The Debt Collector's Handbook


Book Description

Winning your case in court is only half the battle. It's a fact that some people hide their assets to avoid paying debts and judgments. This truly unique book will show you how to find and reach that hidden money. Author David J. Cook is a veteran collections attorney who has been chasing down debtors for over 39 years. This colorfully written book will teach you the basics of civil remedies, real estate, finance, and sleuthing. The author outlines for you the power of the bluff and the outer parameters of threat, when a threat becomes extortion, and when you need to walk away from a situation. This book is about collecting debts, finding assets, enforcing judgments against difficult people, or, should you be so inclined, beating out your creditors.




The Debt Escape Plan


Book Description

When Harzog decided she wanted to break free from debt, she found that conventional advice about personal finance didn't work for her. Now she shares her unique debt escape plan, and shows you how to use it as the basis for your own customized debt escape plan.




Debtors' Prison


Book Description

One of our foremost economic thinkers challenges a cherished tenet of today’s financial orthodoxy: that spending less, refusing to forgive debt, and shrinking government—“austerity”—is the solution to a persisting economic crisis like ours or Europe’s, now in its fifth year. Since the collapse of September 2008, the conversation about economic recovery has centered on the question of debt: whether we have too much of it, whose debt to forgive, and how to cut the deficit. These questions dominated the sound bites of the 2012 U.S. presidential election, the fiscal-cliff debates, and the perverse policies of the European Union. Robert Kuttner makes the most powerful argument to date that these are the wrong questions and that austerity is the wrong answer. Blending economics with historical contrasts of effective debt relief and punitive debt enforcement, he makes clear that universal belt-tightening, as a prescription for recession, defies economic logic. And while the public debt gets most of the attention, it is private debts that crashed the economy and are sandbagging the recovery—mortgages, student loans, consumer borrowing to make up for lagging wages, speculative shortfalls incurred by banks. As Kuttner observes, corporations get to use bankruptcy to walk away from debts. Homeowners and small nations don’t. Thus, we need more public borrowing and investment to revive a depressed economy, and more forgiveness and reform of the overhang of past debts. In making his case, Kuttner uncovers the double standards in the politics of debt, from Robinson Crusoe author Daniel Defoe’s campaign for debt forgiveness in the seventeenth century to the two world wars and Bretton Woods. Just as debtors’ prisons once prevented individuals from surmounting their debts and resuming productive life, austerity measures shackle, rather than restore, economic growth—as the weight of past debt crushes the economy’s future potential. Above all, Kuttner shows how austerity serves only the interest of creditors—the very bankers and financial elites whose actions precipitated the collapse. Lucid, authoritative, provocative—a book that will shape the economic conversation and the search for new solutions.




Beating the College Debt Trap


Book Description

A groundbreaking guide to “how you can get the most value for your money . . . If you don’t want to waste a decade languishing in student debt, this is the book” (Zac Bissonnette, New York Times–bestselling author of Debt-Free U). There’s a better way to do college. The radically counter-cultural truth is that students don’t have to be totally dependent on Mom, Dad, or Uncle Sam to get the most out of college. Graduation on a solid financial foundation is possible. But it will require intentionality, creativity, hard work, and a willingness to delay gratification. Alex Chediak gets into the nitty-gritty of how to get work and make money during the college years, pay off any loans quickly, spend less, save more, and stay out of debt for good. He also unpacks how to transition from college into career, honor God while achieving financial independence, and use your finances to make a positive, eternally significant difference in the lives of others. As a young engineering professor with an aptitude for finances and money management, Chediak has become particularly concerned with the financial health of young adults, especially in light of the ever-increasing costs of college. In Beating the College Debt Trap he does something about this problem—addressing the real-world financial issues faced by those in their late teens and early twenties with clarity, practical help, lots of illustrations, and a little humor, while conveying a distinctly Christian perspective.




Strategic Bankruptcy


Book Description

In probing the Chapter 11 bankruptcies of Johns-Manville, Frank Lorenzo's Continental Airlines and Te×aco, the author shows not only that bankruptcy is pursued by managers more and more as a strategy, but that it is becoming accepted by the business community as a viable option and not just a last-ditch solution.




Dear Debt


Book Description

In her debut book Dear Debt, personal finance expert Melanie Lockert combines her endearing and humorous personal narrative with practical tools to help readers overcome the crippling effects of debt. Drawing from her personal experience of paying off eighty thousand dollars of student loan debt, Melanie provides a wealth of money-saving tips to help her community of debt fighters navigate the repayment process, increase current income, and ultimately become debt-free. By breaking down complex financial concepts into clear, manageable tools and step-by-step processes, Melanie has provided a venerable guide to overcoming debt fatigue and obtaining financial freedom. Inside Dear Debt you will learn to: • Find the debt repayment strategy most effective for your needs • Avoid spending temptations by knowing your triggers • Replace expensive habits with cheaper alternatives • Become a frugal friend without being rude • Start a side hustle to boost your current income • Negotiate your salary to maximize value • Develop a financial plan for life after debt




