Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Why Avoid Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is not a solution for every person in trouble with debt to turn to. Bankruptcy has far reaching and long term consequences that can affect an individual's life. With proper help you can lower your monthly payments, reduce interest rates, waive late fees, eliminate collection calls, avoid bankruptcy, have only one monthly payment and become debt free.

There are many different types of bankruptcy. But the most popular forms of bankruptcy are Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. There are some huge disadvantages in filing for bankruptcy. Your credit could get ruined. Bankruptcy can show on your record for 10 years from the date it was discharged. It reduces the chances of getting loans and jobs in the future as creditors and employers judge a candidate first hand through their credit report.

Declaring bankruptcy can also result in losing valuable assets. If you are a business owner, filing for bankruptcy can halt your business from growing. The damaged credit rating due to bankruptcy will not help you qualify for business loans.

You also affect the closing of any financial accounts. Your bank accounts, credit cards etc to be closed. Anything that you might be leasing, or buying on hire purchase, such as your car will be immediately returned to the owner. It can get extremely difficult to buy or even rent a home, get insurance, as well as buying or leasing a car.

If all of these things happen to people who declare bankruptcy, why do people file for bankruptcy?

There are many emergency factors that may force people to take this alternative approach. For example, unemployment or sudden loss of job plays a major role. Divorce is another factor. This is because in most cases one or both the parties suffer financially due to legal separation, and of course credit card usage.

What is Bankruptcy Court?

There are some differing kinds of the bankruptcy court that exist, including the federal bankruptcy court, but whatever one especially you have an interest in learning more about, there are some basic things that you're going to need to grasp. Especially if you are in financial troubles yourself and are thinking of filing for bankruptcy, before you even start the process you are going to want to learn about certain things such as what bankruptcy court is.

What it is

Bankruptcy court isn't a source for info, but rather it's the court that handles bankruptcy matters. Just as you would go to criminal court we could say if you committed a crime or were charged with a criminal matter, you go to bankruptcy court when you're working with bankruptcy related issues.

Now besides studying this, there are more things that you are going to need to take under consideration before even deciding whether or not you are going to be filing for bankruptcy. It's important that you take the time to weigh out the good points and bad points of bankruptcy before deciding whether or not to go thru it yourself.

Of course the main benefit of bankruptcy is that when you are in such financial trouble that you feel as though you have no way out, bankruptcy is going to be able to lend you a hand in a way. The most dramatic benefit being that when you file for bankruptcy it is going to right away stop the debt collectors from calling and discouraging you, making plans to get their cash.

Another major benefit is that it is basically going to allow you to start over fresh, although you will have to wait quite a few years before you are going to be able to start working on rebuilding your credit once again.

There's actually a bad side to bankruptcy that you are going to be aware of as well when you are making an attempt to make your call here. Besides the indisputable fact that you can finish up in bankruptcy court, another downfall is that your credit record is going to be very negatively impacted.

Filing for bankruptcy will mean that you are not going to be in a position to take out any credit lines, get a car, most likely even get a Credit card for your local Leon's. You are actually going to be out of luck here until you are able to start over and get your credit building up again.

When Should You File For Bankruptcy - Is There a 'Right' Time?

An increasing number of people believe that there is not a right or 'good' time to file for bankruptcy. It's due to this belief that so many people don't bother to get the information they need about bankruptcy in an effort to ascertain their options. For this type of person it is a mindset that bankruptcy is not to be considered, ever, by anyone. However there are times when it doesn't matter which choice you make, the situation just become so untenable that you are left with only one choice. You may continually attempt to sort out your expenses and clear your mounting debts, it then becomes completely un-doable and eventually you find yourself in a terrible situation. Financially troubled times can be disastrous for many and nobody is thoroughly immune to the dangers of job loss, reduced wages, and growing debt. You may suddenly find that you have so much debt that you just cannot figure out a way to pay them all in in time and if things get really awful you may have no option but to think about filing for bankruptcy. Unfortunately this will damage your credit rating, but when you have no other options you need bite the bullet and do what is necessary. Researching bankruptcy as much as you can will help you make the right decision. The long term effects of a decision like this do need to be considered before taking such a step.

Getting the Right Information about Bankruptcy

Before deciding to contact a bankruptcy lawyer, it is a good idea to find out as much as you can and peruse a lot of information about bankruptcy. It's best to read as much as you can and there are plenty of resources available both offline and on the internet. This will help you to avoid going to an information centre where you'll be given lots of bulky and often very confusing bankruptcy information. A much better option is to simply go to a lawyer and ask them for the information you need. This can cost you money though. Lawyers charge by the hour so if you don't have any money spare to pay for this your best option is to carry out the research for yourself. There is no need to panic or stress. There is a huge amount of information out there and it won't cost you much, if anything, to find it yourself

Writing up your Bankruptcy Petition

Once you have decided to file for bankruptcy, read as much information about bankruptcy as you possible can, you will need to work on the papers you will be submitting to the court. It may be necessary to hire a lawyer at this point and get some assistance preparing your papers. Going to a lawyer who will know the process intimately will save you time and energy going over all the relevant paperwork. On the other hand, you might feel that you can do the paperwork on your own in which case you can visit a local bankruptcy court and get the forms that you need, to fill out and lodge with the court so that they can be processed.

