The article below details the relationship between age and its accompanying financial problems confronting seniors. The rise in bankruptcy filings is obviously expected to increase exponentially in the coming years.
The Florida Times-Union
The Federal Trade Commission published an excellent brochure on foreclosure rescue smam artists. The article below is culled from their materials.The possibility of losing your home to foreclosure can be terrifying. The reality that scam artists are preying on the vulnerability of desperate homeowners is equally frightening. Many so-called foreclosure rescue companies or foreclosure assistance firms claim they can help you save your home. Some are brazen enough to offer a money-back guarantee. Unfortunately, once most of these foreclosure fraudsters take your money, they leave you much the worse for wear.Fraudulent foreclosure “rescue” professionals use half truths and outright lies to sell services that promise relief and then fail to deliver. Their goal is to make a quick profit through fees or mortgage payments they collect from you, but do not pass on to the lender. Sometimes, they assume ownership of your property by deceiving you, the homeowner. Then, when it’s too late to save your home, they take the property or siphon off the equity. You’ve lost your home to foreclosure despite your best intentions.If you think you may be facing foreclosure, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, wants you to know how to recognize a foreclosure rescue scam. And even if the foreclosure process has already begun, the FTC and its law enforcement partners want you to know that legitimate options are available to help you save your home.
You are served with court papers and find out that a company you never heard of, say, Asset Acceptance, is suing you.They purchased the debt from your old credit card company. In what has now become a huge industry, credit card issuers and large banks are selling the charged off debts, which is to say the debts that they can no longer show as assets on their books, to companies that them for pennies on the dollar, then try to collect them. When the deal goes down, the debt buyer receives a one page computer printout with your name, balance and account number. No contract, no statements, no accounting of even principal and interest. In short, not enough for them to use in a lawsuit, but they debt buyers don’t care.The debt buyers know that most people do not even respond to lawsuits. Once the debtor fails to repond, the debt buyer gets a default judgment and moves to garnish your check or levy your account. The debt buyers and their attorneys know that they don’t actually have enough to proceed in a lawsuit if they meet resistence and, when push comes to shove, they will often dismiss their lawsuit if a response is filed.
The last thing anyone needs to be doing after filing bankruptcy is paying debts that they do not owe. The whole idea of bankruptcy is to get a real fresh start. Unfortunately, errors on credit card bills resulting in fresh debt are getting to be pretty commonplace. That being the case, you should always look at your monthly statements. The question is what do you do when you find an unauthorized charge on your bill?
Contesting errors on your credit card bill may seem a bit daunting, but there are procedures for helping you get things back in order.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act places severe limits as to when and how debt collectors can contact you. A “debt collector” is a third party, such as a collections agency, that tries to collect money owed to someone else. It is very important to remember that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act only places limits on the actions of third parties and not on original creditors. Some of the more important constraints placed on debt collectors include:
