Kingcade and Garcia Archives - Page 18 of 23

Bankruptcy Law, Credit, Debt Relief, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Can an employer check my credit?

Posted on June 1, 2016by Admin

While credit checks are not the norm in the job application process, the practice is common for jobs where candidates will be privy to sensitive information or making financial decisions.

States and local jurisdictions are increasingly regulating the use of credit reports in hiring. Eleven states limit employers’ use of credit reports, and other states are considering similar legislation.

When an employer checks your credit they are reviewing your credit report, not your score. What are they looking for? In most cases they want to see evidence that you are honest and responsible- this is not always the best indicator of either.

It is important to remember that the employer needs to ask your permission and receive written consent, before running a credit check. If your poor credit disqualifies you, the employer is required to let you know and give you a chance to respond.

Regardless of where you stand, it is a good idea to take a look at your credit report before you start a job search. Check for inaccuracies and take steps to correct them. Remember, there are three different credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. You can access your FREE credit report at AnnualCreditReport.com.

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If you are in financial crisis and considering filing for bankruptcy, contact an experienced Miami bankruptcy attorney who can advise you of all your options. As an experienced CPA as well as a proven bankruptcy lawyer, Timothy Kingcade knows how to help clients take full advantage of the bankruptcy laws to protect their assets and get successful results. Since 1996 Kingcade & Garcia, P.A. has been helping people from all walks of life build a better tomorrow. Our attorneys’ help thousands of people every year take advantage of their rights under bankruptcy protection to restart, rebuild and recover. The day you hire our firm, we will contact your creditors to stop the harassment. You can also find useful consumer information on the Kingcade & Garcia website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.

Bankruptcy Law, Credit, Debt Relief, Student Loans

Student Debt Relief Scams Targeting Borrowers

Posted on May 31, 2016by Admin

If you are struggling with student loan debt, you’re not alone. The FTC and the State of Florida announced lawsuits against two “alleged” student loan debt relief agencies. Consumer Assistance Project and Student Aid Center promised to get borrowers’ loans forgiven or significantly reduced, according to the FTC.

Consumer Assistance targeted borrowers online and over the phone, claiming they would get relief through government or by disputing loans. Student Aid Center used radio ads, text messages, and featured ads in search results, promoting “Obama Loan Forgiveness.”

But borrowers who paid the companies did not get their loans forgiven or even reduced. At most, the companies got borrowers’ loans put into deferment or forbearance, where loan payments are postponed, but interest still accrues.

Student Aid Center made certain situations worse by telling people to stop contacting their lenders and pay them, instead. Borrowers ended up paying thousands, but did not get the promised relief.

Student loan forgiveness programs are available in very limited circumstances. The FTC has the following new materials to help borrowers:

Student Loan Debt Relief explains how to spot a debt relief scheme, and what people struggling with student loans can do to help themselves.
Maria and Rafael Learn the Signs of a Debt Relief Scam tells the story of a couple trying to repay debt they accumulated for their daughter’s college education. It is the latest in a series of graphic novels to raise awareness about scams targeting Latin communities.
This list shows every company and individual ever banned from providing debt relief and mortgage assistance relief services by an FTC order.

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For borrowers who are struggling with student loan debt, relief options are available. Many student loan borrowers are unaware that they have rights and repayment options available to them, such as postponement of loan payments, reduction of payments or even a complete discharge of the debt. It is important you contact an experienced Miami bankruptcy attorney who can advise you of all your options. As an experienced CPA as well as a proven bankruptcy lawyer, Timothy Kingcade knows how to help clients take full advantage of the bankruptcy laws to protect their assets and get successful results. Since 1996 Kingcade & Garcia, P.A. has been helping people from all walks of life build a better tomorrow. Our attorneys help thousands of people every year take advantage of their rights under bankruptcy protection to restart, rebuild and recover. The day you hire our firm, we will contact your creditors to stop the harassment. You can also find useful consumer information on the Kingcade & Garcia website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.

Debt Relief, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

How to Get a Second Chance at Home Ownership after Foreclosure

Posted on May 30, 2016by Admin

More than 9.2 million Americans lost their homes to foreclosure between 2006 and 2014, according to the National Association of Realtors. For many of those individuals, enough time has passed that they may once again qualify for another mortgage.

