On behalf of Sulaiman Law Group, LTD posted in Debt Relief on Friday, March 30, 2012
A lot of signs point to an economic recovery. The job situation is improving and foreclosures are down, albeit with recent spikes as banks catch up with processing them. But many Americans are still struggling and hoping for debt relief. They're in good company.
According to the Huffington Post, nationwide there is a personal debt of approximately $11.5 trillion. Half of all families have a debt of $75,000 or more. The problem is particularly troubling for young adults, many of whom took out hefty student loans. The average debt for people in their 20s is about $45,000.
On behalf of Sulaiman Law Group, LTD posted in Debt Relief on Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Data concerning families needing to seek debt relief reveals some surprising statistics. Even many families who have health insurance provided by an employer often face ruinous health care costs when a member of their family has to be hospitalized.
Not all those insured are treated equally. Under some insurance plans, one patient may emerge from a period of hospitalization facing a bill for a $500 or $1,000 expense not covered by their insurance. Another insured patient with a different plan may be presented with a bill for much more than that. Over half of all personal bankruptcy filings are related to gigantic medical expenses, according to Chron.com.
On behalf of Sulaiman Law Group, LTD posted in Debt Relief on Friday, March 23, 2012
It's not hard to go into debt if you lose your job and not many companies are hiring. The last four years have been a true struggle for many people with jobless claims nearly topping out at about 650,000 in early 2009.
In a promising sign, however, jobless claims have stayed below 370,000 for seven straight weeks, and for eight of the last 10. In fact, this week the number fell to the lowest it's been since February 2008.
On behalf of Sulaiman Law Group, LTD posted in Debt Relief on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Federal investigators have reported finding proof of the accusations of robosigning of home foreclosure documents against Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and a number of other large mortgage service companies. They apparently signed documents to initiate court proceedings to process foreclosures, in some instances not bothering to determine whether the information on the forms was accurate.
The report was issued recently by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and followed the $25 billion settlement entered into by mortgage companies of claims arising from the robosigning scandal. About 49 different states were involved in reaching the settlement with the major mortgage companies.
On behalf of Sulaiman Law Group, LTD posted in Foreclosure on Friday, March 16, 2012
The number of Chicago foreclosures last month was up significantly when compared with a year ago. But that wasn't entirely unexpected, and is probably the result of artificially low numbers last year due to a backlog of foreclosures. Now that some hurdles are out of the way, economists predict more annual increases this year. It's not necessarily reflective of the current state of the economy, though.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, foreclosures in the city fell 8.5 percent in February compared to January, but were up over 43 percent compared with February 2011. One in every 302 homes in the area received a filing last month, with 12,587 total. That's down from 13,750 the month before, but up substantially over the same period last year.
On behalf of Sulaiman Law Group, LTD posted in Debt Management on Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Young people trying to enter the job market for the first time are having increasing difficulty with debt management, as they are obtaining ever lower beginning wages, probably as a consequence of the current high level of unemployment.
A report examining wages shows an 11 percent decline in hourly wages received by male college graduates from the ages of 23 to 29 over the last 10 years. For women, the comparable drop was 7.6 percent. These figures were adjusted to take inflation into account.
On behalf of Sulaiman Law Group, LTD posted in Chapter 13 on Friday, March 9, 2012
For many consumers in today's troubled economy, filing a chapter 13 bankruptcy plan may be a necessary part of financial recovery. Even if someone already has a mounting burden of debt resulting from past incidents such as medical bills or job loss, the need to have funds for various purchases never goes away.
Chapter 13 plans are designed for wage earners to try to pay off some of their past debt, while allowing them a sufficient budget to be able to also pay for immediate daily needs. Such plans consolidate all existing past debts into one sum and stretch out the repayment obligation over a time period ranging from three to five years.
On behalf of Sulaiman Law Group, LTD posted in Debt Relief on Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Those who are in need of debt relief often find their situation complicated by creditors, who are sometimes ruthless in their attempts to collect debt from innocent consumers. Unfortunately, just because threats and harassment by creditors are against the law doesn't mean they don't stoop to those means to collect money.
Many Americans struggling with debt experience a deluge of phone calls from creditors trying to collect fake loans or ones that are already collected. The harassment can wear people down. One woman who filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and had more than $40,000 in credit card debt says that even though her debt was eliminated by bankruptcy, she continued to get harassing phone calls from creditors.
On behalf of Sulaiman Law Group, LTD posted in Debt Management on Friday, March 2, 2012
Apparently new regulations, restrictions and actions to protect consumers have been working, at least when you look at the numbers. According to a Reuters article, consumer complaints against U.S. banks dropped by a third in 2011. That's a significant number.
Americans struggling with debt management over the last three or four years have complained loudly when they feel banks don't treat them fairly. Consumers have stood up against hidden fees, interest rates and poor customer service. They still do: According to data released by the Better Business Bureau, banks received the fifth-largest number of consumer complaints in 2011. However, it's still a drop of a whopping 30 percent. By contrast, complaints against payday lenders more than doubled.
On behalf of Sulaiman Law Group, LTD posted in Foreclosure on Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Statistics show that there were declines in both consumer bankruptcy filings and home foreclosures during the last six months of last year, perhaps indicating a possible upswing in the overall economy. Bankruptcy filings by individual consumers were reduced to approximately the level they were at before the onset of the recession in 2008.
Consumer bankruptcies declined by 22 percent by the last three months of the year, compared with the second quarter, while business bankruptcies were down by 28 percent. The recent decrease in the number of foreclosures being processed was reflected in the fact that a total of 86,037 foreclosure auctions were scheduled to be held in January 2012. That's approximately a fifth below the number held in the equivalent time period the previous year.
