Credit cards are a huge problem in the U.S. A May 21st New York Times article reported that the Standard & Poor’s/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices shows that the default rate on credit card loans recently climbed to its highest point, 9.14 percent, since the index first began in 2004.

So more people are no longer paying their credit card bills. What are those people who’ve stopped paying on their credit cards doing about their credit card debt?

Hopefully, they’re not paying a debt settlement company to try and “get out of debt.” There are a few cases where using a debt settlement company may be appropriate, but not many. Many debt settlement companies take large fees and tell you to stop paying on your credit card bills. They take monthly payments from you for a long time. Then they make offers to your credit card companies to settle your debts.

Sound like something you can do by yourself without paying the high fees? Yeah, there’s a reason for that – it is.

But many people who are taking the debt settlement route should consider bankruptcy instead. If you’re thinking about pursuing the debt settlement route, ask yourself, “why did I decide that bankruptcy wasn’t for me?” Was it fear? A belief that bankruptcy is too difficult?

You owe it to yourself – and your financial health – to first take the time to do some research. Look around online. The bankruptcy courts have their own websites with plenty of information for potential filers. It can’t hurt you to take the time to educate yourself. You need to know what the potential benefits of bankruptcy are before you commit to the high fees charged by a debt settlement company.

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Americans have an unhealthy obsession with bad credit, as though a credit score were an indicator of self worth. This obsession is unnecessary. You don’t need a good credit score to live a fulfilling and happy life. Even if you have bad credit, the sun will still come out tomorrow.

Do you want to work for a bank? Do you want to buy real estate someday? If so, you probably have legitimate reasons to be concerned with how your credit report looks to others. If not, stop worrying about your credit. It is not worth the energy you spend on thinking about it, believe me. But if it is a priority, there are ways you can rebuild credit.

And you’d think people who are on the verge of filing for bankruptcy must be starting out with good credit, considering all the energy they expend worrying about how it might ruin their credit scores. But you’d be wrong, for the most part. Sure, some people who file for bankruptcy early enough might still have a decent score, but honestly, most people who are serious about it already have bad credit.

If you are legitimately concerned with your credit, consider this: Those starting out with bad credit should look at how a bankruptcy can help begin to rebuild credit by providing a fresh start. Those starting out with good credit, but who have dischargeable debts they can’t pay, should be looking at how far down their credit score can go if they let their untenable debt situation continue its downward spiral.

Thinking about a bankruptcy in New Jersey? Call Jennifer Weil at 201-676-0722 for a free telephone consultation or email me at jweil@jenlawyer.com.

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The answer is that bankruptcy information can stay on your report for 10 years. Most other types of negative information can be reported for 7 years.

Usually, a Chapter 7 stays on a credit report for 10 years while a Chapter 13 stays on a report for 7 years.

The Federal Trade Commission has a website explaining how to get free copies of your credit reports from the 3 major credit reporting companies. You should check your reports on a regular basis to make sure they do not contain any false information.

It is still possible to build a positive credit report even with a bankruptcy on your record, so long as you act carefully and methodically. If you’ve ever received credit card offers before, you are likely to receive them again after your bankruptcy.

If your goal is to build good credit, it’s worth your while to consider the post-bankruptcy card offers that you receive with an eye toward building a record of consistently and fully repaying an open line of credit.

If you are in New Jersey and considering Chapter 7 bankruptcy, please call me for a free telephone consultation at 201-676-0722.

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The answer is that there is no minimum debt amount required to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. A more important issue is whether you earn enough income to pay off your debts.

If you earn enough money to pay your debts off over time, you may have difficulties successfully filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. So you should look at your debts in proportion to your income to determine whether you can pay off your debts over time while still paying your reasonable housing and food expenses.

If you are concerned about being eligible for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in New Jersey, please call 201-676-0722 for a free consultation or email jweil@jenlawyer.com.

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Instead, every Chapter 7 case will be scheduled for a meeting of creditors, which does not take place in a courthouse. In Newark, New Jersey, the meetings of creditors take place in a downtown office building. Most large creditors (such as credit card companies) typically do not show up for these meetings, which usually only last about 5 minutes.

