Just when you thought you had heard it all in the world of credit card rip-offs, debt collection and bankruptcy, something interesting happened in the office last week.  I met with two different potential clients who stated that their credit cards were cancelled, despite the clients having zero balances on the credit lines and decent credit [...]

As if the current credit crisis wasn’t enough, Americans are turning toward what I like to call unconventional financing more and more these days.  Just 12 short years ago in 1996, Americans were only in 500 billion dollars worth of credit card debt.  Now, only 12 years later, we have doubled that number with an [...]

When applying for credit, a consumer has to be very wary of what will happen upon default.  I know that only a lawyer would want to consider the possibility of default before signing a contract, but consumers today face a whole host of remedies available to the creditors in case of default.  Arbitration is the [...]

I read a very disturbing article this morning which I do not care to cite to.  The article discussed how one of the hottest stocks right now is a company that buys bad debt from credit card companies like Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Capital One, HSBC, Providian/ WaMu and American Express at deeply discounted rates, and [...]

Recent data demonstrates that consumers are not paying their credit card bills in a timely fashion.  The credit card charge off rate was up to 5.59% in February 2008.  Now, we have all heard that you can get a statistic or a politician to say pretty much whatever you want them to say, but this [...]

Ah, once again we arrive at tax season. I know this because my office is right next door to a very large accounting firm, and I know it’s tax season when I come in on a Saturday morning and their parking lot is full. This year I’m sure we have something in common, [...]

The amount of thought that goes into credit card marketing is staggering. I can only imagine a world where as much thought goes into solving our nation’s problems as goes into the marketing of credit cards.
If you have a credit card, and chances are that you have some type of plastic in your [...]

In this series of articles, I wanted to provide a framework of how to get back into the driver’s seat after bankruptcy. So far, we have discussed receiving the discharge and what to do immediately thereafter, as well as, setting up the mortgage and car payments on auto-pilot (directly debiting same out of your [...]

After Bankruptcy, you will probably fall into one of three very generic categories: 1) You will never want credit again. You will never want to see a credit card again. You despise all forms of credit. 2) You may need credit in the future, and therefore, have a reason to rebuild [...]

Under FACTA (Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act), a person who fears they are in imminent danger of having their identity stolen can put a fraud alert on their credit report with one or all of the big three credit reporting agencies ( www.experian.com, www.equifax.com and www.transunion.com).
Now, Experian has filed suit against LifeLock, Inc. alleging [...]