What Can I Do to Avoid Business Bankruptcy?

Making an attempt to avoid business bankruptcy is all too common among tiny firms that are owned and controlled by folk who place all they have on the line to be successful. Before they know it they can become caught in debt though the company looks to be thriving. Many though trying their hardest to avoid business bankruptcy will ultimately become a victim of a business bankruptcy option. Little firms are the heartbeat of the state's economy and America can barely afford to have so many broke firms filing in the courts. For many entrepreneurs, it's unhappy to see the demise of their dream. They wildly juggle payments to creditors to avoid approaching bankruptcy.

Incredibly, many economic firms are prepared to barter the debt owed them helped by pro, credit counsellors. In many cases the bartered debt can be as little as a few cents on the buck. Though banks may not receive the full debt owed them, it is far better than if the business requested bankruptcy. If that were to occur, they'd lose all of their investment. Credit support services can work out an acceptable payment a businessman is capable of meeting. Should entrepreneurs default on this payment agreement, all assets will then be sold and any cash is directed to the banks.

One of the options available in order to avoid business bankruptcy is finding loans with favorable rates to help you ride out the storm. Another way to avoid business bankruptcy is to look around for expendable assets that you can sell to raise extra cash. If you have employees, consider cutting incomes anywhere from five p.c. to ten p.c, and stop paying yourself until the business starts to rebound.

Where Do I Turn To?

Another trend to avoid business bankruptcy is to search out angel stockholders. Stay solvent help that appears too good to be true. If it looks to be too straightforward, there could be some type of catch. You will have to pay a commission of 8% to 12%, but a business broker will help you price the business correctly. A business broker will also market the business for sale, qualify potential buyers, and work to get the deal to closing. A good broker will significantly increase the chances that you will sell your business.

You may want to consider this option to avoid business bankruptcy. Talk to your customers ; ask them what you can do to keep their business. Consider lowering costs or shorter delivery times be it a product or a service.

Point to Remember While Filing Bankruptcy Online

When an individual becomes ineffectual to reimburse its debitors, it has effects on the debtor to file for bankruptcy. The standard is to use the avails of a seasoned recommend to aid in the legal significances it draws in. Luckily, filing bankruptcy online insolvency has made it potential for debitors who may wants to do so without the assist of a effectual officer.

Points to Keep in Mind

The ease engaged in going for broke filing bankruptcy online is the fact that one always get effective, informed advocate to do it and at deeply pocket- friendly charges. A big quantity of the strategy is typically spelt for the debtor. What they give the individual is the power to make it effectual by listing the causes as well as the worthful material cost. What one can do whilst, is act with legal officials for filing bankruptcy online and ask them about the particular clauses that go with the Act.

Though virtually all the people would instead come close a solicitor and spend an indictable quantity of period of time sharing their sufferings, many of them incline to pull out the difficulty to cause it to appear composite and cash in on legal charges. Much of the serving needs a professional in knowing which text file need signatures, what to serve as material value, as one may have them in other countries, or in individual material possession.

A private meeting will be set up that admits the advocacy to get to understand the debtor and individually get to translate their predicament. The active support makes the request for a meeting, in view of the confirmed fact that they may be guilty of deceit once the topic hits court. The method is virtually alike to employing for a loan since the debtor is would have liked to give so much individual information, a picture all the same. Most advocacies would instead do a background assure ; seive by the organization or individual history using the web and clauses related to the fiscal exchange. The debtor can then pick whether to look in court or not.

In as much as file bankruptcy online is good left for legal officials to do, some sites usually offer legal helper instantly to the debtors, though this is only a style which has began freshly, what with the some cases of carelessness that dog this process. Filing non-public bankruptcy is available too on the web. The majority of the sites promote their services as a crosscut past the legal officer to give the debitor the power to fill in the forms online and print the forms and file for bankruptcy without delay to court.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Bankruptcy Counselors and Debt Repayment

In many parts of the world, people are filing petitions for bankruptcy every year. Statistics record that millions of people all over the world opt for financial distress every year. There are mainly two chapters under which financial crisis are filed. Chapter 7 allows for the debtor to sell his property through a trustee to pay off his debts. Chapter 13 requires the debtor to continue working to earn money that can allow him to pay off his debts.

