How to Spot Shady Credit Counselling Services

This fairly decent article outlines helpful tips on how to spot shady credit counseling services.

Ten (10) clues that the debt counseling agency may not be legitimate:

a) The promise of lowered payments. Payments cannot be lowered. Only the interest rates can be lowered.

b) The offer of 'debt settlement' services. You don't need them. You can do that yourself. Just pick up the phone, call your creditors and see what they are willing to negotiate with you.

c) Non-profits and profits are the same. You will not get a better deal with a non-profit organization.

d) They ask for account numbers before giving you a quote. This is not necessary.

e) Promises to negotiate charged-off accounts. This is usually not possible, and if so, this can also be done without the help of a credit counselor.

f) It is a jack of all trades and master of none. True debt counseling agencies can't wear too many hats at once because the business is highly specialized and calls for intense focus that doesn't allow much time for lots of other add-on services.

g) They advise you to include accounts with low interest rates that may end up going higher because they don't really know what they are doing.

h) They advise you to include student loans. Student loans usually charge the lowest non-adjustable rates available and are not negotiable.

i) They advise you to include state or federal tax liens. Tax liens are another area and need to be handled exclusively by a tax attorney.

j) Group quotes together rather than giving you a breakdown of how each creditor will be handled, which leaves you with no idea of how long it will take to pay off each account.

To read the complete article, click here.

Texas Bankruptcies Down Sharply

The Dallas Star-Telegram reports that, Texas, like the rest of the country, is seeing fewer bankruptcies: down 72 percent.

“The big story is, Congress wanted to suppress the number of filings, and they have succeeded mightily,” said Sam Gerdano, executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute. He said that nationally, about 10,000 bankruptcy filings are being made weekly, about one-third the number in recent years.

Although early predictions were that filings would total close to 1 million in 2006, “a lot of folks downgraded their forecasts closer to 600,000,” Gerdano said. That’s compared with a record of nearly 2.1 million in 2005.

Credit counselors there, as elsewhere are finding that those referred to them don't really qualify for bankrupty alternatives.

Catherine Williams, a vice president for Money Management International, said: “The goal was to help inform consumers about the variety of options they might have and help them see if a repayment program is a viable option. But the sad part is, the money just isn’t there after food, shelter, transportation and the bare necessities. They’re out of money.”

She said that Money Management International, which has about 140 offices in 23 states, including Texas, has counseled more than 45,000 U.S. consumers since Oct. 17.

To read the complete article, click here.

Credit counseling pricey for consumers, agencies

Credit counseling pricey for consumers, agencies

Bankruptcy law has problems, critics says (Atlanta Constitution Journal)

A reprinted article from the St. Paul Pioneer Press documents the effect of credit counselling in the first six months of the new bankruptcy law. One of the more interesting findings is:

Credit counseling is proving to be pricey for consumers and the agencies providing the service.

Agencies often reduce or waive fees because many people can't afford to pay for counseling. Vierling said he struggled to come up with the $50 for his counseling session.

Consumers paid on average about $38 for counseling sessions, according to the NFCC. That doesn't cover the cost of providing the service, it says.

The result is an estimated $12.4 million shortfall for its member agencies, which make up 70 percent of certified bankruptcy counselors.

Find more in this reprint of the article in the Atlanta Consitution Journal

Will this title stay here if I change the post with google docs?

Using Google Docs as your CMS

[start]

A revolution in content management

LegalConsumer.com was looking for a way to post updates, without having to upload files or have access to a complicated or expensive CMS system. "I was looking for something so simple that I could update the site from my cell phone." he said. And so he made a content system that allows him to do that.

Using the power of Google Docs, with its built in spellcheck and access from anywhere, from any computer, it allows the staff of LegalConsumer to make changes whenever they need to. Any changes go live on the website instantaneously.

Update your site from your cell phone

This is the kind of cool that Jake Warner would love.

Have a single source for your Content and Blog post in one place

Keep your

Next Week: How the system works.

[end]

[abstract]This article explores how you can use Google Docs as your CMS for parts of your website that need frequent updating.

The author explores intelligent use of tagging to allow for XML like parsing, without the rigors of XML[/abstract]

[pullquote]This could be the most important mash-up ever.[/pullquote]

[pullquote2]LegalConsumer's mention in the Google Docs blog caused its traffic to skyrocket[/pullquote2]

Anything I type here will not appear on the website because it is not within any tags.

[future]

How The System Works

[/future]

Fewer Bankruptcies in Western District of Michigan.

Lansing State Journal: Is bankruptcy reform working?

Fewer than 1,500 bankruptcy cases were filed during the first three months of the year in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Michigan in Grand Rapids, which includes Clinton, Eaton and Ingham counties.

It was the first time since 1995 that total filings dropped below 2,000 cases for a quarter, court statistics show. Bankruptcies spiked for the last three months of 2005 to 7,886 cases as filers rushed to beat the tougher rules that took effect Oct. 17, 2005. That follows a national trend

Filings for the first three months of 2006 hit their lowest level since 1985, according to the Bankruptcy Court.

Free Bankruptcy Means Test Calculator

My new bankruptcy website is live, at last, with a free, means test calculator that helps folks figure out whether they can file for bankruptcy.

After two years of drvrlopment it's real. Folks are using it. Hooray.

Check it out. Free means test calculator.

Credit Counseling falls short of staving off bankruptcies

Another good report from the Toledo Blade, reporting on the effect of the new bankruptcy law. Almost all people who go for mandatory credit counseling need bankruptcy anyway.

No surprise there. Still, it interesting to read the "real world" reports.

Consumer Federation of America & American Express Report on Effectiveness of Credit Counseling

A press release from the Consumer Federation of America reports that a study funded by credit counselling agencies say they have beneficial impact.

"Consumers who were recommended for a DMP by agencies and chose to start payments had a significantly lower incidence of bankruptcy, as well as improved bankruptcy and delinquency risk scores, over the two years following counseling than did those who were recommended for a DMP and chose not to start."

And phone counselling seem to be no less effective than face to face meetings.

"Telephone and face-to-face delivery of the initial counseling appear to generate equivalent outcomes for consumers' creditworthiness measured two years later."