Articles on Finances
I Gave a Lawyer Access to my Checking Account for Billing Purposes and Now I have a Negative Balance, Is This Legal? What can I do?
A law firm attached his fees to my checking account. At the time my balance was $1.22, currently my Available Balance is over -$2,000 with a Running Balance of ($98.00). What exactly does this mean? The amount debited on Sept 25, 2008 was $100.00. Can he do this? I’m current unemployed looking for a job should I close down this account? When I find a job and deposit my checks will they take all of the money from my check? What can I do? I gave a business in Los Angeles two post-dated checks for $200 in April for services to be rendered over a two-month period. They subsequently changed the dates on the checks and forged my initials in order to deposit them early. Can they be pursued from a civil or criminal standpoint? I live in NY and my Aunt has resided in NJ for the past 10 years. She had established a revocable living trust with herself as trustee. She now requires nursing care in NY which costs 13,000/month. Is she required to liquidate her revocable living trust or is this asset vulnerable to medicaid/nursing home attachment. Can a judgment in a civil complaint be turned into a lein against an insurance policy that the accused (one who judgment is against) owns? I recently hired an attorney to file for chapter 7 bankruptcy. I was told up front that the bankruptcy would not be final until all fees were paid. My attorney says that he won’t do anything until all fees are paid in full. I have paid him $700.00 of a $1300 total. Is this reasonable normal practice? My son found a summons addressed to me from a law firm suing me for a past due amount on a credit card. The summons was taped to the front outside door of where I live in New York city. It was taped there and any stranger passing by could read it. Is this legal? I Have Written Bad Checks In The Past, And Now I Cannot Open Up A Checking Account. Will I Ever Be Able To Write Checks Again And Open Up Another Checking Account? Its Been Over 10 Years Are More. What Can I Do? In a past relationship my boyfriend ran up quit a bit of debt. This included checks he wrote me and then cashed in my account. These checks bounced, although I was out the money. He also made many charges on my credit card. We have not been together for over 5 months; however, I am still paying on these loans. What should I do? My mortgage company may go under. Who owns the house in that instance? The mortgage company’s creditors? How will it affect me? I am all paid up and in good standing. Should I refinance now or not? My son is behind 2 months on his car payment. He spoke to the finance company today and said he would be able to catch the payments up tomorrow when he gets paid. The finance company told him he had to pay today by noon or his car would be repossessed. Can they do that? I am an airline pilot living in Georgia where I currently work. We plan on retiring in 3 years and moving to Florida. Can I get an address in Florida now, register to vote there, and get my drivers license there and stop paying income taxes on my pay in Georgia. My elderly aunt and uncle’s adult (50 years old) daughter died after a relatively short but severe illness. She did not have medical insurance. Now the hospital says they must pay nearly $300,000 in medical costs. Are elderly parents responsible for their deceased adult children’s medical bills? If I owe a debt, lets say of 3,000 dollars to a collection agency and I called to see if I could send in payments of what I could afford, and I start sending them in can they still garnish my wages? I received in error a refund check from a company I purchased equipment from, they sent me 2 checks in the same amount. What is my legal responsibility and what would be the penalty if I cashed them both? I wont cash the other check..but I was curious to find out. I just received a collection notice from 12 yrs ago, in my ex- married name. My ex- husband I found out is deceased and I believe if there is such a bill he had his hands on it. I am trying to dispute it of course but legally how long can someone seek payment. I just received a money order in the mail from someone that I do not know, and I am unemployed and have been unemployed for almost two years. Also, I just received an email this morning, stating that I need to cash the money order, send portions of it to two specific people and keep 10% of it to myself. Should I do as the email said, rip up the money order or send it back? A friend of mine borrowed $10K. The collateral for this loan was the equity in his house, however, his house has been foreclosed on now. I have a legal Loan Document signed by him. Besides a copy of the Loan, what other documents do I need to file at the local court house in order to file a claim to try to get some money back from the sale of the property? Deed of Trust? “Intent to Lien” form? “Intent to Redeem” form? My friend was caught shop lifting for 20.00 To $30.00 merchandise. She was arrested and its a misdeameanor, she made payment arrangement of installments of $25.00, per month for 2 years to pay $580.00, this was made in court. My friend has been out of work and unable to pay she will pay but what will happen for now, its been like 5 months. My brother and I both have our names on my grandfather’s home, but he has lifetime conservatorship. If I file bankruptcy, can my creditors do anything with that property? Also, if he passed away within a few months of filing bankruptcy, can the creditors do anything with my brother’s half of the inheritance? My son and his girl friend bought a car earlier this