Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Eligibility Requirements

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Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Eligibility Requirements

Although bankruptcy might be a fine solution to your debt problems, you may not be eligible to file. For example, Chapter 7 bankruptcy isn’t available if you’ve already received a Chapter 7 discharge in a case field within the previous 6 years. And you can’t file Chapter 13 bankruptcy if your debts exceed a certain amount. Your eligibility file is something you should figure out right away.

Chapter 7 Eligibility Requirements
There are several basic eligibility requirements you must meet to file a “consumer” Chapter 7 bankruptcy (the standard liquidation bankruptcy for individuals).

You must be an Individual (or Married Couple) or Small Business Owner
To file a consumer Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, you must be an individual (or a husband and wife filing jointly) or s small business owner. As a small business owner, you can include all business debts on which you have personal liability. For example, if you operate your business as a sole proprietor or in partnership with your spouse, you, or you and your spouse, are personally liable for the debts of the business. For bankruptcy purposes, you and your business are one and the same. You can included all of the business debts in your consumer Chapter 7 bankruptcy case.
Similarly, if you are a member of a business partnership with people other than your spouse, you can file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy as a consumer and include all business debts on which you are personally liable. Your partners will remain fully liable for the debts you wipe out, however.
If you are a member of a business partnership, you’ll probably want to consult a small business lawyer before you file for a bankruptcy. Your obligation to your partners may be governed by any buy sell agreement that requires you to terminate your partnership interest before filing for bankruptcy. If you don’t follow that agreement or any other understanding you and your partners have, you probably will putting the partnership property at risk. Your partners (or ex-partners) may ask the bankruptcy court to lift the automatic stay so they can file a lawsuit against you.
You cannot file a consumer Chapter 7 bankruptcy case on behalf of a corporation, limited liability company, or partnership. In that situation, you must file a “business” Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

You Haven’t Had a Previous Bankruptcy Discharge
You can’t file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy if you got a discharge of your debts in any Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy case begun within the past 6 years. Note that the 6 year period runs from the date you filled the earlier bankruptcy case, not the date of your discharge.

You Aren’t Barred by a Previous Bankruptcy Dismissal
You can’t file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy if a previous bankruptcy case was dismissed within the past 180 days for any of the following reasons:
a) You violated a court order
b) The court rules that your filing was fraudulent or an abuse of the bankruptcy system.
c) You requested the dismissal after a creditor asked the court to lift the automatic stay.

You Couldn’t Pay Off Your Debts Outside of Chapter 7
If you have enough assets or income to repay most of your debts, either in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy or outside of bankruptcy altogether, the trustee may request the judge to consider your Chapter 7 filing a “substantial abuse” of the bankruptcy system and require you to either convert your case to Chapter 13 bankruptcy or have your case dismissed. Trustees are, as of recently, required to asses the feasibility of a Chapter 13 filing under policies issued by the Office of the U.S. Trustee.
Even if the trustee pushes this issue, a judge isn’t likely to find substantial abuse unless both of the following are true:
a) You have an adequate and steady income.
b) With a feasible downward modification of your lifestyle, you could pay off all or most of your debts over 3 to 5 years.

You’ve Been Honest With Your Creditors
Bankruptcy is geared toward the honest debtor who got in too deep and needs the help of the bankruptcy court to get a fresh start. Your Chapter 7 bankruptcy case many be challenged or dismissed if you have tried to cheat your creditors or concealed assets with a mind to keeping them through bankruptcy.
Certain activities are red flags to trustees. If you have engaged in any of them during the past year and are caught, your eligibility to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case is likely to be challenged. The most common no no is unloading assets or cash to your friends or relatives to hide them from your creditors. Even if you undo such a transaction before you file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you may still get your bankruptcy dismissed if the trustee finds out about it. It’s also a no no to:
a) Run up large debts for luxury items when you clearly are broke and have no prospects for paying the debts.
b) Conceal property or money from your spouse during a divorce proceeding.
These activities case a suspicion of fraud over your entire bankruptcy case.

Bankruptcy Is it the right solution to your debt problems? Attorney Robin Leonard

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Eligibility Requirements

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Manage Your Debt: #4 Choose Your Path and Take Action

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Manage Your Debt: #4 Choose Your Path and Take Action

When faced with unappealing choices, it’s natural to procrastinate. But after you’ve assessed your situation, gathered the relevant information, and sought expert help, the path you need to take should be pretty clear.

Option1: The Pay-Off Plan
If you can pay off your unsecured debts without help or with the help of home equity borrowing, you’re ready to take the first step: cutting up your credit cards. “What?” you might be saying. “Cut up my cards? How can I live without my cards? News flash: People do it all the time.

