Tips And Guide For Debt And Loan Management

Finding credit to fix your bad credit can be difficult, as lenders no longer trust or give you another chance. Luckily there a number of financial services that specifically intended for people with bad credit. Fixing bad credit takes time and patience, but with a good effort you could fix in a year, but it is still depend on how bad your financial situation. The good thing is as you repay your monthly payment; your credit would improve gradually.
As you can see, people with bad credit need help from people with good experience in this field. You may need good information on the credit card comparison for people with bad credit.
Or, perhaps you also need credit & debt help, by finding a review on credit repair and debt relief services, which will give you more confidence in rebuilding your credit as soon as possible.

Some states allow debtors to choose between the state’s exemption system and the federal exemption system. Most states, however, have only one exemption system and no choice. Before you file, you must figure out whether your state’s system would allow you to exempt all of your assets.
The federal exemption system is similar to those in use by the states and is therefore useful to explain what you can protect. Although only some states use this particular system, all states use a system that is at least very similar. Your state will, in all likelihood, have a different list of items with different amounts, especially with regard to real estate. As indicated previously, some states are very generous when it comes to real estate, and others are not.
The important thing about any exemption system is that it is the equity in, not the gross value of, your property that is the critical factor. For example, Spencer has a home worth $100,000 with a $75,000 mortgage. Spencer thus has only $25,000 worth of equity in his home and needs to exempt only that amount. If he owes $9,000 on a car that is worth $10,000, then he needs to exempt only the $1,000 equity he has in the car in order to keep it. It is also important to understand that your equity is the amount you would get less any sales commissions and taxes due, which may reduce your actual equity even more.
The next thing to understand about exempting property is how the last item in this list, the wild card, works. The wild card is the key to keeping your assets when you file for bankruptcy. (Although most states have a wild card, not all states do, so be sure to find out the exact rules in your state. Ask a local bankruptcy attorney.) The wild card is just like its poker namesake. You can play this card in the bankruptcy game to protect anything. You use it to protect home equity, cars over the $2,400 limit, cash in the bank (notice that money in the bank has no separate exemption in the preceding list), a boat, or any other item or items up to the wild card limit.
You will notice that in the preceding list, the wild card is the “unused portion of the homestead exemption, up to $8,300 per debtor.” What this means is that if you have no home equity that you need to protect with your homestead exemption, you can use the $8,300 exemption to protect any other asset. If you have some home equity that needs protection, but it is less than $8,300, the difference is available as a wild card exemption.
Here are some examples of how the wild card might work:

• Sheree’s home is worth $100,000, and she owes $95,000 on it. She would use $5,000 of her homestead exemption to protect her home equity. The remaining $3,300 (remember, $8,300 total is available under this wild card system) could be used in wild card exemptions to protect other property.
• Sydney and Sierra don’t own a home, but they do own a car that is paid off and is worth $10,000. They could use their $2,400 auto exemption, combine it with $7,600 from their wild card, and still have $9,000 to use to protect other property. (Remember, they each get $8,300 in wild card exemptions, for a total of $16,600.)
• Mara has $5,000 in the bank and owns no home (she’s a renter). She could use her wild card exemption to protect her bank account and still have $3,300 left over to protect other property.

Again, because each state is different and allows exemptions and wild cards in different amounts, we strongly advise you to seek out a bankruptcy attorney to draft your bankruptcy paperwork, if for no other reason than to make sure that your property is protected.

Once in a while, we do need some important financial information that is hard to find. This blog attempt to give you clear information on financial matters, especially on managing debt and loan. However, there are many financial topics that is left uncovered.
For example, you need a good information and reviews on financial products. A thorough research will prevent you to fall victim to a scam that may cost you a fortune.

You may also need to find good information mortgages, which will help you in managing you financial performance in the long run. Some websites also provides free tools such as mortgage calculators and up-to-date mortgage rate charts to assist consumers to stay on top of the fluctuating financial market.

When you have finished your research, the final step would be to find a qualified mortgage broker referral.

In your bankruptcy paperwork (called your petition and schedules), you are required, under penalty of perjury and a $500,000 fine and possible jail time, to list all of your assets, both real property and personal property, including household goods and items, cars, real estate, pensions, clothing, and bank accounts. Before you file, you want to make sure that you will be able to keep all of these assets. Bankruptcy trustees do not make a lot of money per case, so they are on the hunt for unprotected assets that they can seize because they get a percentage of whatever the asset is sold for. Because it is awfully hard to get out of bankruptcy once you have filed, you better be pretty darn sure before you file that you will be able to keep most, if not all, of what you own.
In order to keep everything you own (your estate), it all must be exempted in your paperwork. When you exempt a piece of property, you tell the trustee that you plan to keep that property. The process of exempting property consists of nothing more than listing all property you own in your schedules and then listing the corresponding laws that allow you to keep that property.
Although this process may seem simple, it is not, because each state puts different limits on how much property a debtor can keep when filing for bankruptcy. Although the rest of bankruptcy law is federal (meaning the same rules apply in all 50 states), exemption rules are made state by state.
Some states, like Florida, are quite liberal with their exemption laws. In Florida, there is no limit to the amount of home equity you can have when filing bankruptcy. You could own a $1 million house, file bankruptcy, keep the house, and wipe out your other debts (of course, you would have to still continue to pay your mortgage). Other states are not so liberal. In New York, a single person can only exempt $10,000 worth of equity in a home, and a married couple can only exempt $20,000. In Delaware, there is no home equity exemption at all.