year.The car is in his name and she is the co- borrower. The car was bought for her and she makes the payments on the loan. They have now broken up. Is there a way to get his name off of the loan so he is not liable. I had let my boyfriends mother and step-father put gas and electric and cable in my name to help them out because they couldn’t put it theirs at the time. This was last year and now both bills have gone to collections and I can not pay them i am only 19 years old and i don’t need bad credit. I am desperate to know what to do. Please tell me what would be the best thing for me to do. My problem is we were in the process of refinancing to a 30 year fixed mortgage. In the Good Faith Estimate there was no Yield Spread Premium listed at all. I get a call two days before we were to close stating that our current mortgage company said we signed a Prepayment penalty and we would need to come up with $8000.00 more if we are to close. Anyway the current mortgage company said it would need 90 days or more to negotiate this prepayment to reduce it or do away with it. Now the new company said they will leave it open and we pay a higher interest rate and additional fees to leave it open or if we cancel it we need to pay the Yield Spread Premium of $1700.00 in addition to the $375.00 application fee that we have already paid. The new mortgage company I was getting the fixed rate with changed the name on our insurance policy before the closing papers were signed. HELP PLEASE I am paying my brother in law for a van. I just bounced a payment. He is asking for the check payment, five overdraft fees and a return check fee. I wanted to know what was i legally responsible to pay back? My mother is 86 years old and lives with me in my home. Am I responsible for any of her debts such as credit cards or line of credit at her bank? I filed bankruptcy in Sept.2006. I just heard from the trustee that I have to sign over my tax return ( if any) over to him, and that this would not be put towards the balance of my debt. I do not understand how he can take my refund legally? I live in Missouri. 15 months ago I sold my Illinois home and moved here to Whitney Point, NY with my 80 yr old male friend. He didn’t put a penny towards this house before, during or after the sale yet I loved him and thought we’d always be together. Now he’s in Missouri with a married daughter. He left here 3 weeks ago. I Also have durable Power of Attorney and regular POA over him. All he has contributed these past 15 months is paying half a mortgage the total mortgage is 455. it includes taxes and insurance If I continue to pay on my own there is very little or no money left for me to buy gasoline, pay my utilities, buy food, pay for care of out 8 pets, make the car payments which is in both our names it is 187.00 a month. I recently refinanced my home in Ohio. I worked with a mortgage broker and refinanced with the same mortgage company that my existing loan was with. About 3 weeks after closing I viewed my account on line and realized that both my existing loan and my new loan were active. I called to verify that they were both open and was told that they had no knowledge of my refinancing, even though both loans were in my name. My existing loan had not been paid off and the mortgage company was looking for pay ment on that loan. the same mortgage company that my existing loan was with. I recieved $15,000 in cash at closing, $10,000 as a result of a prepayment penalty being paid to me and $5000.00 added on to my principle. I was going to apply the $10,000. to my principle on my first payment. About 3 weeks after closing I viewed my account on line and realized that both my existing loan and my new loan were active. I called to verify that they were both open and was told that they had no knowledge of my refinancing, even though both loans were in my name. My existing loan had not been paid off and the mortgage company was looking for pay ment on that loan. I called my mortgage broker and he worked with a representative from OptionOne (the mortgage co.) and they let me know 5 days later that another person’s loan with the same last name as mine had been paid off instead of mine. I live in Michigan and had cell phone service with Centennial. My 2 year signed contract ended in 2002. I canceled my service on Dec. 16, 2006. I just received a bill for one more additional service from Dec. 16, 2006 through January 16, 2007. I was told that in my contract it indicated I must give them 30 days notice to cancel, or I would pay an additional 30 days service after I canceled my service. With my contracted expired, how can they do this? My husband died recently and I discovered he had credit cards, with debt, in his name only. Am I, as his widow, obligated to pay his credit card debt? In Florida, are adult children named as beneficiaries in a will responsible for the debt left by a parent? My father died with $4000 in his checking account and $44000 debt to a nursing home. He did not own any property at the time of his death. His nursing home bill was being paid by his health insurance and Medicaid. I was in love with the house so ask my girlfriend to be that small percent with her income to help me finalize the house. I put all the money down and some of the papers are in my name and some are in both. We are split now and want the mortgage in my name, what do I have to do? Do I have to take a new loan out or is there a way to just have her name taken of the deed. Is a minor child held responsible for unauthorized charges made on a debit card? To avoid foreclosure, I took out a second mortgage from a private investor to pay the back payments. I