Is your debt more than you can pay? Have you considered filing for bankruptcy, or talked with a financial advisor who has suggested bankruptcy filing? If you find yourself in over your head in debt, bankruptcy might appear to be the perfect solution – but only if you’ve considered all other alternatives first.
In fact, taking a close look at bankruptcy alternatives might make you think twice about filing bankruptcy. Bankruptcy should be used as a last resort as it can be extremely frustrating, and it creates long term damages on your credit. Plus- even though you are filing bankruptcy to get out of debt problems, bankruptcy is not free. You will need an attorney and they will require an upfront payment before proceeding. Depending on where you live, filing bankruptcy can cost anywhere between $500 and $1,500.
You will also need to consider whether or not your debts are the type that can be removed in a bankruptcy. Not all debts can be wiped out by filing bankruptcy. Child support, student loans, alimony and taxes are all debts that must be repaid, and can’t be removed from your responsibility through filing bankruptcy.
If you do file bankruptcy, it will stay on your credit history for ten years. Having a bankruptcy on your credit report will make it difficult if not impossible to get loans or credit cards – and any financing you are able to obtain will have extremely high interest rates because you are classified as high risk. In essence bankruptcy should be considered to be a 10 year sentence – and if you could reasonably pay off your debts within 10 years you may want to consider paying them off instead of filing and then dealing with the repercussions of it later on.
Bankruptcy Alternatives
Before filing bankruptcy, you should first try to negotiate settlements with your creditors. A debt settlement is when a creditor agrees to accept less than the total amount owed and consider the account paid in full. It is often marked as “settled” on your credit report which is not as good as “paid as agreed” but it is certainly better than filing bankruptcy. What you need is time to get back on your financial feet and that is what a settlement process will provide you.
Your final alternatives to bankruptcy involve making a detailed, strict budget in which you will have to live. It would be a new way of life, most likely, and involve reducing your expenses to the bare minimum (perhaps moving to a less expensive home, skipping cable television and all unnecessary expenses, reducing utility usage, etc). It would involve increasing your income by getting a new job or a second or even third job in order to get more money to pay off debts.
Think of it this way – you could file for bankruptcy and have financial troubles for 10 years afterwards; or you could get serious about paying off debts and build your credit score and history while repaying in half the time.
Elizabeth Williams, Editor-in-Chief for CreditCardFlyers.com
CreditCardFlyers.com is a consumer?s haven for credit card balance transfer information and offers. We help you find the right balance transfer card to meet your financial needs and you can compare and apply for your 0 apr balance transfer card online.
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These law students are morons…seriously. Their argument that mortgage brokers thought property prices were going up so that these loans they were making to poor folks were ethically sound because they could refi is nonsense. There is a pretty clear formula that mortgage brokers use to decide if you can afford a loan, and this formula does not, nor has it ever (even in 2004) included anything about rising property prices…they just chose to ignore the formula. End of story, no defense.
This Naomi is as dumb as I have ever seen. Bet she hasn’t ever run a business and balanced a set of books. Its her and Obama types who mandated banks give loans to unqualified citizens.They are 100% responsible for the meltdown.
@melnick1985 “ITS ABOUT RACE thats what liberals do make everyone a victim”
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The man in the video is discussing statistics concerning race and finance. That’s not “playing a race card,” that’s just stating statistics.
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Conservatives, such as yourself, endlessly repeat “personal responsibility” … “personal responsibility.” And, in all cases, what you leave out of the discussion, are any and all systemic explanations, which are far more germane to a discussion of the sub-prime scandal.
David Harvey: A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Video on YouTube. Book.
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The problem of excess capital.
Trash! Does anyone know about the great depression of 1920? No, that’s because government cut spending in half. Employment in the 1st quarter of 1920 dropped lower than 1929 but it bounced up the next quarter leading to the one the biggest booms of the 20th century.
LOL! A bunch of law students talking about how the real works is quite amusing. A bunch of morons.
I don’t think people realize that Capitalism is just a mechanism of commerce and exchange, and it is not the best or the end of all economic systems. As it causes harm, it needs to be redefined. The criminals who have been looting the poorer classes need to be stopped and punished for breaking their trust to society. It’s not excusable as just an “extreme” version of capitalism. People are suffering real pains – homeless, jobless, unable to eat. That is not a working economy. It is dystopia.
Fantastic documentaries. I am startled to think these people consider themselves educated when they make such mistakes in reasoning and logic. The women in the broadcast seemed to have a much better grasp of the crucial concepts while the men appeared to be misguided. Clearly, none of them really expressed what it means to fail in a capitalist system – the closest one got was Eviction. Wow. Sorry, but when you fail in Capitalism, Poverty / Unemployment / Death are the result. Homelessness.
mrtbass, you are so stupid it’s incredible.
If the loans were unaffordable to begin with, the buyers shouldn’t have signed on to them! And removing people from their homes is not a benefit to the banks. People need to take responsibility for their own actions, and stop blaming others.
Yes, very true.
Simply put, these loans were traps to remove homes from their owners
A loan is a shared responsibility that must work and be fair to both parties or it is not a good loan. Loans, especially home loans should be regulated
Glad to see that audio is synchronized!
Melnick, I think that is the argument they are trying to make. Who should be responsible? I think there are a lot of culpable people, including the individual, but not everyone has access to education explaining how mortgages work. I believe most people would assume that the broker would act in the clients best interest according to their own economic status. But, it’s just as typical for the “conservative” parties to place blame on the victims, saying “pull your self up by the bootstraps.”
Daniel Groll is ABSOLUTELY BRAINLESS it is not the responsibility of a broker to take care of someone else YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR DAMN SELF.
6:36 ITS ABOUT RACE thats what liberals do make everyone a victim, and direct the responsibility away from the individual who refinanced their home 2 or 3 times. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY REGARDLESS OF RACE
VPRO has really good docus…really in depth…nice job