senate passed a $871 billion health care reform bill. This gives President Barack Obama a Christmas victory on his top domestic priority. After months of heated debate all members of the Senate ended up voting their party line.
This bill would constitute the largest expansion of federal health care since Medicare and Medicaid over four decades ago. It would extend insurance coverage to over 30 million additional Americans. “We are now finally poised to deliver on the promise of real, meaningful health-insurance reform that will bring ...
Continue → ShareCNNMoney.com reported that Citadel Broadcasting Co., the third-largest radio group in the United States, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Sunday.
Citadel has broadcasting stations in 25 states. It has been know for some time that the company has a great deal of debt and may be headed for bankruptcy. They have filed in the Southern District of New York.
Continue → ShareThe same economic pressures that pushed California to the brink is causing stress in other states as well.
The 10 most troubled states are: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
The list is based on several factors, including the loss of state revenue, size of budget gaps, unemployment and foreclosure rates, poor money management practices, and state laws governing the passage of budgets.
Read more at CNN Money.
Charter Communications Inc. said Monday that its loss widened in the third quarter but that it expects to emerge from bankruptcy soon. The nation’s fourth-largest cable provider lost $1 billion in the three months ended Sept. 30.
Charter continues to recieve financial pressure from the recent economic downturn along with increased competition. Charter determined that its projected future growth would be lower than previously anticipated.
More on this story at St. Louis Business Journal.
The Wall Street Journal shows unemployment figures aren’t as bad as they look. They’re worse. It isn’t just that the headline jobless rate topped 10%. Behind these figures you’ll find that 16.3% of the workforce, or one person in six, is either unemployed completely or working part-time. And the numbers of long-term unemployed are staggering: more than a third of unemployed Americans, 5.6 million people, have been out of a job for more than 27 weeks, according to the federal ...
Continue → ShareSean Engelking was pretty confident of his future when he arrived in New York in 2008 to pursue a career in banking. He had just taken an internship after graduating with a degree in economics.
Engelking’s internship ended abruptly soon after moving to the New York. He then got a job working for software firm BizTech, but was laid off several months later. Still out of work and collecting unemployment, he can no longer afford the payments on his student loans. ...
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