You can’t get out of debt if you keep digging. And if you have easy access to your cards, you’ll keep using them. Your credit cards need to be off limits until you’re debt free. Debit cards with Visa or Mastercard logos are accepted at most places that take credit cards. The difference is that the money comes directly out of your checking account, so it’s much tougher to overspend.

Option 2: Credit Counseling
If you decide you need a credit counselor’s aid, make the appointment to get started on a debt management plan. Everyday you delay is costing you more in interest and putting off the moment when you’ll be debt free.

Understand that paying off your debts will be a longer term commitment, and that living on the tight budget necessary may be frustrating. If you need motivation to keep going, consider joining the message boards of one of the frugality-oriented web sites to get support and keep your spirits up.

Option 3: Bankruptcy
If bankruptcy is the nest of bad options, then file. The bankruptcy laws were designed to give people a fresh start, and if you’ve done your best to find money to pay your bills and failed, you shouldn’t shun this option.

Your Credit Score Liz Pulliam Weston

Manage Your Debt: #4 Choose Your Path and Take Action

Avoid Bankruptcy and Free Your Debt . Get Refinance Loans , Secured Debt Consolidation or Debt Settlement Advices.

Manage Your Debt: #3 Evaluating Your Options (Part II)

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Manage Your Debt: #3 Evaluating Your Options (Part II)

Task 3: Figuring Out a Repayment Plan
Your mission: To see if can pay off those nonessential debts, other than friends and family loans, in 3 to 5 years.

Why that particular time period?
Because that’s the standard generally used in bankruptcy court. If you have enough income and assets to pay most or all of your bills within that time frame, a judge probably wouldn’t let you pursue a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

You also could consider, carefully using a home equity loan or line of credit to pay your cards. But do so only if you can commit to the following:
1. Not using your credit cards pile up more debt. (for most people, this will mean not using cards at all until the home equity borrowing is paid back).
2. Not borrowing more than 90% of your home equity (and preferably less than 80%) when your mortgage and home equity borrowing is combined. Home equity can be an important source of emergency funds that you don’t want to squander.
3. Paying off the debt in the same 3 to 5 years period. In other words, don’t use the home equity loan as an excuse to stretch out your debt.
Remember: If you don’t commit to these steps, you’ll ultimately just drive yourself deeper into debt.

But, as far as your credit score is concerned, you should keep these points in mind:
1. Although late payments can really hurt a credit score, a charge off is even worse. If at all possible, you should try to avoid letting an account lapse for so long that it’s charged off.
2. If an account has not yet been charged off, try to pay the balance in full either at once or over time. Setting the account with the original creditor for less than you owe can really hurt your credit score. (Settlements on collection accounts typically don’t have as negative an effect)
3. If an account has need sent to collections, you’ll have the most leverage to negotiate if you can pay a lump sum. But eve n if you have to make payments, try to negotiate to have the collection action deleted from your credit report if at all possible. Although having the collection deleted won’t erase the negative marks from your file, the most damaging mark is the charge off, which the original creditor typically won’t drop, getting rid of the collection notation often helps your score.

What if you can’t find a way to get all your unsecured debts paid off, or you’re simply not sure if your plan will work? You essentially have two options: Credit counseling or Bankruptcy .

Your Credit Score Liz Pulliam Weston

Manage Your Debt: #3 Evaluating Your Options (Part II)

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Manage Your Debt: #2 Evaluating Your Options (Part I)

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Manage Your Debt: #2 Evaluating Your Options (Part I)

Task 1: Prioritize Your Bills
If you’re being hounded by creditors or are simply stressed by debt, it can be easy for your priorities to get out of whack. You might wind up paying a credit card bill when the rent or mortgage is due just because a collection agency is making your life miserable. You’d be risking eviction or foreclosure over a bill that could be wiped out in bankruptcy court, or at least postponed without major consequences.

Dividing your bills into three:
Essential Bills
Important Bills
Non-Essential Bills

Essential Bills are the ones that if you don’t pay, would result in catastrophic consequences.
Important Bills are the ones that you should pay if at all possible, because failure to pay them would have serious consequences.
Non-Essential Bills are the debts they aren’t secured by property. Failure to pay these debts could have serious repercussions for your credit score and might eventually result in lawsuits and judgments.

Task 2: Match Your Resources to Your Bills and Debts
Look at the first two categories of savings that you identified in step 1, the easy stuff to cut, and the harder stuff, and then add those to your monthly net income (what you get in your paycheck after all the taxes and other deductions have taken). Now compare that income to your first two priorities, essential bills and important bills. Can you cover the minimums required?

The first you can do yourself, just by talking into your lender; for IRS help, you’re probably best off using a tax pro. Even child support has worsened, but this can take awhile and might require a lawyer’s help.

