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Author Archives: Robert A. Kraft

Fewer Dallas-Area Homeowners Late on Loans

Published on August 22, 2011 by Robert A. Kraft

Dallas-area late mortgage rates are continuing to decline, according to an article in the Dallas Morning News:
In May, 4.8 percent of local residents with a loan on their home were 90 days or more behind in their payments.
That’s down from 5.51 percent a year earlier and 6.08 percent in early 2010, researchers at CoreLogic Inc. [...]

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New Rule Will Give Some Consumers Free Access to Credit Scores

Published on July 19, 2011 by Robert A. Kraft

Columnist Pamela Yip, of the Dallas Morning News, wrote this week about a new federal rule that will allow certain consumers free access to their credit scores. Unfortunately, the rule applies mostly to people who have been denied credit, so you really don’t want this to happen to you. But if your credit is denied, [...]

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Texas Senate Approves Two Bills To Place Oversight On Payday Lending Industry

Published on May 24, 2011 by Robert A. Kraft

Senators took the plunge into payday lending rules Monday, approving two bills that bring some oversight to the largely unregulated industry in Texas.
Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, said the legislation represents a “very, very delicate compromise” between consumer groups and the payday and auto title lending industry.
The legislation by Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, would require more [...]

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General Bankruptcy Law in Texas

Published on April 11, 2011 by Robert A. Kraft

This guest post is courtesy of Oak View Law Group:
No one initiates a business plan assuming it will fail in future and they will end up filing for business bankruptcy. People in Texas can opt for debt settlement Texas which is  a fruitful way to get rid of a surmounting debt for individual as well [...]

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Texas Senate Panel Passes Bill to Safeguard Military Families Against Foreclosure

Published on March 21, 2011 by Robert A. Kraft

Earlier this month a committee of the Texas Senate passed a bill that will be a great relief to many military families. The bill, which would protect active-duty military personnel from losing their homes to homeowners associations, was detailed in an article in the Dallas Morning News. Here are excerpts:
Federal law protects acting service members [...]

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Lawmakers to debate value of payday loans

Published on March 7, 2011 by Robert A. Kraft

The Texas Legislature is considering clamping down on payday loan companies,and closing a giant loophole that has allowed these business to continue operating as they did before the last “clapdown” law was passed. Here is an article from the Houston Chronicle that discusses the situation in some details:
Bills that would prohibit companies from charging fees [...]

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The Rise and Fall of a Foreclosure King

Published on February 17, 2011 by Robert A. Kraft

A fascinating article was recently published, at Yahoo News among other places, about a Florida lawyer known as the “Foreclosure King” for the sheer volume of foreclosures processed by his firm. Many homeowners were evicted because of these foreclosures, and it now appears that most of them were wrongfully evicted. The law firm not only [...]

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Dallas Council Urged to Limit Payday Lending Sites

Published on January 28, 2011 by Robert A. Kraft

This is old news by now, but I still think it’s important, and I’ve just delayed posting about it. Last month the Dallas City Council was encouraged by representatives from the United Way, the AARP, Friendship West Baptist Church, and CitySquare to limit the expansion of payday lending stores in poor areas of Dallas.
The representatives [...]

Categories: Consumer Law Basics, Fair Debt Collection Comments (0) »

FTC Sues Three Dallas Debt Settlement Firms

Published on December 6, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The Federal Trade Commission has accused three Dallas debt settlement companies of making deceptive claims about the results they achieve for consumers who are deeply in debt. The FTC claims the companies said that if consumers enrolled in their programs they could erase 30 to 60 percent of their credit card debt and be debt-free in [...]

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2010 Was a Record High Year for Foreclosure Filings in Dallas-Fort Worth

Published on November 22, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

This year set a record for foreclosure filings in North Texas. The good news is that the rate of increase over 2009 is much less than in the previous two years. This may be an indication that the situation is settling down, and that 2011 may not set a new record. The Dallas Morning News [...]

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Lenders Still Pursue Foreclosures While in Modification Talks

Published on November 2, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The Washington Post (10/30, Elboghdady, 605K) reports, “Across the country, struggling homeowners are increasingly tripped up by mortgage lenders that press ahead with foreclosures regardless of any effort they make to provide borrowers with relief on unaffordable mortgages. … Mortgage companies have established a dual-track approach toward troubled homeowners, negotiating with them over loan modifications [...]

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Wells Fargo to Refile 55,000 Foreclosure Cases

Published on October 28, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The AP (10/27) reports Wells Fargo “admitted Wednesday it made mistakes in the paperwork for thousands of foreclosure cases and promised to fix them.” The “San Francisco-based bank said it plans to refile documents in 55,000 of the cases by mid-November. The company said not all those cases included errors but didn’t say how many [...]

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Mortgage Relief Effort Has Fallen Woefully Short

Published on October 26, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The CBS Evening News reported that the Administration’s “foreclosure prevention plan was labeled a failure today by a government watchdog. Of the 1.3 million people the Treasury claims to have helped, the Inspector General of TARP said fewer than half have actually received permanent loan modifications.”
Politico (10/26, Aujla) also reports that a report from TARP [...]

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White House Reiterates Opposition to Foreclosure Moratorium

Published on October 13, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

USA Today (10/13, Armour) reports that yesterday, the Administration “rejected calls for a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures because of concerns it could cause broader harm to the housing recovery” although “a freeze on foreclosures is still widening.” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs “did say the White House supports a multi-state investigation into foreclosures and [...]

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Obama Administration Doesn’t See Need for Blanket Foreclosure Moratorium

Published on October 12, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The New York Times (10/12, B1, Appelbaum) reports that the “swelling outcry over fast-and-loose foreclosures has thrust the Obama administration back into the uncomfortable position of sheltering the banking industry from the demands of an angry public.” While “senior Congressional Democrats join the calls for a national moratorium on foreclosures,” the White House “once again [...]

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Lawmakers Call for Investigation of Foreclosure Errors

Published on October 6, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

The AP (10/6, Zibel) reports that on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and more than 30 other Democratic lawmakers from California “urged bank regulators and the Justice Department to probe whether mortgage companies violated any laws in handling foreclosures and borrowers’ requests for loan assistance.” The lawmakers sent the letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, [...]

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Dallas-Fort Worth Home Listings Rise 15 Percent in Past Year

Published on September 16, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

This is a great time to be shopping for a house in Dallas, but not such a great time to be trying to sell one. As reported by the Dallas Morning News, residential sales listings in Dallas have grown almost five percent in the past three months. Here are article excerpts:
The number of houses on [...]

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With Payday Loans, Poor Get the Loans, Firms Get the Payday

Published on August 16, 2010 by Robert A. Kraft

That was the headline of a recent lengthy article in the Dallas Morning News. I urge anyone considering a payday loan to read the entire article. It may change your mind. These are the opening paragraphs:
On July 2, a 74-year-old Dallas widow named Yvonne Sands received her monthly Social Security check of $1,360. Shortly after [...]

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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 [...]

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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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