had unforeseen problems which made me fall behind on the second mortgage and slow paying the first. The investor filed for foreclosure so I filed for Chapter 13 protection. The investor who purchased the foreclosure allowed us to stay in the house if we paid him 1200 a month and used his address for the first mortgage payment slips. He evicted us. He has renovated the house and has it on the market and he never paid the first which is still in my name. If you purchase a second mortgage at foreclosure that is for $7000 and the first is still in force at $100000, is the house totally his? My sister (B) is dying from a stroke. Her daughter is not sure what to do with the house her mother now owns in Anchorage, Alaska. B did not have medical insurance and her bills are quite extensive from the hospital as well as creditors. I had a recent emergency with my health and had to go to the hospital and ended up staying overnight. The bill was over $7,000.00 and I have no health insurance. Now I’m getting letters in the mail from Medical Revenue Services ( a collection agency) saying that they’re checking into my assets, bank accounts, owning real estate, etc. I was recently trying to purchase land and bank pulled my credit report I noticed Equifax that they had my sister-in-law and my credit all mixed together. They morphed us into one person with my social security and her birthday. After making that discovery I checked the other two credit bureaus and they had the correct information, it is only Equifax that has this problem. I haven’t been able to purchase the land because I would have been charged more in interest rates because of my lower credit score. My husband died more than 8 years ago. I used one of his credit cards and made payments all of this time. The credit card company is threatening to report me law enforcement for identity theft if I don’t sign a statement indicating that I will take full responsibility for this debt. Sometimes it is hard to come up with the full amount, if all I send in to the billing dept A of the hospital A is ten dollars ,does that not still have me making an attempt to pay this bill. Can minors be reported to the credit bureau for parents not paying their medical bills? I cosigned for my 18- or 19-year-old son to get a credit card somewhere around 1999 or 2000. He filed bankruptcy, and now they are coming after me. Can they take my Social Security disability check? What happens when you can’t afford mortgage payments and have to move out of the home? I have been told by several people that disability income can not be garnished; however, I don’t know if that is really true. Is it? Can I file for bankruptcy without involving my spouse? Can I have my eligibility for Medicare re-evaluated based on the loss of child support and the fact that I cannot work? If a debt does not show up on a credit report, but then does a year later, is the debt valid? The lien-holder on a vehicle accidentally cleared the title to the car as if it had been paid in full, when it hadn’t. Can they now repossess it? How should one handle it when two different collection agencies or attorneys are attempting to collect for the same debt? A spouse may be responsible for credit card charges run up in their name by the other spouse, even if the other spouse forged their name. Credit debt management is tough enough, but when on SSI it can be especially hard. This reader wants to know “how can I manage my debt while on disability SSI?” Repossession (also known as “repo”) is when an item sold on time payments, such as a car, is taken back by the lender because the loan payments are in default. Repo laws vary from state to state but by the time a repossession occurs, most repo laws give strong weight to the lender. Credit reports sent to the wrong address can be a problem. What can someone do when their credit report is sent by the credit reporting agency to the wrong address, potentially exposing them to identity theft? Generally speaking, co-signors have no property rights, but a lot of responsibility. With credit card debt credit cards settlements are sometimes an option, otherwise you can usually make credit card payments to reduce an overdue balance. When utility billing goes wrong: this former utility customer is seeking creditor protection from a bill for thousands of dollars worth of water use which occurred during the two years after he had attempted to close the account. The bank foreclosure process on some foreclosed property accidentally omitted a small bit of property from the property records. What are property rights in this scenario? A father who cosigned for his son’s loan was made promises by the bank, and their broken promises are costing him money. Unfortunately, the promises were not in writing. Writing bad checks is against the law, but it happens to the best of us, and what the legal outcome will be depends on a variety of factors. Free credit reports are required now under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act). You can get your free credit reports from one of three recognized credit reporting agencies. Online, even! A reader wonders how to change the name on a loan after a divorce. She says “My divorce was final August 2001. In 1997 my ex husband took out a loan from his job. This is a joint account. This still shows up on my credit as a joint account. I received a letter [...] Bankruptcy can be a way to obtain debt relief from crushing credit card debt and other debts, but it should not be entered into lightly. Gambling losses can sometimes be claimed on your taxes as a deductible expense, but only to the extent that you declare gambling winnings on your taxes.
