If you need a car but don’t have the credit score to qualify for a regular auto loan, you may be tempted to take out a subprime auto loan instead. This could prove to be a mistake, as the chances of financial problems resulting from these loans are growing, even to the point of endangering [...]
Finally, Equifax is going to do something to change its unfair policy that has been making it more difficult for Chapter 13 filers to remove the red flag of bankruptcy from their records. For a long time, Equifax has been keeping bankruptcies on credit reports for 10 years, while the other two major credit rating agencies, [...]
Your FICO credit score is something you may not think much about until you need it for making a big purchase, but it affects you in more ways than you think. In fact, according to new data by LendEDU, an online marketplace for student loan refinancing, one in five Millennials have never even checked their [...]
Americans are getting back into the bad habit of thinking they can get whatever they want with borrowed money – the very thinking that caused major problems during the Great Recession. According to the August quarterly household debt and credit report by the New York Federal Reserve, Americans' debt rose to a new record high [...]
If you find yourself bogged down with so many financial problems that you are considering bankruptcy, you’re in good company. Money problems can occur even to the richest and most famous celebrities. Just like the average person, when the rich and famous make mistakes or mismanage their funds, they can wind up harassed by creditors [...]
It’s a new year, the perfect time to evaluate your finances and determine whether you are on the right path to financial solvency. While there are personal things that you should do, such as creating a budget and sticking to it, there are also some economic trends you should be aware of that may help you [...]
Millennials are having problems making ends meet. About 57 percent of them named poverty and economic inequality as their top concern in a survey conducted this spring by the Center for Marketing and Opinion Research for the University of Akron's Bliss Institute of Applied Politics. The survey showed that concern about poverty or inequality was [...]
Owning a home has always been a big part of the American Dream. Children of hard-working parents grew up believing that if they worked hard to get ahead, they could have a better life than the previous generation, and that included having their own home. However, recent statistics show that this dream has been starting [...]
You work hard at your full-time job, so you figure you should be able to pay your rent and put food on your table. Guess again. Some people making minimum wage in Ohio, are not going to be able to rent a median two-bedroom apartment without heading toward bankruptcy. According to new research by the National Low [...]
Getting credit is easy in the United States, so it’s tempting to use credit cards and loans to make purchases you otherwise couldn’t afford. When you use debt wisely, it can be a positive way to build wealth. But too many people are sucked into taking on the wrong kind of debt, the dangerous kind [...]
When you’ve worked hard to accumulate assets, the last thing you want is for your beneficiaries to lose it all if they find themselves having to file for bankruptcy. This can happen if your heirs wind up in financial trouble and have to face bankruptcy when their inheritance arrives. While assets from an estate can [...]
It is wonderful to receive an inheritance, but you may not be able to keep it if you have recently filed for bankruptcy. It all depends on factors such as timing, the way the inheritance was created, the exemptions you can claim, and what type of bankruptcy you have filed. The bankruptcy process is complex, [...]
If you are a gun owner who is worried about losing your weapons when filing for bankruptcy, there is good news. Both Ohio and federal bankruptcy laws exempt certain property, so your guns may be part of the property you wind up keeping. Most of the time, the federal property exemption is large enough to [...]
Medical bills are a leading cause of people filing for bankruptcy in Ohio, but the situation has improved since the adoption of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Since the act went into effect and expanded public healthcare coverage, fewer Americans have taken the step of filing for personal bankruptcy. Filings have dropped about 50 percent, from [...]
There is bad news for those who are behind in paying tax debts -- the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is taking a hard line against taxpayers who have certain overdue tax debts by hiring private debt collectors to do their collecting. These private collectors are allowed to use tactics and methods that government agents are [...]
