During this most recent period of financial unease battering the markets of Maine and virtually all of the United States of America if not the world, a dispiriting amount of residents of our state have too quickly come to the conclusion that – should escalating consumer debts be more than the Maine borrower feels that their household could realistically satisfy given the dim economic horizon our analysts portend – they would have no other practical recourse but the potentially catastrophic last chance offered by the promise of bankruptcy protection. Upon sober examination of his or her family’s personal debts, every Maine borrower truly up against the towering shadow of unchecked avarice past or the financial ruin set in motion by unforeseen trauma (not to mention the failing employment prospects and recent rush of lay offs seen throughout Maine) would be tempting fate by avoiding the newly existent methods of debt relief that may be available to aid their household’s liquidation of bills that the wage earner would otherwise be unable to satisfy. In times past, of course, most borrowers within Maine would simply bite the bullet and, once all clear headed potentialities of remuneration or imminent success strained credulity, they would presume that they had no choice otherwise than to attempt to qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and face the damaging consequences to social standing and eventual credit prospects with a stiff upper lip and renewed focus toward making good upon their lapsed obligations. The Yankee work ethic, they called it, and, though bankruptcy was never an easy decision for Maine consumers, most every resident would agree that a certain stigma and unpleasant guilt – and, perhaps, even a vague lessening of the distrust credit once engendered among New Englanders – beat the stocks or debtor’s prisons as a properly civilized response to the violent fluctuations of the industrial revolution.
The last decade, of course, saw Maine and the nation through financial peaks and valleys every bit as significant as the epochal shifts of a century ago, but, while the yawning chasm between rich and poor once inspired our representatives in Washington D.C. to guarantee some degree of leniency in so far as the bottom rung of society went, the wealthiest recipients of our most recent boom age – which, to a certain extent, passed all but the college towns and summer cottages of Maine by in the escalating gold rush – actively conspired to subsidize congressional legislation aiming to forego past protections and ham string the neediest victims of a spending mad culture while proclaiming quite the opposite. Not, of course, that this was reported to Maine consumers in any detail at all by our leading economic journalists or the similarly motivated watchdog groups bound and charged with the constant monitoring and analysis of legislation so clearly ear marked for the defenestration of middle class interests. Any maneuvering as demonstrably fraught with obstacles and contradictions as the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act should’ve blanketed the newspapers, but the fourth estate never quite bothered to warn Maine consumers that the sea wall erected against predatory lenders and the tempestuous waves of capitalism which generations of Americans had taken for granted no longer, arguably, could hold back the tides of foreclosure and wage garnishment.
Throughout this period legislative misbehavior and, to an alarming degree, the entirety of their adult lives, otherwise intelligent and thoughtful heads of households around Maine who were predisposed to consider familial economic stability above all else still managed to blissfully ignore the formal statutes and parameters of Chapter 7 bankruptcy declaration legitimacy even as they revved up spending and held governmental protection as an absolute guarantee should their fortunes turn. Most residents of Maine actually know a good deal more about debt consolidation mortgages, Consumer Credit Counseling, and the other inevitably devastating methods of juggling various trouble debts featured on regular radio and television advertisements as private alternatives to Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 protection than bankruptcy itself. It is an unfortunate truth and a meaningful reminder that, although the vaguest notions of bankruptcy statutes are well known to every school child in Maine, fully grown consumers about New England are often misled into the belief that high interest loans and the consumer credit counseling services are designed to appear to be practical, effective, and even obligatory methods of alleviating financial strain. In fact, there exists one alternative with proven success in stabilizing the seemingly out of control household economies of Maine. Debt settlement negotiation, though the program shall no doubt seem brand spanking new to virtually all Maine residents unaffiliated with the latest trends and developments of personal finance, has not quite filled the place of Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection for luckless consumers, but, as an ever increasing segment of Maine borrowers realize that the debt elimination bankruptcy solution they’d always taken for granted no longer exists, there’s understandable comforts to be found within the confines of successful debt settlement implementation.
Though the system works differently for every Maine household (many will not even be able to enter the program), a debt settlement consultant will work with the borrower to investigate both the reasons behind the Maine consumer’s debt management problems and the fascinating new weapons at hand with which to storm the gates of the lenders and, hinting toward bankruptcy as the ultimate nullifier, lay what amounts to a siege. Debt settlement very much depends upon the lingering threat of bankruptcy for its efficacy but the course of action succeeds without the risks associated from bankruptcy declaration. After all, even the poorest borrowers living around Maine must now appreciate that most everything that their family holds dear could possibly be taken away by the court trustee appointed by the Maine Attorney General’s Office depending upon the ever more subjective regulations written into the bylaws of the United States Bankruptcy code and the exemptions allowed by the Maine state legislature. To be sure, there’s rather more hope for a family to keep hold of their possessions under the Maine guidelines (which does involve decisively avoiding the federal slate) as long as they do not own too terribly much and the court trustee does not choose a particularly aggressive interpretation.
