The Department of Justice has issued a statement indicating that it has filed and settled a number of lawsuits against Morgan Stanley and Bank of America for improperly foreclosing on properties owned by active members of the military.

A total of $22 million was apparently secured as compensatory funding for the service members whose homes were foreclosed on while they were on active duty. The law that prohibits such action is called the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and includes protections for:

• Rental agreements, security deposits and prepaid rent;
• Eviction;
• Installment contracts;
• Credit card interest rates;
• Mortgage interest rates;
• Mortgage foreclosure;
• Civil judicial proceedings;
• Automobile, life and health insurance; and
• Income tax payments.

Generally speaking, active members of the military receive greater protections than the general public in many areas of consumer law.

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Filing bankruptcy or the feeling of being bankrupt nevertheless brings negative emotions of insecurity but there come some times in a debtor’s life when filing bankruptcy remains as the only option. However, the negative effects of bankruptcy on one’s credit report is inevitable; the debtor still has certain possibilities of re-establishing his financial prospects anew as the aftermaths of bankruptcy starts fading with time. When the question ‘how to file bankruptcy’ comes into our mind, an image depicting a gamut of confusing pictures come into our mind and we end up seeking professional assistance from a bankruptcy attorney, who guides and advice us about all the paperwork and proceedings of the same. While filing personal bankruptcy, an individual can choose from either chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcies, depending upon his financial status, income source, future prospects and present economic condition. The lawyer will help and decide upon which particular kind of bankruptcy has to be filed and accordingly further process will take place.
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Researchers have seen a noticeable difference when it comes to people who live together and people who are married. When people are living together, they still function as two independent souls who happen to reside under one roof. But when they marry, they begin carrying the cultural weight that for generations has come along with being husbands or wives, and their behavior changes accordingly.

Interestingly, the more financial independence a woman has the less likely she is to get married. Working women are 50 percent more likely to move in with a partner and 15 percent less likely to marry than women who don’t work steadily, according to research from Cornell University. By contrast, the more financially independent men are, the more likely they are to want to put a ring on someones finger.

Men who make an above-average salary are 26 percent more likely to get married than those who earn an average one. Read more…

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I opened a few credit cards in my name only, and as a courtesy, the credit card companies provided a credit card for my daughter, who is a minor. I have since defaulted on these credit cards. Will my daughter be responsible, and will they show up on her credit report?

Do you recall asking the credit card companies to provide your daughter with an authorized user card? I bet you did and that’s what she got. I have never heard of an issuer sending unsolicited credit cards to minors as a courtesy — at least not without a request by the primary account holder. I can’t imagine it would be a co-signed account either, as they don’t just hand over joint cards to anyone — much less to a minor — without going through a qualifying process.

Working on the assumption that your daughter did have an authorized user card, then you were the main account holder. She was nothing more than a guest. In other words, she was able to use the credit card to make purchases, but is not responsible for paying what she charged. Read more…

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Filing for bankruptcy protection is most likely the last thing anyone wants to do, but understanding when you are in need of protection is really rather easy. Becoming bankrupt is a black and white experience much more than it is a gray one. As a general rule of thumb, you are completely financially bankrupt if your current sustainable income plus any cash reserves will not pay all of your living expenses, pay interest on outstanding loans, and reduce some of your principal on those loans while paying on them for five years. Depending on which state you live, this definition of bankruptcy should not include any of your retirement moneys as cash reserves. Paying off debts for five years is chosen because five years is the maximum legal number of years a United States Bankruptcy Court allows an individual to work their way out of bankruptcy.

When you find yourself in a complete bankrupt situation, there are certain advantages for filing for bankruptcy protection.

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Since the Florida Supreme Court liberalized the application of the $4,000 wildcard exemption in February, 2011. The Supreme Court said that the wildcard exemption can be stacked upon the Constitutional exemptions for personal property and automobiles for any debtor who does not claim the homestead exemption in bankruptcy and where the homestead exemption does not otherwise impede the trustees administration of the bankruptcy estate. Some bankruptcy trustees have suggested that debtors are ineligible for the wildcard exemptions when they indirectly get the benefit of a homestead exemption even though they do not expressly claim the homestead exemption on their bankruptcy schedules. The trustees are trying to chip away pieces of the wildcard exemption in order to increase the value of property subject to the trustee’s administration and trustee commission.

A recent bankruptcy court decision addressed two such trustee arguments seeking to disallow the debtors wildcard exemption. T Read more…

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