New credit card rules aren't all that onerous, is my understanding.
They tightened up things just a tad. There's a presumption of abuse for credit card charges and cash advances made within a couple or three months of filing, and the lenders are threatening to file objections to discharge for cash advances further out than the statutory presumption, similar expansion for luxury goods but all that means is that you have to time things more carefully than before.
I tell my clients to quit using their credit cards, shred them, shred all new cards that come in the mail, etc. I also tell them to quit paying their credit cards and any other debt they intend to discharge. And wait. It takes quite a while to actually be hit with garnishment or foreclosure due to backlogs.
For my clients, I see a lot of people who borrow from one credit card to pay off another, NOT people who go out and charge luxuries and expensive items and then try to discharge the next week or month.
I have mostly blue collar "salt of the earth" types.
Re: resetting of ARMS, absolutely, yes. They got used to constant refis and there the music has stopped.
I was doing bankruptcies in 1990's, too. There the problem was very high mortgage interest rates and falling FMV. Not all that much difference then as now, but interest rates remain very low.
The big problem is falling FMV and no way to refi out of it, especially if you are subprime.
In my divorces I see a lot of people who have mucho equity and they're fighting over that, so it's still there.
(PS haven't seen a Ditech commercial in a while, how about you?) |