How long you have to wait varies by the program. Generally, you will need to wait seven years after a foreclosure or short sale to qualify for a conventional mortgage, three years to get a Federal Housing Administration or U.S. Department of Agriculture loan and two years to get a loan backed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

But those time periods can be shortened to as little as one year for a VA or FHA loan and three years for a conventional loan, if borrowers can demonstrate their defaults were the result of a significant hardship from which they have now recovered.

Here are five tips to remember when seeking a mortgage after a foreclosure or short sale:

Your lender will see a different credit report. The report lenders pull when you apply for a mortgage is not the same report you receive from servicers that provide credit reports to consumers. Consumers are often provided with a “stepped-down version.” The credit score is not the end all, be all. There are other factors that can potentially slow the loan. You can figure at least 620 is needed for a conventional mortgage and 580 is necessary for an FHA loan.

On-time payments are important. Re-establishing your credit is one of the most important qualifiers for getting a mortgage after a foreclosure or short sale. Lenders want to do everything they can to avoid lending to someone who will default, again- so they look closely at your bill payment history since the foreclosure.

You will need to demonstrate job stability. If you have a traditional job for which you receive a W-2 form, your lender will verify your income with your employer. People who work several part-time jobs or are self-employed, will face additional scrutiny and will have to demonstrate their income with several years of tax returns and additional documentation.

You will need to document everything. Since the housing crisis, the documentation required for mortgages has increased significantly. Anything a customer puts on the mortgage application will be verified, particularly financial information.

Not all lenders are the same. Each lender has different requirements. There is no one size fits all when it comes to mortgage lender requirements. The basic guidelines are set by FHA, VA, USDA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but individual lenders and even individual underwriters may interpret these in different ways.

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Choosing the right attorney can make the difference between whether or not you can keep your home. A well-qualified Miami foreclosure defense attorney will not only help you keep your home, but they will be able to negotiate a loan that has payments you can afford. Miami foreclosure defense attorney Timothy Kingcade has helped many facing foreclosure alleviate their stress by letting them stay in their homes for at least another year, allowing them to re-organize their lives. If you have any questions on the topic of foreclosure please feel free to contact me at (305) 285-9100. You can also find useful consumer information on the Kingcade & Garcia website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.

Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Wells Fargo Pays $70 Million Penalty for Foreclosure Mistakes

Posted on May 27, 2016by Admin

Wells Fargo & Co. has agreed to pay a $70 million penalty ending the bank’s five-year fight to settle claims over foreclosure mistakes following the 2008 financial crisis.

This week, U.S. regulators announced the fine as part of an agreement that also frees the nation’s biggest mortgage lender from loan-servicing restrictions imposed last year. Wells Fargo has been accused of failing to move fast enough to fix deficiencies outlined in a series of settlements over improper activity including so-called robo-signing of foreclosure documents. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), also identified more recent problems, including faulty payment-change notices filed in bankruptcy courts and faulty escrow calculations.

The bank neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in the OCC agreement.

Five years ago, Wells Fargo and most of the other largest U.S. mortgage servicers agreed to resolve allegations that they mishandled loan papers and fraudulently endorsed legal papers used in foreclosures after the crisis. Regulators amended that accord in 2013 after deciding the original plan failed to help affected borrowers.

A year ago, the OCC imposed new restrictions on Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and four other companies, blocking them from buying mortgage-servicing rights because they had not yet met the demands of the foreclosure settlement.

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Bankruptcy Law, Credit, Debt Relief, Student Loans, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Surge in Student Loan Debt Cancellation Requests

Posted on May 26, 2016by Admin

The Obama administration has received nearly 20,000 applications from Americans seeking to have their student loan debt cancelled on the grounds they were deceived by the universities they attended. The increase has led to the government forgiving tens of millions of dollars for borrowers.