At the meeting of creditors, the trustee assigned to your case will ask you a series of questions regarding your bankruptcy while you are under oath.

But sometimes, a bankruptcy case is more complicated than average and a court hearing might be needed. David Harris, a Pennsylvania bankruptcy lawyer, provides a good outline of some instances when a court appearance might be required.

If you are in New Jersey and seeking a Chapter 7 bankruptcy lawyer, call 201-676-0722.

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Planning on transferring your largest asset to a relative just before filing for bankruptcy so that the bankruptcy court can’t get to it? As a bankruptcy lawyer, I must say – PLEASE DON’T. It’s a bad idea because it can really get you into trouble and it can deny you your ultimate goal of getting your debts discharged.

The Bankruptcy Code contains a section (727) allowing the Bankruptcy Court to deny a discharge to debtors who transferred, destroyed, or concealed their own property within a year before filing for bankruptcy. Debtors also should not mess around with their property right after filing for bankruptcy – wait until the discharge comes through.

The reason why is that, especially since the 2005 change in the bankruptcy law was enacted, the courts have been cracking down on bankruptcy fraud. The court doesn’t like it when you try to hide assets. They don’t think of your moving your property around to avoid losing it in bankruptcy as ‘innocent,’ even if you do.

In fact, if a debtor does enough things that the court doesn’t like, it may see the entire bankruptcy filing as abusive.

Besides, if you really have assets worth so much that you can’t exempt them from the bankruptcy estate, you may be able to save them by filing a Chapter 13 instead of a Chapter 7. Talk with a lawyer about your options – just don’t transfer any property around before doing so!

In New Jersey and looking at bankruptcy as an option? Call a New Jersey bankruptcy lawyer at 201-676-0722.

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Which debts should you put in the bankruptcy and which ones should you leave out?

Answer: You are required to list all of your debts in your bankruptcy papers! It is a common notion that you are allowed to keep some debts out of your bankruptcy by not listing them – but this could not be further from the truth.

Don’t forget, you are signing your bankruptcy papers under penalty of perjury, which means that you could be criminally prosecuted if you fail to disclose information on those papers. These papers require you to list complete information, including “all” of your debts.

What if you accidentally leave out some piece of information? Then you should tell your lawyer as soon as you realize your mistake, because you may be able to amend the filed bankruptcy papers. You may be required to pay an extra fee to the Bankruptcy Court.

And don’t forget to list all debts you may owe to friends and relatives. Many people do not think about listing debts to friends and relatives, because they don’t consider them to be the same type of debt as the credit card debt they are so worried about. And it’s true – debts owed to friends and relatives are different, but that does not mean they shouldn’t be listed in your bankruptcy papers.

If you are seeking bankruptcy advice in northern or central New Jersey, call Jennifer Weil at 201-676-0722 or send an email to: weilattorney@gmail.com.

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The whole issue of whether you should repay someone to whom you owe money before you actually file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy is more complex than it looks at first glance. I introduced the issue in a previous post about repaying debts before bankruptcy, but there is a lot of detail here that is worth examining.

You may recall from my previous post that if you repay someone you owe money (whether it’s American Express or your Aunt Sally) just before filing for bankruptcy, and the total repayment is $600 or more, the bankruptcy trustee could take back that money from your creditor.

The trustee will look back only 90 days before your filing to see if you repaid any ordinary creditors, such as American Express. But for creditors like your Aunt Sally, the trustee will look back a year before your filing for repayments that they can take back. If the trustee finds loan repayments and takes them back, they can be used to repay your other creditors. The money doesn’t go back to you.

A loan repayment made before bankruptcy that the trustee can take back is known as a “preference” or a “preferential transfer.”

But even when the trustee decides that a payment made to a creditor before a bankruptcy filing was a preference that they can take back, there are defenses that might be applicable. Two of these defenses are: 1) The earmarking defense and 2) The new value defense.

The earmarking defense is available when someone provides you with money to re-pay one of your existing creditors.

