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Author Archives: Robert A. Kraft

Consumer Lawsuits Against Bill Collectors Skyrocket

Published on July 6, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

McClatchy reports, “Since the recession hit in 2007, federal lawsuits filed under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act have more than doubled, while complaints about problem collectors have skyrocketed.” Attorney Sergei Lemberg, whose “firm has filed about 1,500 such lawsuits in the past three years,” said, “I think debt collectors have become more aggressive by [...]

Categories: Consumer Law News Comments (0) »

Fed Adopts Rules to Protect Credit Card Customers

Published on June 29, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The Federal Reserve adopted new rules this month aimed at protecting credit card customers from getting hit by high late payment charges and other penalty fees. The Dallas Morning News ran a good article on the new rules, and here are excerpts:
The rules respond to public and congressional outrage over practices by credit card companies.
They bar [...]

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Underwater Foreclosures Growing in D-FW Area

Published on June 4, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

This recent headline in the Dallas Morning News wasn’t referring to foreclosures on underwater houses. The topic was foreclosures on houses where the owner was upside-down or “underwater” on the mortgage. In other words, the owner owed more on the mortgage than the house was worth on the open market. This is similar to having [...]

Categories: Consumer Law News, Mortgage Dispute Topics Comments (0) »

Car Dealers Dodge Financing Oversight

Published on May 26, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

Auto dealers got a big break from Congress this week when the Senate voted to exclude them from the proposed new law creating a consumer finance agency. The vote was non-binding, but was by a large majority of 60-30, and is similar to an exemption in the House version of the finance bill. The exemption [...]

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Dallas-Fort Worth Residents Have Among the Highest Debt and Lowest Credit Scores

Published on May 17, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

Dallas residents apparently enjoy spending beyond their means more than most of the country does. At least that’s the appearance given by a recent survey of the 20 largest metropolitan areas done by the Experian credit bureau. As reported in the Dallas Morning News, people in the Dallas and Fort Worth area rank just below [...]

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Do You Take Thee, With Good Credit Score or Bad?

Published on May 10, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

Not to take all the romance out of young love, but the Dallas Morning News had an excellent column today about checking someone’s credit before you get too personally involved with them. Excerpts follow, and they’re good tips. But this is something should to do before you’re too deeply in love for it to make [...]

Categories: Consumer Law Basics Comments (0) »

Auto Repo Business Is Hurting In This Down Economy

Published on April 8, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

An article today about auto repossession caught my attention. It was in the Dallas Morning News, and made the point that this is a bad time for the vehicle recovery business. I had assumed that with so many people out of work and unable to make their car payments, the repo business would be booming. [...]

Categories: Consumer Law News Comments (0) »

Five Credit Score Killers

Published on March 25, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

As Dallas bankruptcy lawyers we are often asked by our clients about what helps and what hurts their credit scores. Bankruptcy hurts, of course, but you can recover from that over time. There are other actions you can take, usually in a futile attempt to avoid or delay bankruptcy, that also can hurt your credit [...]

Categories: Consumer Law Basics Comments (0) »

Federal Reserve Cracks Down on Gift Card Abuses

Published on March 24, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

In a bit of good news for consumers, the Federal Reserve issued new rules yesterday prohibiting certain restrictions on gift cards. Under the new rules taking effect August 22, 2010, consumers must have at least five years to use the gift cards before they expire. The Fed also says service or inactivity fees can be [...]

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New Rule Will Clarify Free Credit Reports

Published on March 22, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

One of my pet peeves is the abundance of TV commercials advertising free credit reports from companies that actually charge you for your credit report. This is totally deceptive, and finally the government is going to start putting an end to this practice on April 1. Here are excerpts from a column by Susan Tompor [...]

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More Than 10% of Texas Homeowners Behind on Mortgage Payments

Published on March 15, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

More than one in ten Texas homeowners with mortgages are behind in their payments, according to the Dallas Morning News. Texas’ mortgage delinquency rate is now just slightly behind the national average of 10.44 percent. Texas ranks 18th nationally among the states with the highest percentage of late home loans. The article states that “The number [...]

Categories: Consumer Law News, Mortgage Dispute Topics Comments (0) »

Dallas-Fort Worth Foreclosure Rate May Be Artificially Low

Published on March 11, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The Dallas Morning News recently ran an interesting and somewhat disturbing article about the decrease in local foreclosures in 2009. The good news is that the number of foreclosures dropped in 2009 from previous years. But the bad news is that this drop may have been artificially induced by strategies employed by financial institutions. Here [...]

Categories: Consumer Law News, Mortgage Dispute Topics Comments (0) »

Tips for the Suddenly Unemployed

Published on March 10, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

As the national economy slowly recovers, jobs are lagging badly. People who have lost their jobs over the past year are still having a difficult time finding new employment. The McClatchy-Tribune News Service recently ran an article with tips for the unemployed. In the article was a list of Web sites that seem helpful.
The threat [...]

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Obama May Compromise on Consumer Agency to Pass Financial Regulation

Published on March 1, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The Obama administration is no longer insisting on the creation of a stand-alone consumer protection agency as a central element of the plan to remake regulation of the financial system, according to an article in the Washington Post. The article is lengthy, but interesting and important. Here are the opening paragraphs:
In hopes of quick congressional [...]

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New Credit Card Rules Take Effect Today

Published on February 22, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

As many people know, today is the effective date of the largest section of the new federal law regarding credit cards, and especially the parts governing what the credit card companies can do and say. This excellent page of official information is from the government Web site of the Federal Reserve:
The Federal Reserve’s new rules for [...]

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Will New Credit Card Rules Increase Bankruptcies?

Published on February 7, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

Jonathan Ginsberg, Atlanta Bankruptcy Attorney, has an interesting post at the Bankruptcy Law Network blog. His theory is that the new credit cards rules taking effect later this month may cause personal bankruptcy filings to rise. This in spite of the fact that the purpose of the new rules is to benefit consumers. Please read the [...]

Categories: Bankruptcy News Comments (0) »

Dealing With Bill Collectors

Published on January 10, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

Dallas Morning News business columnist Pamela Yip published an excellent article about dealing with debt collectors. We recommend you read the entire article if you are having debt collection problems, but here are a few highlights. We will be glad to answer any questions you have in this area.
No one likes to be dogged by [...]

Categories: Fair Debt Collection Comments (0) »

Limited-Time Offer — Free Consultation With Consumer Law Attorney

Published on January 10, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The lawyers and staff at Kraft & Associates have been helping Texas consumers for more than 30 years with their personal injury and Social Security disability claims. But we have only recently added an experienced bankruptcy and consumer law attorney to our team. So for the early part of 2010 we are going to offer [...]

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Bankruptcies Jumped 32 Percent in 2009

Published on January 5, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

As Dallas bankruptcy lawyers, we were not surprised by any of the facts reported today by the Associated Press, but the story is interesting. Consumers and businesses filed so many bankruptcy petitions in 2009 that it became the seventh-worst year on record, with more than 1.4 million petitions filed. This is an increase of 32% [...]

Categories: Bankruptcy News Comments (0) »

Beware Credit Card Changes As You Charge Into Holiday Shopping

Published on December 10, 2009 by Robert A. Kraft

As Dallas bankruptcy lawyers we see far too many clients who have gotten into financial trouble by misusing their credit cards. Pamela Yip, the personal finance columnist for the Dallas Morning News had an excellent article recently on the hazards of using credit cards for holiday shopping. The gist of the article is that there [...]

Categories: Consumer Law Basics, Consumer Law News Comments (0) »