Other possibilities: You might take that second job we talked about earlier. You could increase your paycheck by eliminating or reducing 401 (k) contributions temporarily or, if you get a tax refund, by reducing your withholding.

If you still can’t pay for essential and the important, you’ll probably need to take some last resort action, such as selling a house if you own one or renting cheaper digs. You’ll also need to consult a bankruptcy attorney about wiping out any nonessential debts, because those obviously aren’t going to get paid.

Your Credit Score Liz Pulliam Weston

Manage Your Debt: #2 Evaluating Your Options (Part I)

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Manage Your Debt: #1 Figure Out How To Free Up Some Cash

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Manage Your Debt: #1 Figure Out How To Free Up Some Cash

One of the most common mistakes people make in a financial crisis is not cutting back hard enough, fast enough.

Or maybe you need to take a hard look at some of your bigger bills. Even your so called “fixed” expenses, such as your mortgage or rent, aren’t really set in stone. Some people who struggle to hang on to homes that are simply too expensive for them, when the smarter course would be to move.

Don’t panic quite yet. For the moment, you don’t have to do anything, other than write down the potential savings you can identify. You might find it helpful to break those savings down into categories:
1. The easy stuff: Expense that you could ditch with little effort
2. The harder stuff: Expenses that would require more sacrifice to trim
3. The last ditch stuff: Expenses you would cut only as a last resort

There are two other good ways to raise cash:
By selling stuff and by making more money. If you can sell an extra vehicle, hold a yard sale, or auction unused items on eBay, you might be able to free up a good chunk of change. You also might consider freelance work or a second job temporarily. If you’re already working full time, this can seem pretty daunting, but you might be able to do something for a few months that you’d never be able to sustain permanently.

You might notice that I haven’t included some of the most touted “fixes” for credit problems: home equity loans, other debt consolidation loans, and withdrawals or loans from retirement plans. That’s because these “solutions”, as typically applied, often make matters worse in long run.

Home equity loans, lines of credit, and cash out mortgages refinances are particularly seductive, because they tend to offer low rates and tax deductible interest, to boot. But they come with big problem:
1. Most people who use home equity to pay off credit card and other unsecured loans ultimately end up deeper in debt within a few years. That’s because they haven’t changed the fundamental problem of overspending that got them in trouble in the first place.
2. Such loans usually turn what should be short term debt into long term debt. You could end up paying more in interest, and again, wind up poorer, than if you’d buckled down and just paid off the cards of your current income.
3. Using these loans to pay off credit cards, medical bills, or personal loans turn unsecured debt, which could have been erased in bankruptcy court, into secured debt that can’t be wiped out, and that puts your home at risk as well.

Your Credit Score Liz Pulliam Weston

Manage Your Debt: #1 Figure Out How To Free Up Some Cash

Avoid Bankruptcy and Free Your Debt . Get Refinance Loans , Secured Debt Consolidation or Debt Settlement Advices.

Credit Card Balance Transfer?

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Credit Card Balance Transfer?

Opening a new credit card may seem like the last smart thing to do when faced with mounting credit card debt. In one case, however, this may make sense and wind up saving you a lot of money as well. This special exception is a credit card balance transfer, and is oftentimes available to anyone with a mailbox and social security number.

Credit cards are a big business nowadays, with many companies making affluence off finance arraigns. The typical yearly percentage rate is about 16% on most credit cards. With that kind of pursuit, it's tough to pay down a credit card, because it is consistently charging pursuit and adding to the rule. Even hot stocks are pushed to grow at 16% a year. Luckily, companies are so anxious for your business the balance transfer was false.

In an attempt to decoy patrons to their credit card, many companies agreement open balance transfers from your old credit card. Once the money is carefully billed to the new band, they will regularly present a embellish interval where they arraign far fewer on the transferred balance. Decision two, one, or even zilch percent pursuit is workable. Oftentimes this introductory rate lasts for around six months to a year after the balance transfer takes place.

For a sense consumer, this can be a brilliant reasoning of dropping credit card debt. It designed the being open to pay down the balance on a credit card lacking incurring pursuit arraigns. With this strategy, a being could potentially open a new account that agreements a balance transfer when the old one expires. Then transfer all of the balance to the new card to launch a new embellish interval of low or non-present finance arraigns. If you design to do a balance transfer, be indeed to close your old account immediately; having more than two credit card accounts open may break credit scores.