In a recent decision the Third Circuit Court of Appeals found that certain things need to be present for the earmarking defense to work: 1) An agreement between you (the debtor) and the person providing you with the money stating that the new money will be used to pay the prior debt; 2) Performance of the terms of the agreement; and 3) This transaction does not reduce the value of the debtor’s estate.

The idea behind the earmarking defense is that the debtor never had an interest (in the sense of a property interest) in the funds to begin with.

The second defense is the “new value” defense. In the same decision mentioned earlier, the Third Circuit said that for the new value defense to apply, you need: 1) A preferential transfer; 2) After receiving the preferential transfer, the creditor makes a new loan to the debtor – this new loan must be unsecured; and 3) As of the bankruptcy filing date, the debtor has not yet repaid the new loan to the creditor.

An example of when the new value defense is available would be when you repay your Aunt Sally the $2500 she loaned you and then your Aunt Sally makes a brand new $2500 loan to you that you had not yet repaid by the time you filed for bankruptcy. It’s basically like reversing the loan repayment.

The Third Circuit decision I referred to above is Shubert v. Lucent Techs. Inc. (In re Winstar Communs., Inc.), 554 F.3d 382 (3d Cir. 2009).

If all this is confusing to you and you don’t know what to do, remember this: Seek advice from a bankruptcy attorney before repaying any loans to anyone in any amount, whether it’s American Express or your Aunt Sally or anyone in between! If you’d like, give me a call at 201-676-0722.

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While surfing the internet looking for information on Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you may come across articles saying that you should not file for bankruptcy. These articles will cite a myriad of reasons: You’ll ruin your credit score, you won’t be able to get a new job, you won’t be able to rent another apartment, and utility companies will make you put down a deposit.

I say, don’t believe the hype.

You need to do what’s right for you. If filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy turns out to be the right thing for you, then do it. Don’t let the naysayers get in your way.

Because here’s the thing: Each and every person who is having problems with debt needs to do their own analysis, preferably after consulting with one or more professionals, to determine whether Chapter 7 bankruptcy is right for them. Blanket negative statements about the evils of bankruptcy don’t help with your analysis.

Let’s look at these bankruptcy evils one at a time:

You’ll ruin your credit score. Seriously, folks, if you’re having bad debt troubles, don’t you think your credit score has already taken a beating? Maybe it hasn’t – but you’re likely in a situation where you are just starting to have trouble paying your bills and the troubles haven’t hit your credit report yet.

But if you allow the debt troubles to continue without taking some decisive action, your credit score will eventually go down. Might as well do something about the debt that you can’t pay sooner rather than later, so that you can get to a point where you can start to build up your credit score again, if it’s important to you.

You won’t be able to get a new job. Yes, many employers run credit checks on prospective employees. But many employers do not. Sometimes it depends on what industry you are in. Trying to get a bank job? Banks will probably run credit checks on prospective employees. But many “mom-and-pop” small, non-corporate employers do not. In other words, this is a factor you should consider, but it may not be the end all, be all factor that decides whether or not you file.

You won’t be able to rent an apartment. Here again, some landlords run credit checks and some do not. You probably won’t have your pick of every single new apartment to move into, but you wouldn’t have anyway, because some apartments rent for more than you can afford. This factor depends a lot on what’s available in the area where you want to live. So it’s something to consider, but it’s not the only factor (and not even a huge one, at that).

Utility companies will make you put down a deposit. Utility services cannot be cut off because you filed for bankruptcy. If you owe a past debt to a utility, then you may have to put down a deposit after you file. This is why it’s a good idea to be current on your utility bills prior to filing for bankruptcy.

If you’ve already finished with a bankruptcy, you may have to put down a deposit for a utility company in the future after you move and try to get utilities. But this can happen even without a bankruptcy on your record – for example, if you move to another state and start service with a utility company you’ve never used before, they might ask you for a deposit just because you’re a first-time customer. If you’re concerned about this, you may want to try renting an apartment that has utilities included in the rent.

Bottom line, the evils of bankruptcy are not evils at all – and they certainly should not be what keeps you from filing.

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