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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Published on December 22, 2009 by
Kathleen Munden
As many of you in the Dallas area may have seen lately, a company called “FinallyFast” is heavily advertising on television. Their product is a program that they promise will speed up your computer by clearing out the junk files that accumulate on computers over time.
You would think that as a bankruptcy lawyer, I would [...]
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 [...]
Published on November 6, 2009 by
Kathleen Munden
Home foreclosure is one of the biggest fears our Dallas and Fort Worth bankruptcy clients face. Potential foreclosure is often the triggering factor in causing people to contact a Dallas bankruptcy attorney. Now the federal government has taken a small step forward in helping homeowners attempt to avoid foreclosure.
In a bid to avoid an overload [...]
Published on October 13, 2009 by
Kathleen Munden
According to the National Association of Attorneys General, the top three topics for consumer complaints to state attorney general offices are debt collection, auto sales, and home repair/construction. Complaints regarding credit cards tied for fourth place with complaints regarding goods and services provided over the internet.
Complaints concerning predatory lending and mortgage practices were sixth, with [...]
Published on October 9, 2009 by
Kathleen Munden
Traditionally, utility service has been extended on credit, remained connected until a serious delinquency occurred, and would not be disconnected during severe weather or where elderly or sick individuals were in the household. Pre-paid meters are now being introduced in several states, including Texas, and require cash up front to obtain and maintain service. When [...]
Published on October 6, 2009 by
Kathleen Munden
Amherst Securities Group analysts predict that the crash in U.S. home prices will probably resume because about 7 million properties that are likely to be seized by lenders have yet to hit the market. The “huge shadow inventory” reflects mortgages already being foreclosed upon or now delinquent and likely to be, which compares to 1.27 [...]
Published on September 3, 2009 by
Kathleen Munden
Since February 2009, default and foreclosure rates on option adjustable rate mortgages have passed those of subprime mortgages, which led the initial wave of foreclosures. Option ARMS accounted for $750 billion in mortgages between 2004 and 2007, and they remain at risk, especially because many are not eligible for refinancing.
About one-third of option ARMS are [...]
Published on August 31, 2009 by
Kathleen Munden
The Transportation Department states that the Cash For Clunkers program succeeded in putting 690,114 more fuel-efficient vehicles on the nation’s roads. The entire $3 billion dedicated to the program was spent in an effort to retire older gas-guzzlers and stimulate vehicle sales.
One auto analyst called the program a success, after his research showed that [...]
Published on August 26, 2009 by
Kathleen Munden
The Wall Street Journal has reported that homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgages are much less likely to catch up again than in previous years. The report from Fitch Ratings focused on mortgages that were packaged into securities for sale to investors, and excluded loans that were guaranteed by government-backed agencies and those [...]