A fake payday loan operation has been halted by a U.S. District Court action but not before vulnerable consumers were illegally contacted by scam collection efforts using telephone callers based in India. It is estimated that those consumers paid over $5 million to...
Month: February 2012
‘No Scrubs’ singer has no luck with recent Chapter 13 filing
A Chapter 13 bankruptcy repayment plan can be tossed out by a judge if the person filing for protection fails to live up to their agreed upon schedule of payments. Celebrity singer T-Boz encountered this situation when her second Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan was tossed...
What can Florida job applicants with credit blemishes do?
In our last post, we discussed new laws on the books in several states that bar employers from checking the credit of prospective employees before making a job offer. Florida lawmakers are currently considering several different proposals that would also ban Florida...
New laws ban credit checks to help job applicants
California became the seventh state in the union to ban credit checks on job seekers. For job applicants with bad credit scores, the credit checks have become the bar they cannot jump over in their pursuit of a new position. Many employers have stepped up credit...
New year-end report: Orlando foreclosures down in 2011
A new report from RealtyTrac Inc. shows that foreclosures in the Orlando area were down in 2011 for the third year in a row. Compared to 2010, when foreclosures were filed on 61,674 homes, Osceola, Orange, Lake and Seminole counties saw approximately 68 percent fewer...
How are your financial resolutions going?
It's been a month since you made the resolution to reduce your debt and improve your finances, but you should be careful so you don't put yourself into a situation where you could become worse off and have to file for bankruptcy. Families seem to get into trouble when...
Very educated = very poor
Did you know that law students are borrowing approximately $106,000 for private schools or $70,000 for public schools? Furthermore, all of this is occurring at a time when there are practically no legal jobs. Many Florida residents understand that the economy is...
Breaking an addiction to credit cards is possible
Credit card use can easily slip into the category of an addiction. Credit accounts can be an "easy way out" for some consumers, but the time to pay the piper always arrives. Ask any bankruptcy attorney about credit card debt, and they will likely tell you that credit...
Orlando bankruptcy filings fall in 2011, but problems remain
Residents of central Florida have endured a rough stretch of years recently. The housing bust hit the state particularly hard, leaving many mortgages underwater and many people out of a job or on a reduced income. From 2007 to 2010, central Florida saw an annual...