Under a decade-old law, known as the “borrower defense,” borrowers are entitled to have their loans forgiven if they can prove their school used deceptive advertising and recruiting practices. This law had sat dormant for years. However, last year the Education Department, at the urging of student activists, started using the law to cancel loans taken out by former students of Corinthian Colleges. The for-profit chain was liquidated in bankruptcy last year after federal regulators accused it of running advertisements that cited false statistics on the employment status and earnings of graduates.

As of January, the agency had received about 7,500 applications for forgiveness from borrowers owing a combined $164 million. The agency continues to review applications on a case-by-case basis. It has agreed to cancel more than $27 million in debt for 3,421 borrowers, many of them former Corinthian students.

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Bankruptcy Law, Credit, Debt Relief, Timothy Kingcade Posts

When Bankruptcy is the Best Option

Posted on May 25, 2016by Admin

Filing for bankruptcy is not the end of the world. In fact, it can help improve your overall situation and relieve the financial stress you are facing. Bankruptcy stops collection calls, lawsuits and wage garnishment. It wipes out most, sometimes all of your debt and can improve your credit score.

Many credit bureaus and scoring experts will disagree, not seeing the whole picture. For most people after struggling with insurmountable debt for sometime, their credit score has already greatly been affected by the time they file for bankruptcy.

Once they file for bankruptcy, their credit score typically increases. If the debt is erased, which is also known as a “discharge,” scores can increase even more- typically within a year. Accessing data from the Equifax credit bureau, researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found that filers’ credit scores plunged in the 18 months before filing for bankruptcy and rose steadily after that. The average credit score for someone who filed Chapter 7, the most common type of bankruptcy, in 2010 was 538.2 on Equifax’s 280 to 850 range. (Scores in the low 600’s and below are generally considered poor.) By the time the filers’ cases were discharged, usually within six months, their average score was 620.3.

Credit scores are not the only factor to consider when making the decision to file for bankruptcy. People who file for bankruptcy benefit from the “automatic stay,” which stops all collection activity, including lawsuits, wage garnishment and collection calls. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy wipes out a number of debts, including: credit card debt, medical bills, personal loans, civil judgments (excluding fraud), past-due rent and utility bills, business debts and older tax debts.

Most of us feel we have an ethical obligation to repay our debts, if we are able to. But oftentimes, people find themselves in over their head before realizing they need to consider bankruptcy as an option. Some continue to pay down debt they may never be able to pay off, prolonging the damage to their credit score and diverting money that could be put into retirement savings.

Bankruptcy is likely your best option if your consumer debt (any of the debts listed above) total more than half your income, or if it would take five or more years to pay off that debt, with extreme fiscal measures.

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Bankruptcy Law, Credit, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Don’t think you can buy a home after bankruptcy? Actually, you can.

Posted on May 24, 2016by Admin

There are a number of myths associated with bankruptcy; the inability to purchase a home is one of them. Bankruptcy is certainly not the end of homeownership. In fact, all major mortgage programs available today- conventional, USDA, VA and FHA home loans-have established guidelines that allow post-bankruptcy buyers to qualify for a mortgage.

Each loan type has its own waiting period requirement after bankruptcy. Waiting periods for the four major types of loans are as follows:

FHA loans: 2 years
VA home loans: 2 years
Conventional mortgages: 4 years
USDA home loans: 3 years

While these are the “standard” guidelines, you may qualify for a conventional or FHA loan even sooner. Both of these loans have exceptions for “extenuating circumstances” or one-time events that caused income loss and were outside of the homeowner’s control.

In this case, an applicant can be approved for a conventional loan just two years after bankruptcy, and an FHA applicant can receive approval after one year in the “Back to Work Program.”

Below are some quick and easy ways to re-establish your credit after bankruptcy.

Re-establishing your credit involves opening credit accounts and paying them on-time for at least 12 months. These credit accounts must be kept open and active.
Begin with a credit card. Use it for gas and groceries and pay it down every month. Keep a small balance on it so the credit bureaus can see that it is active, but keep the balance below 30% of your available balance.
The credit bureaus value a diverse credit profile, more than just credit card accounts. Personal loans, student loans and car loans are other types of credit. Credit bureaus want to see that you can manage your credit responsibly.
Lenders may look for non-traditional credit. For example, 12 months of cell phone bill, gym membership, car insurance, cable bill, etc.

