Archive for the ‘Life After Bankruptcy’ Category
Thousands of Milwaukee residents file for bankruptcy each year. A good number believe they can’t afford a lawyer but are intimidated by the idea of trying find their way through a legal system they don’t understand.
These citizens have critical questions about the bankruptcy process:
“Can I keep my car?”
“Do my husband and I both need to file?”
“Will my child support arrearage be discharged?”
Many turn to bankruptcy petition preparers for those answers and pay $100 to $250 to get them. But most do not realize that petition preparers are simply typists. They are not trained in the law and do not know the answers to the questions that debtors need to ask.
Some preparers answer the questions anyway, often giving the wrong information.
Some take the debtors’ money but do not complete the papers or do not file the papers or do not file the correct papers.
Milwaukee’s bankruptcy judges have grown weary of being forced to dismiss cases because the debtor paid money he or she did not have to a petition preparer who gave the debtor the wrong information, did not file all of the required documents or filled out the documents incorrectly.
People who consider filing for bankruptcy already are hurting, without losing precious dollars to someone who cannot give them the advice they need.
To make it clear that the law does not allow petition preparers to give legal advice, and that they are not qualified to do so, the Milwaukee judges have established a new policy: Beginning Jan. 1, a petition preparer may charge only $75 for completing bankruptcy papers.
If the preparer is following the law, simply filling out the papers without giving legal advice, $75 is a reasonable price for that service. If a debtor needs more than typing services – and most debtors do – the bankruptcy court has a Help Desk, where from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. every Thursday morning, bankruptcy lawyers will answer questions and help debtors with their paperwork.
And it’s free of charge.
Pamela Pepper is chief judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, sitting in Milwaukee.
Self-service checkouts have fallen out of favor with both customers and grocers, according to a new study.
A new study by the Food Marketing Institute shows that people overwhelmingly feel more satisfied with their supermarket when they have a cashier.
In fact, we’re down to in the teens in terms of percentage of transactions being done at self checkout, a drop from prior stats that showed almost
one in every four transactions being done at self checkout.
Costco Wholesale is no longer putting in any self-checkout as they build new locations.
Why have self checkouts waned in popularity? Two reasons chiefly. First, customers have trouble figuring out how to use coupons at self checkout. Second, stores face a lot of problems with intentional theft at self checkout. Personally, I hate having to wait for a clerk to correct my errors and if I was thinking I was saving time – no way!
It has been reported that Darden Restaurants that own Olive Garden, Red Lobster and other chains are cutting prices and offering specials to attract customers. As a sign the of the times, this restaurant chain is putting its prices on a diet. Restaurants simply have to discount right to get people to spend money.
USA Today recently published an article explaining that Americans’ student loan debt, which totals approximately $850 billion, now exceeds outstanding credit card debt in the U.S., which totals approximately $828 billion.
Perhaps a more interesting element of this story has to do with the monthly repayment numbers borrowers are expected to pay. The USA Today article suggests that $30,000 of student loans, payable at 6.8% interest over ten years would amount to $350 per month. At this level of debt, the average person would need to earn at least $42,000 per year. Unfortunately, as bankruptcy attorneys we commonly see student loan debt in excess of $100,000, with monthly payments over $1,000.
From a bankruptcy perspective, student loan debt is not dischargeable except in cases of “undue hardship.” In the Eastern District of Wisconsin, the court uses a very strict three part test to determine whether student loans may be discharged. As the law stands today, debtors in the Eastern District of Wisconsin have not been successful in arguing for hardship discharge on the grounds that they cannot find a job that pays enough to support their student loan obligations.
When it comes to creditworthiness, it’s hard to top the consumers of Wisconsin.
Four Wisconsin cities – including Wausau at No. 1 – are among the 10 communities in the nation with the highest average credit scores, a new survey shows.
Wausau residents posted an average credit score of 789 in the survey conducted by the credit-rating agency Experian. Madison was third, at 785; Green Bay sixth, at 780; and La Crosse 10th, at 777.
Milwaukee, with a score of 765, was 33rd of 143 cities included in the survey.
“Wisconsin residents remain among the nation’s most fiscally responsible,” Experian stated Tuesday in announcing the survey results.
Higher credit scores generally give consumers the ability to borrow money at lower interest rates.
Credit scores are based on a consumer’s payment history, debt balances and several other factors. Among those factors are how much of a person’s available credit is used, how long a person has had credit and whether late payments have occurred recently.
Wausau unseated Minneapolis, with the Minnesota city slipping to second in the annual survey with a 787 average credit score.
Rose Oswald Poels, chief executive of the Wisconsin Bankers Association, wasn’t surprised by the survey’s findings.
“The consumers in this state are generally very conservative with their money and smart about credit decisions, and that’s true of the financial institutions that serve those citizens,” Oswald Poels said. “I think it’s just the combination of the types of values and people we have in this state, coupled with the type of financial institutions that we have. We both share similar values in being fiscally conservative, hardworking and smart about credit.”
An executive with Wausau-based Peoples State Bank said he’s noticed before that many of the bank’s customers bring credit scores higher than 700.
“I think people here were raised in a conservative fashion, and they live the way their parents do,” said John Proulx, senior vice president for Peoples State Bank. “I think that probably is a big reason as to why we have the good scores.”
Overall, the survey found that Midwesterners have the highest credit scores while Southerners have more financial struggles.
Experian said that while no one factor determines a consumer’s credit score, the weak economy continues to cause major setbacks, such as foreclosures and unemployment. Those troubles were drivers in the rankings and trends for different regions of the country, the firm said.
Of the cities with top 10 credit scores, only San Francisco had a jobless rate higher than the national rate. Texas had four cities in the bottom 10.
The credit scores in the report were based on the VantageScore scoring system, which has a range from 501 to 990, in designated market areas from January through June of 2011, Experian said. The analysis was based on a statistically relevant sampling of Experian’s consumer credit database, the firm said.
“We have our issues just like any other city does. We have some foreclosures and things like that, but probably not as much as some of the other areas do,” Proulx said. “So some of that doom and gloom has hit Wausau, but it’s maybe not as prevalent in this area.”
Wausau Mayor James Tipple was proud of the ranking for his city, which has a population of 41,800.
“I think the quality of life and the people we attract to the region, and not only the region but the city of Wausau, speaks volumes for the score,” Tipple said.