Stop Bill Collectors!

If you are reading my blog, you are probably here because you’ve got creditors knocking at your door. Maybe you are looking at losing your home, your car, or even your furniture. While there are solutions to your problems, many are dramatic (like bankruptcy) or expensive (like moving to Florida and purchasing a homestead). To avoid worrying about creditors stealing your hard earned money and selling your assets out from under you, you should stash your cash somewhere safe. And the safest place to stash your cash? Not surprisingly, Switzerland. In these internet days, all you need to set up a Swiss Annuity is an internet connection.
Read the rest of this entry »

Texas has very favorable exemptions for the consumer. You can think of exemptions as those items you are allowed to keep if you are sued by a creditor who obtains a judgment against you. A creditor can’t force you to sell your home in Texas, and in true Texas spirit, they can’t force you to sell your guns either. There is one major exception to the liberal rules for judgment exemptions: a homestead isn’t protected if you are sued by the federal government, so make sure you pay your income taxes!
Read the rest of this entry »

Alabama is pretty strict about not giving non-residents exemptions during bankruptcy proceedings or for paying creditors judgments owed. For bankruptcy and judgment enforcement, Alabama counts you as a non resident if you haven’t lived there for full two years, putting you in a legal limbo if you’ve not lived in Alabama that long: you may have to end up taking federal exemptions (which are not as generous). This is a general guide to what you can claim as exemptions to protect you from creditors: there are many exceptions, depending on how long you’ve lived in the state, your criminal background, and whether your exemptions are vital for support.
Read the rest of this entry »

Think of exemptions as the things you can keep if a judgment is filed against you, or if you file bankruptcy. In South Carolina, you are lucky in that these exemptions are automatic: you do not need to file a form claiming any kind of exemption. That is great news for the consumer, because you don’t have to worry about navigating complex legal forms in order to get these exemptions. New laws (effective Jul 1, 2008) gave some form of homestead exemption to South Carolina residents.
Read the rest of this entry »

Bankruptcy and judgment laws are complex. However, you can navigate them with a little legwork and knowledge. Exemptions are when you are entitled to keep certain property (like your home, wages, and furniture). The law says that no matter what, a creditor cannot force you to sell certain pieces of personal property. An important distinction between North Carolina and some other states is that you do not automatically have the right to these exemptions: you must fill in a claim form. If you do not fill in a claim form, creditors can sell your stuff from under you, plain and simple. You can obtain a copy of the “Notice of Right to Claim Exemptions” from the court (don’t trust the web: you may get outdated forms that will be invalid).
Read the rest of this entry »

This post should probably be (more accurately) called How to Stop Bill Collectors From Seizing Your Car, Your House, and your Personal Belongings. If they win a judgment against you, they will take your stuff. They will get a nice police office to come to your house and empty it of your belongings, and there won’t be a thing you can do about it.
Read the rest of this entry »

In general, creditors with a judgment against you can take 25% of your income, unless you owe back child support or alimony, when the state can take up to 50 percent of your disposable income. If you are in arrears, they can legally take 55 percent. And if you owe the government money: watch out. For unpaid taxes or delinquent student loans, they can take a whopping 65 percent of your disposable income. If you’ve read my general article on how to stop wage garnishments, you’ll know that once a garnishment is in place, there are very few options to stop garnishment. Some states have enacted laws to protect consumers from unfair garnishment; you might be able to stop a garnishment if you meet the requirements for that state.
Read the rest of this entry »

Thousands of people have successfully sued harassing debt collection agencies and won. the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act allows you to claim up to $1,000 for each violation of the FDCPA. In addition to the $1,000 per violation (one harassing phone call from a debt collector counts as a violation), you can claim financial damages, court costs, and legal fees. Here’s how to do it: the easy way.
Read the rest of this entry »

Filing for bankruptcy isn’t cheap! A quick survey of lawyers in my area put the cost for filing with a lawyer between $1,500 and $3,000 for a simple bankruptcy. If you’re swimming in bills and deluged with debt collector calls, you may be considering bankruptcy as an option.

But here’s the #1 thing that people filing bankruptcy don’t know about: and it could save you thousands of dollars.
Read the rest of this entry »

Wage garnishments are an unfortunate consequence of having a judgment entered against you in court. You may not even know of the existence of a garnishment until you get a notice in the mail informing you that your next weekly check is going to be docked. In order to stop the garnishment without filing for bankruptcy, you’re going to need to do a little research and some legwork.
Read the rest of this entry »