With proper planning, you can re-establish your credit to the level at which you can qualify for a home loan.

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Credit, Debt Relief, Foreclosures

New Reverse Mortgage Updates Benefit Borrowers and Lenders, according to HUD

Posted on May 13, 2016by Admin

According to a new report issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the latest reverse mortgage updates on the rules and laws have benefited both borrowers and lenders. New changes to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program are intended to: assure that foreclosures and defaults are limited; they are also designed to prevent lender abuse; they help assure that borrowers can actually afford to upkeep the home (i.e. – home insurance and property taxes on these loans that are not secured on the basis of income or credit).

The changes mandate that borrowers demonstrate they have the financial ability to maintain the home and pay the property taxes and home insurance. If the borrower is not able to provide proof of this, lenders are not allowed to approve the loans.

The draw from the loans by borrowers has decreased since the new rules took effect. This lesser draw means a decrease in risk to both lenders and borrowers, and assures (that in most cases) there is something to be passed on to heirs from the estate in the future.

Reverse mortgages are a special type of home loan that is offered to homeowners age 62 and older. They require that you have substantial equity in your home and that you are able to pay annual property taxes, home insurance and general upkeep. There are no income or credit requirements outside of these rules. Other requirements include that the home remains your primary residence and that you seek third-party credit counseling before you take out the loan.

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Bankruptcy Law, Debt Relief, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Reverse Mortgage will likely be modified

Posted on May 12, 2016by Admin

A reverse mortgage payable upon the pre-petition death of the borrower has been modifiable under section 1322(c). Section 1322(c) provides an exception to the anti-modification provision of section 1322(b) in the case of a debt secured by the debtor’s residence when the final payment comes due during the life of the chapter 13 plan.

In re Michaud, No. 14-23406 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. March 29, 2016), Julie Lisana Michaud sought to strip down the reverse mortgagee’s (James B. Nutter & Company) interest in her principal residence to its value at the time of her chapter 13 petition.

The reverse mortgage agreement was entered into by Ms. Michaud’s husband who died prior to her bankruptcy filing. By the terms of the reverse mortgage, the debt became due and was owed upon the death of Mr. Michaud. The agreement further stated that the full debt “if not paid earlier, would be due and payable on May 29, 2095.”

The issue at hand is whether the final payment became due when Mr. Michaud died, as argued by Ms. Michaud, or on May 29, 2095, as argued by Nutter. In the end, the court rejected Nutter’s due date based on “common sense,” finding the 2095 due date to be meaningless as the mortgagor would certainly pass away before that date.

The court also went by the terms of the lending agreement and federal regulations. By the terms of the agreement, the death of the mortgagor accelerates the due date without regard to the date listed in the agreement. Finally, federal regulations, provide that reverse mortgages become “due and payable” when “(i) The consumer dies; (ii) The dwelling is transferred; (iii) the consumer ceases to occupy the dwelling as a principal dwelling.” 12 C.F.R. §226.33.

Nutter countered with a “slippery slope” argument that debtors could use the ruling to their advantage when the debtor has caused the acceleration by his or her own default such as by failure to maintain insurance on the property, which the court rejected.

The court granted Ms. Michaud’s motion to value for a secured claim in the amount of $45,500 plus interest, and an unsecured claim of $67,096.75.

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Bankruptcy Law, Credit, Debt Relief, Timothy Kingcade Posts

The FCC Wants Debt Collectors to Stop Calling So Much

Posted on May 11, 2016by Admin

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently approved a proposal that would reduce the number of collection calls consumers receive. A budget deal was approved last year that provided government exemptions from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act that blocks solicitors from sending automated calls to cell phones under certain conditions. Congress called on the FCC to limit those exemptions.

The proposal limits government debt collectors to three calls per month, which can only be made if an individual is late on making a payment. It also allows calls informing people about payment plans, though borrowers can request to opt out.

With taking this first step toward implementing the requirements, Congress recognizes the importance of collecting debt owed to the U.S. and respecting the consumer protections allotted in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. It is still subject to two rounds of comments- the first on June 6, and the second on June 21.

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