It is important that 180 days before the debtor files a petition they undergo counseling. This will be done by a non-profit budget and credit counseling in an agency approved by the court. Bankruptcy counselors in these agencies will advice the debtor on what actions to take. They will also advice the debtor on appropriate options available to them and their advantages and disadvantages.

The first session with the counselors normally lasts approximately ninety minutes. The second and final one takes only two hours. In Canada, these agents have joined up with credit guarantor who in a bid to dissuade debtors from filing a financial distress petition end up making booming business out of the whole situation. It is important for debtors to know that these agents can also take the place of trustees. They are instrumental in giving advice to the debtor on matters concerning debt repayment.

Bankruptcy counselors are also instrumental when the debtor has made a repayment plan. This is because they act as the middle ground on which the payment is made. When the debtor is making the payments, the credit advisers will take a certain percentage of the amount as their fee.

Low Cost Bankruptcy Charges

Sometimes filing for bankruptcy can be quite overwhelming due to the costs associated with the process. You should be aware that you will be required to pay some court charges, these depend on the chapter under which you will file your petition. Do not forget that you also have the attorneys fees to take care of, that is, if you have decided to hire one.

What adds to the charges is that you have to take some bankruptcy counseling sessions before the filing can commence. It is a requirement by the new insolvency law that you provide the certificate obtained after counseling before you can be considered for the process. If you have to attend the classes, then you must put into consideration the fees needed.

When all the above charges are combined, the whole cost may be quite overwhelming, owing to the fact that you are already in a financial mess. This is when you might want to consider low cost bankruptcy filing. You can sit down and weigh all the available options on how to cut down on the costs. To begin with, you may want to file the petition without involving an attorney. This will do away with the legal advice fees. To be successful in filing on your own, you must be well informed and be ready to defend your case in court.

Since going for counseling has been made mandatory by the new laws, you have to put the charges of doing so in mind. It may be hard to avoid meeting this cost. What you can avoid are the court charges. This you can do by filing a petition alongside that of the insolvency and ask to be given a waiver. You must however be able to demonstrate that you are genuinely unable to pay.

Company Liquidation - What is Liquidation and When Should it Be Used?

If you do not want to continue running your business or you think it is in difficulty and cannot continue to trade, then you need to get good information about your possible options. One area which you will need to consider is company liquidation. The purpose of this article is to explain in simple language what company liquidation is and when its use might be appropriate.

Liquidation is simply the term used to describe the process of closing a company down. The company's trading is stopped and its assets are sold and turned into cash or "liquidated". There are different types of liquidation depending on whether the company to be closed is solvent or insolvent. There are two simple tests to see whether a business is solvent. The cash flow test and the balance sheet test. The cash flow test asks whether the company is able to pay its creditors as and when the debts fall due. If the answer is no, the company is insolvent. The balance sheet test asks if there are more assets than money owed to creditors. If the answer is no, then the business is insolvent.

If the company to be closed is solvent the liquidation procedure to be used is called Members Voluntary Liquidation or MVL for short. Simply put, the members or shareholders of the business decide to close it. The directors of the company have to make a sworn legal declaration that the company is solvent and if assets need to be sold, to pay debts, this must be possible within 12 months. The business is closed and all outstanding creditors paid. Any remaining assets or cash is then the property of the shareholders of the business to do with what they wish.

You may question why a solvent business would be closed at all. There are a number of reasons why this would happen. Perhaps the owner may simply want to close it because they no longer want to run it. May be the company is a family business where the owners / parents have retired and children or family do not want to run the business. Alternatively, a group of companies may need to be rationalized requiring a solvent business to be closed and its assets transferred into another company within the group.

If a business is insolvent and no further investment can be found or other arrangements with creditors cannot be agreed, then action must be taken to close the company. There are two possible types of liquidation procedure in these circumstances:

The first of these is Creditors Voluntary Liquidation or CVL for short. A Creditors Voluntary Liquidation will normally be started by the directors and or shareholders of the business. The shareholders appoint an Insolvency Practitioner who will call a meeting of the company's creditors informing them of the company's insolvency and allowing them to appoint a liquidator of their choice. As such, the liquidation is approved by, and works for, the benefit of the creditors. The Liquidator's prime duty is to sell the assets of the company and distribute any proceeds to the company's creditors. The Liquidator will close the company, cancel any outstanding leases make any remaining staff redundant.

The second type of liquidation where a company is insolvent is called Compulsory Liquidation - more commonly known as Winding Up. The act of Compulsory Liquidation is started by an aggrieved creditor who has not been paid. Such action can be started by any creditor who is owed more than £750 which is not paid after a statutory demand for payment has been issued. The aggrieved creditor will employ a solicitor who asks the High Court to hear the argument why the company should be wound up. This is called a Petition. Notice of the petition must be given to the company. Then if the debt is still not paid, a "hearing" is held in front of a High Court judge who then passes an order to wind up the company compulsorily. An Official Receiver (or Liquidator if appointed) will then close the company and sell any assets which will then be distributed across all of the company's creditors.