Making a balance transfer work for you is a brilliant tradition, but industry is vital. Sometimes there is penalty carry friendly with unknown arraigns. Some invests may arraign a transfer fee that can be a percentage of the balance transferred. Be indeed that there is a cap on the total, like fifty or seventy-five dollars, or also a balance transfer in the thousands may end up price a join hundred dollars. Also, be indeed the invest doesn't arraign a high yearly fee, or fusion fee. The credit card companies are already receiving your business, so don't let them take the high hand in a balance transfer.

Atciles Source: Betty Bowler writes for http://www.transferakocard.com where you can find out more about Balance Transfer Cards and other topics.

Credit Card Balance Transfer?

Avoid Bankruptcy and Free Your Debt . Get Refinance Loans , Secured Debt Consolidation or Debt Settlement Advices.

Consolidate Credit Card Debt To Solve Financial Problems?

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Consolidate Credit Card Debt To Solve Financial Problems?

Credit card debt is a major problem in the United States. It is so easy to acquire credit cards, and it is not difficult to get carried away with purchases. A person can purchase one thing, realize that they don't have to pay right away, and just keep going.

Before long, it is possible to have multiple maxed out credit cards and seemingly endless charge card debt. With other bills and high interest rates, it can be very difficult to make the monthly payments. This can really help you reduce your burden in these situations. The are multiple options once you decide to consolidate. The information below will help explain some of your choices.

When you consolidate your debt, you will lower your monthly payment and probably your interest rate as well. A lower interest rate is a huge advantage in that it saves you quite a bit of money in the long run.

Home Equity Loan Consolidation

Taking out a home equity loan to pay off your charge cards is possible, but only if you have equity in your home. The definition of equity is the difference of the appraised value of your home minus your current mortgage. You can use the equity to get a loan to pay off your credit card debt. You will obviously still owe the money, but you will have the advantage of a single payment with a much lower interest rate than your credit cards have.

Debt Consolidation Loan

If you don't own a home, or you don't have much equity in your home, a debt consolidation loan is another option. A debt consolidation loan is a personal loan that you can take out to pay off the debt. This also has the benefit of a single monthly payment with a lower interest rate than your credit cards.

Credit Card Consolidation

If you have a low interest credit card with available credit, it is possible for you to consolidate all of your other debt onto that one low interest card. You should seek out the lowest interest rate possible. Make sure to read the fine print, because sometimes there are fees or penalties for transferring other credit card balances over even when reducing the APR on the credit card.

After you consolidate, you must work hard to pay off your debt, while avoiding getting into such a tough position again in the future. You need to get control of your finances. To help you with this, you should dispose of all but one credit card to have for emergencies -- a necessity, not just a want or desire.

Credit card consolidation can really help you become financially free again. You will save money and pay off your debt more quickly.

More knowledge, more power, more success when you better understand the subject of reducing credit card APR. Check us out at http://www.everlife.com/reducing-debts.php

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Landon_McGehee

Consolidate Credit Card Debt To Solve Financial Problems?

Avoid Bankruptcy and Free Your Debt . Get Refinance Loans , Secured Debt Consolidation or Debt Settlement Advices.

Bankruptcy Will I Lose My House or Apartment?

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Bankruptcy Will I Lose My House or Apartment?

One of the biggest worries you may face in deciding whether to file for bankruptcy is the possible loss of your home, whether you own or rent. Take a deep breath and understand that the bankruptcy system is not designed to put you out on the street. If you’re current on your home or rent payments and can afford to keep paying them your chances of staying in your current abode look good. If you’re behind but can now afford to make your payments, you might be able to get back on track through bankruptcy. Even if you can’t afford your payments, bankruptcy may provide a little breathing room to deal with the inevitable: finding a new place to live.

Homeowners Filling for Bankruptcy
Whether you’ll be able to keep your home after filing for bankruptcy will depend on a number of factors, including whether you are current or behind on your mortgage payments, how much equity you own, the state in which you live, and whether you file a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. There are two general rules.

a) If you are current on your mortgage payments. Whether or not you will lose your home in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy depends on the amount of equity you have in the property and the amount of any homestead exemption to which you are entitled. If you filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy , you will not lose your home as long as you continue to make your mortgage payments.

b) If you are behind on your mortgage payments. You will almost certainly lose your home if you file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Your mortgage lender will ask the bankruptcy court to lift the “automatic stay”, and the court will probably grant the request, allowing the mortgage lender to begin or resume foreclosure proceedings. In a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you will not lose your home, no matter how much your equity is, if you immediately resume making the regular repayments called for under your agreement and provide for possible of your missed mortgage payments through your Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan.

Bankruptcy Is it the right solution to your debt problems? Attorney Robin Leonard

Bankruptcy Will I Lose My House or Apartment?

Avoid Bankruptcy and Free Your Debt . Get Refinance Loans , Secured Debt Consolidation or Debt Settlement Advices.