This afternoon, I cleaned the basement, that hasn’t been cleaned for months. I find out that rain has seeped into my basement that make my stored and unused wooden furniture become a bit wet and discolored, probably due to fungus growth.

But the worst part is when I see small holes at the lower parts of the furniture; millions of termites have migrated into my basement undetected. If this infestation goes unchecked, all of my unused wooden furniture will be gone in months.

I read that one of the most effective ways to kill termites is to use termite bait diy, by spreading pesticides baits on the likely feeding spots. I will try this method and hopefully it would work.

Other than secured and unsecured debts, you may also owe student loans, past-due child support, or taxes. Should you file bankruptcy if you have these sorts of debts? Are they dischargeable? “Maybe” is the answer to both questions. The only way to get rid of child support or alimony arrears is to file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy and repay them in full over a period of several years. They cannot be wiped out in a Chapter 7.
Student loans can only be discharged if you can pass the following undue hardship test:

1. The debtor cannot maintain even a minimal standard of living if forced to repay the loan.
2. This state of affairs is likely to exist for a significant portion of the repayment period.
3. The debtor has made good faith efforts to repay the loan.

All three parts of the test must be met to qualify for a hardship discharge. If you are not almost destitute, do not waste your time and money trying to get student loans discharged this way.
Taxes, too, are not easily discharged (surprised?). Although there are too many kinds of taxes for any sort of detailed discussion here, essentially, taxes are dischargeable if the following conditions are met:

1. A tax return for the year in question was filed on time, or if not, then it was filed at least two years before the bankruptcy.
2. The tax is over three years old.
3. The tax was assessed more than eight months before the bankruptcy was filed.
4. The debtor did not willfully evade the taxes.

For example, if you filed your 1993 taxes on time, but you still owe and have not received a new assessment recently, you could get those taxes discharged in a Chapter 7. If this situation does not apply to you, it still may be possible to get rid of the debt in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

This summer I will accompany my friend and his family to a vacation in Hawaii. Actually, this is not an ordinary vacation, they are planning to buy a house in Hawaii for their next vacation in that state. Luckily, there are plenty of beautiful real estates in those islands.

I found that there are about two hundreds of houses that are in sale at Kauai Island, with price range range from $200.000 to $10.500.000, while Big Island boasts far larger houses, 688 houses with the price range of $28.000 to $.24.000.000 and finally 840 houses at Maui, with price range of from $150.000 to $25.000.000.

With thousands of choices to choose from, I hope they’ll find a house of their dream in the tropical paradise.

Unsecured debts are not associated with any sort of collateral. Most of us have a lot of unsecured debt. The typical example is a credit card. When a credit card company issues you a credit card, it normally does not ask for any sort of collateral and so any debt you incur is considered unsecured debt.
Besides credit cards, the following are other types of unsecured debts:

• Medical bills
• Legal bills
• Utility bills
• Unsecured lines of credit
• Bounced checks

The advantageous thing about unsecured debts (where bankruptcy is concerned) is that these debts are completely wiped out by a Chapter 7 discharge. You could owe $75,000 to 10 different credit card companies, $3,000 in medical bills, and another $2,000 in other bills and have all of this debt discharged in your bankruptcy. In a Chapter 7, there is no limit as to how much unsecured debt you can have discharged (which is not true for a Chapter 13).
If you are having a difficult time figuring out whether a certain debt you have is secured or unsecured, the key question to ask yourself is this: Have you pledged any sort of collateral to secure the debt? If the answer is no, then the debt is unsecured. Most people have a lot of unsecured debts (credit cards mostly) and a couple of secured debts (car and home loans).
If you have a lot of unsecured debts, then filing Chapter 7 will help you a lot. Unsecured debts are the easiest type of debts to get discharged in a bankruptcy.

There are times when we are really short of cash, not necessarily we are broke but often times most of our assets take form in land, house, stock and bonds that may take time to be converted into usable money. In the emergency moment when we need to cover a medical bills or you need to get bad credit loans rather quickly, while in the meantime your credit card has reached its limit, a quick access on unsecured installment loans can be really helpful and valuable.

When you apply for a loan or cash advance in conventional, they usually require a lot of documents like phone bills, pay stubs and bank statement. A good service that provide unsecured installment loan should be paperless, which allow you to avoid unnecessary and boring paperwork, faxing and queues. They usually give you a web address where you can fill a secure application form and you get the cash rather quickly, preferably in a day or so.

One thing that makes this service different is that it ignores your credit record, because one of its purposes is to help people with bad credit report. You should be wary of hidden charges and fee; you should only be charge with the agreed interest rate. You should disagree with any prepayment penalties which make it easy for you lower the cost of loan by paying your loan early.