It is important to remember that the question of whether company liquidation is the most appropriate course of action can only be answered after a proper review of a company's circumstances. If as a Director, you believe that your business is in trouble, you should get further advice from an expert as soon as possible.

An important additional note for Company Directors in this area is that you must be aware that you must not continue to allow a company to trade which you know to be insolvent. If your company is eventually liquidated because it is insolvent, the Liquidator will have a duty to review the conduct of you as a Director to ensure that you have acted properly to minimize creditor's losses. If the Liquidator decides that you as a director have acted badly, they can accuse you of wrongful trading. If this is upheld, then you can be made personally liable for the company's debts from the time you knew the company was insolvent. As such, getting the appropriate advice about company insolvency is a must.

Filing Personal Bankruptcy - The Information You Need

It takes a lot to push a person to such limit that he/she would end up filing for bankruptcy, because it produces such a blotch on your financial history and credit score that you don't want. This condition is brought on a person due to unforeseen and unexpected changes in the financial condition, probably due to some medical bills, job loss, or divorce. If you are one of those unhappy people, and are thinking about filing for bankruptcy, here are a few facts and fiction on the topic.

A misconception about filing for bankruptcy is that it is really discomforting, and you have to go through a lot of hassle to do that. While this is true, you should also bear in mind that if you don't file for bankruptcy, you would have even more discomfort due to the continuous harassment by the credit card companies. Filing for bankruptcy is not recommended, but still it is a first step towards gaining control of your financial situation, and it is a positive note on your part because you are actually trying to do something about the situation you are in right now.

A myth connected with filing personal bankruptcy is that if you do that, you would have a terrible credit score for the rest of your life. This is so not true, as when you are done with the whole process of bankruptcy, it clears out all of your credit history so you actually have a chance to start up once again. It's like being reborn! If you want to verify this fact, you could go ahead and ask any of the bankruptcy attorneys.

Another lie associated with bankruptcy is that you can only file for it once in your life. When you review the facts though, you would come to know that this is not true either, as you have to wait 8 years to file another Chapter 7 bankruptcy, but you can file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy as frequently as you get into the circumstances of it.

Personal bankruptcy is actually aimed at protecting a debtor from loosing all their possessions, while working their way out of all the debt on them. If you acquire the services of a good bankruptcy attorney, they can provide you with all the correct facts and figures, so you can prevent the loss of any of your assets.

Filing personal bankruptcy is not at all difficult, and if you hire a bankruptcy attorney, they can guide you during every step of the way. You just have to make sure that you have researched all possible way-outs of your present financial situation before filing for a bankruptcy, as there are several consequences associated with that, and it is meant to be a last resort for the debtors. But beware just about anyone can find bankruptcy records online will appear on your personal and financial record.

Filing Bankruptcy

Many ask if bankruptcy is the only answer to your financial crises. I just can't lay enough emphasis on the fact that it should only be considered in the situation where there is no other alternative to the problem. Filing bankruptcy must be the last resort to any one's financial crises, and all other ways of solving one's financial situation must be completely tried before thinking about bankruptcy.

I have pondered on this subject long enough and the only upside I can find to filing bankruptcy is that it gives you the release from the harassment by lenders via calls and letters. If you are in severe debt, the only reason you would be thinking about bankruptcy in the first place is that it gives you a chance to start over again with a clean slate and removes all your previous financial life history. If you are filing for a bankruptcy, you probably have hurt your credit score to a point where it can't be hurt anymore and if it is not that way, then you are making the wrong decision by going for bankruptcy. You should only think about bankruptcy when you are in a state of credit history where it is already too low, and you can't inflict any more damage on it.

Some say bankruptcy shows on your credit report for seven years, but the actual fact is that it does for ten years. During this time, you are mostly unable to qualify for taking in any more debt, and this is the time where you actually rebuild your finances up by minimizing the spending and getting yourself a better credit score slowly and gradually.

I am sure that these small things I have discussed have actually alerted you of the true nature of filing a bankruptcy, and remember that it could be the best you could do for yourself sometimes because its just not worth it to fight with your debt forever, when you know that nothing else you do is going to help you in your struggle against overwhelming debt. You should also know that you are not alone in filing bankruptcy, as a lot of the successful people you see right now has done it once in their lives. Things happens you know, companies go down, people lose their jobs, medical emergency occurs, and you just end up piling yourself in huge debt.

So again I am going to repeat myself. Do whatever it takes to solve your current financial problems, but if nothing works, you shouldn't wait more to go for the last resort; filing bankruptcy. You shouldn't care what other people say, because you are in the situation and you know what is best for you.

Just be aware, after your bankruptcy, people can find your bankruptcy records via public records. It could affect how people see you and how easily you gain trust.