You Can Beat Credit Card Debt Collectors


Book Description

Junk debt buyers annually purchase millions of consumer accounts, raking in billions of dollars, and innocent people pay these junk debt buyers, because they did not know one simple truth...YOU DO NOT OWE JUNK DEBT BUYERS ANYTHING!Over the years since I first published the article that gave rise to my book, I have answered thousands of questions from readers who were living in fear, running from junk debt collectors who were trying to scare them out of their hard-earned and scarce money. Good people, who had fallen on hard times through no fault of their own, were being pursued by what I routinely call "Blood Suckers." I am not an attorney, just someone who has done a lot of research to benefit others, but, if someone wants to say that my advice does not work, then the thousands of people who have won their cases is silent testimony that it does. Here are just a few of their letters and comments to make the point. "Brian, I really want to thank you for your help and assistance for what you do. You may not know how many families you have saved as a result of your material. I learned from you what I never learned in school. The good news is that I sued Midland, and they deleted the account from my credit and paid me some money. In a nutshell, they settled with me without wanting to go to court. You rock, and I'm grateful."Dear Mr. Gray, I took your advice in this article, and I WON! Brilliant! It completely worked. I filed my answer, served a request for production, and BAM, the next thing you know, Portfolio Recovery was filing their Motion for Nonsuit. You saved me tons of money. I didn't get a lawyer. I almost did, but decided, 'What the hell?', and took a chance! Thanks for your terrific advice in this article.""Hi Brian, You have given me excellent advice regarding debt collectors coming after me. I think it was 2014, or 2015, but I won 5 out of 5 cases using your advice." "Brian, I just wanted to thank you for your article on beating debt collectors. I followed what you said, had my day in court, and won! Before reading it, I had no idea what my rights were, so again, thank you!" Every year, millions of ordinary people are trampled under the wheels of greedy corporations whose only desire is the bread off the tables of these poor people. Those greedy corporations are junk debt buyers. It does not matter what the names of those corporations are, they are all the same, because they have corrupted the legal system, twisted it and distorted it, so that they can rob defenseless and scared citizens who are barely surviving.The typical situation follows a pattern. You had a sudden chain of events that spiraled downward and eventually out of control, leaving you with greater debts than income. As the losses piled up, you began to default on your credit card debt, none of this having ever been the intention when you first signed up for the credit card. Embarrassed and broken, you hoped against hope that, somehow, you would get back on your feet, and this nightmare would be over...but in the end, while you were sitting in the ashes of what was left, you were sued by what you thought was the original creditor coming to take away your last ray of hope. However, who really came knocking was a low-life called a junk debt buyer who had bought your bad debt for pennies on the dollar, and he wanted to trick you into paying him the entire amount.A junk debt buyer, as an example, pays $5 for a bad account that had an outstanding balance to the original creditor of $1,000. He paid $5, but he demands that you pay him $1,000! How does this make any sense? Yet this example happens thousands of times each day in U.S. courts.According to statistics from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, one of these junk debt buyer conglomerates, from 2009 to 2015, paid about $4 billion for approximately 60 million accounts with a face value of $128 billion. This immoral business is BIG business!




The Debt Relief Playbook


Book Description

Learn how to Eliminate All Debts, get Complete Debt Relief, and Remain Debt Free. After two decades of fighting creditors and debt collectors on behalf of thousands of clients, Board Certified Attorney Mark Wesbrooks has put together a powerful how-to guide to arm Americans with everything needed to oppose creditors, collectors, and their attorneys in their efforts to seek court judgments, seize assets, invade bank accounts, and garnish pay checks. Wesbrooks effectively explains legal protections, strategies, and procedures in easy to understand terms. Consumers have legal powers against aggressive creditors and debt collectors under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and other federal and state laws. Asserting these legal rights can make creditors and their attorneys go away. Consumers are entitled to recover money damages against creditors and collectors for even one violation of these laws. Part of the Legal Playbooks™ Series, The Debt Relief Playbook is an invaluable resource in defending against creditors, debt collectors and their attorneys. The Debt Relief Playbook provides a roadmap to financial freedom, including sample letters, court documents, and legal references (The War Chest) that will help you stand up and fight to protect your family and preserve the American dream. The Debt Relief Playbook is part of the Legal Playbooks™ series of publications designed to arm consumers to stand up to creditors and prevail. It is a statistical fact that one out of three debt collection lawsuits have no merit of any kind! By timely raising legal claims and defenses creditors and their attorneys will go away in defeat. Federal laws include loan forgiveness regulations for student loans, legal defenses which remove all liability on civil debts, and remedies of court-ordered discharge of all debts through bankruptcy. Rights and remedies exist which will be lost if the consumer does not act timely in asserting proper legal claims and defenses. Proper planning and an early counter-attack can eliminate the problem. When your family is under attack, it is time to fight and prevail!




Stick It to Sue Happy Debt Collectors


Book Description

I look at being sued by a debt collector like this: If you are going to sue me, you better have the proof and documentation to validate it. I will fight and tooth and nail if the attorney or law firm can't or won't show proper proof. It doesn't matter if I owe the debt or not. I am not an “easy money target†and after you read my book neither will you.




How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously*


Book Description

A simple, proven-effective formula for freeing yourself from debt—and staying that way • Revised and updated, with a new Preface by the author “A must read for anyone wanting to get their head above water.”—The Wall Street Journal THE CLASSIC GUIDE, REVISED WITH UP-TO-THE-MINUTE INFORMATION OUT OF THE RED • Do this month’s bills pile up before you’ve paid last month’s? • Do you regularly receive past-due notices? • Do you get letters threatening legal action if immediate payment is not made? • Do the total amounts of your revolving charge accounts keep rising? INTO THE BLACK Whether you are currently in debt or fear you’re falling into debt, you are not alone. Sixty million Americans—from doctors to secretaries, from executives to the unemployed—face the same problem and live under the same daily stress. Based on the proven techniques of the national Debtors Anonymous program, here is the first complete, step-by-step guide to getting out of debt once and for all. You’ll learn • how to recognize the warning signs of serious debt • how to negotiate with angry creditors, collection agencies, and the IRS • how to design a realistic and painless payback schedule • how to identify your spending blind spots • how to cope with the anxiety and daily pressures of owing money • plus the three cardinal rules for staying out of debt forever, and much more! This book is neither sponsored nor endorsed by Debtors Anonymous. A recovered debtor, the author is intimately familiar with the success of the Debtors Anonymous program.