There are many good financial services that offer unsecured installment loans for people who need quick cash. I will choose one of those services, called Thinkcash. They can provide you $250 to $2500 relative quickly. Actually, this company is quite different than a Payday Loan or Cash Advance Company, due to the fact that the offer lower rates, which are about 25-75% lower than payday loans. They also provide flexible and convenient payment options, which is unlike ordinary Payday loans. The loan can be paid in several installments or can be paid off as a whole without any penalties. Therefore, you have more control and flexibility with your financial planning.

The cost of the loan depends on the approved loan size. It may cost you $1.00 per day for each $100 loaned cash (with 365% APR) for smaller and shorter term loan to $0.25 per day for each $100 loaned cash (with 87% APR) for longer-term loans and customer with good payment history. Although the rates is lower than the rates charged by most short-term lenders, they are higher than other credit forms, so it is strongly advised that you pay off your loan as fast as possible.

Again, a secured debt is one that is attached to some sort of collateral, such as a car loan. A bank will happily lend you money to buy a car as long as the car is used as collateral to secure the loan. If you fail to pay back the loan, the bank will repossess the car and sell it to pay back the loan. The car secures the loan.
There are many other sorts of secured debts:

• Mortgages. Any time you borrow money against your home, a mortgage is created. All mortgages are secured against the house.
• Judgment liens. The holder of a judgment can file a lien against the property of the one who owes the judgment. That is called a judgment lien. When the property is sold (usually a house or car), the lien is paid before the defendant receives any money.
• Big-ticket items bought at department stores. Creditors such as Sears and JC Penney’s, as well as most electronics stores, have a security agreement as part of their standard credit applications. That means that many of the expensive items you buy at these places are considered secured merchandise. If you bought a washer and dryer last year at Sears, that is a secured debt. Surprise!

The important thing to understand before filing bankruptcy is that secured debts are not automatically discharged in a bankruptcy. Although your personal liability for the debt will be discharged, the security interest survives the bankruptcy. Stay with us here; this is a very important (albeit very difficult) concept to grasp. We’ll try and make it simple. A secured creditor essentially has two methods of collection if the debt is not repaid. The first is to take back the property securing the debt by repossessing the car or foreclosing on the house. But what if the resale of that property repossessed is not enough to cover the debt? Then the lender can always sue you for the difference. Why? Because of the second method ensuring repayment: your personal liability under the contract. Jillian was sued for this very reason. She still owed $10,000 on her car when she was laid off from her job. She was unable to continue to make her car payments and thus her lender eventually repossessed her 1997 Honda Accord. The lender sold the car at a wholesale auction for $4,000 and then sued Jillian for the $6,000 balance she owed on her contract.
Had Jillian filed bankruptcy, she could not have been sued. Why? Because bankruptcy wipes out your personal liability for your debts. No liability means there is nothing to sue you over. Debts in bankruptcy are wiped out because the bankruptcy court issues an order stating that your personal liability for all debts has been discharged. Thus, for example, when a credit card debt is discharged, the credit card company can no longer come after you.
That is not true for secured creditors. In a Chapter 7, the security interest survives the bankruptcy even though your personal liability does not. What that means is that after a bankruptcy, a lender holding a security interest can still take the property back, but because your personal liability for the debt has been discharged, it cannot sue you for the difference. In Jillian’s case, had she filed bankruptcy, the entire $6,000 balance on her car loan would have been wiped out because she would no longer have had any personal liability for the debt.
Thus, when you file bankruptcy, you have a few different ways to handle secured debts. Two of these options relate to keeping the debt. The third is a way to get rid of the debt.

1. Reaffirm the debt. A reaffirmation is an agreement between you and the creditor stating that you want to keep your property, you agree to keep paying for it, and you agree to remain personally liable for the debt. Thus, you and the creditor enter into a new contract by signing the reaffirmation. For example, the company that finances your car may require that you sign a reaffirmation agreement if you want to keep the car. Because the whole idea in bankruptcy is to wipe out your personal liability, take this piece of advice: if possible, avoid reaffirmation agreements.
2. Redeem the debt. A redemption is also a new contract between you and the creditor. But whereas a reaffirmation is a contract to pay back the debt in monthly installments, a redemption is a contract to pay back the debt in a reduced lump sum. Sears might agree to let you keep that washer and dryer if you agree to pay $250 within 30 days. The best part about a redemption is that no new personal liability is being created. Accordingly, a redemption is better than a reaffirmation.
3. Surrender the property. Reaffirmation and redemption allow you to keep property but force you to keep debts. Because the idea here is to get rid of debts, you might want to consider the surrender option. With a surrender, you simply give the car back to the lender. Because your personal liability will be wiped out with the bankruptcy discharge, and because your giving back the property means the lender already has its collateral back, your responsibility for the debt will be completely wiped out by the discharge. Your personal liability is gone, and the property is returned, so the lender has no more tools to get at you.

The key point, then, when contemplating bankruptcy is that it is only your personal liability, not the security interest, that is discharged in your bankruptcy. If most of your debts are secured ones, Chapter 7 bankruptcy may not solve your problems, although the option to get out of a bad contract still makes it attractive to some people.