As with so much of the language within the amended state charter and national bankruptcy stipulations, those many and varied exemptions of Maine in particular, can be read so very many ways by different people. How does one judge the replacement value of a pet? It must be under two hundred dollars for the animal to be deemed acceptable according to Maine bankruptcy regulations. Similarly, while musical instruments are allowed to be kept as long as they are in line with a level of worth similar to the pet array, pianos more than a generation or two old are essentially irreplaceable when compared to their modern counterparts, and jewelry – most importantly, for the proud Maine worker unable to afford luxury purchases and more than willing to pawn them upon the first sign of financial trouble, wedding rings – should ever first be appraised according to sentimental value. Honestly, once a borrower first requests a bankruptcy petition from the Maine county clerk and fully investigates the length and complexity such paper work demands, the assistance of trusted attorneys should be considered an utter necessity for the security of the borrowers’ assets under Chapter 7 debt elimination bankruptcy and their household budget if attempting a Chapter 13 plan: the rather less wanted step child of personal bankruptcy programs.
Chapter 13 programs insist that relevant filers repay the totality of their loans. Relatively few Maine consumers bother with even attempting the Chapter 13 bankruptcy regimen, even fewer endure the ever more harsh payment schedule legislation now requires, and, leaving aside a few borrowers who need immediate assistance with the cessation of foreclosure proceedings, the average Chapter 13 bankruptcy Maine residents have only found themselves within the debt re-organization program after Chapter 7 bankruptcy was denied. Ever since the virulent repercussions of the Bankruptcy Abuse Protection and Consumer Protection Act halted citizens’ declaration of Chapter 7 debt elimination bankruptcies should the heads of household make a penny more than the median income for the state as counted some months previous to petitioning. With the economy of Maine differing widely among the various regions, from Bangor to Augusta, and a growing swath of our residents dependent upon seasonal income as well as unfortunately in thrall to financial concerns dimming by the hour throughout New England, the strictly defined bankruptcy guidelines enacted four years past do not account for America’s famously mutable earnings. Even during a period of such unprecedented wealth creation around Maine and seeming stability for the continually expanding manifest destiny – not, perhaps, centered around Maine those salad quarters, but a rising tide was once thought to lift all ships – the income of so many hard working households fell in real dollars. Worse, the only calculations that the court trustees of Maine are duty bound to analyze have been dreamt up by the Internal Revenue Service utilizing past census data tragically distant from our rather more pedestrian fortunes.
There are, of course, exceptions to any legislation, and the reams of fine print that surrounds the United States Bankruptcy Code – which dies not even mention the myriad tweaks and additions of Maine’s own democratically elected representatives – could be effectively orchestrated by experienced Maine attorneys to the overwhelming benefit of those clients able to afford such services. Still and all, well after the sunk costs of legal fees have become too large for their clients to ignore, Maine consumers that have successfully discharged debts through Chapter 7 bankruptcy yet discover their savings were considerably less than the money spent and property lost as consequence of declaring bankruptcy. The governmentally sponsored elimination of debt has never been known to urge boasting from those creditors that took advantage of bankruptcy protection, but the destruction of credit ratings, forfeiture of household possessions, and substantial time and effort required from current applicants (leaving aside the sheer cost require of administrative fees and mercenary attorneys never more in demand) has rendered almost every Maine creditor to attempt Chapter 7 bankruptcy bathing in sincere regrets that they did not strenuously shop around for other alternatives. While consumers forced by the need for Maine bankruptcy officials to mediate an immediate relief from oppressive debt loads and predatory collection ages are unaware of these lesser known options, there are honestly bounties of resources designed to aid the Maine borrower and guide them out of the depths of financial distress.
The comparatively modern technique called debt settlement, specialists of which urge the lenders to cede a significant chunk of the Maine client’s legally verifiable obligations by employing bankruptcy as a threat to be wielded as the individual borrower’s greatest weapon (regardless of genuine relevance this post BAPCPA world), remains an obvious exception. In fact, the authors of this article recommend that each Maine borrower even vaguely worried about the potential for their credit lines and unsecured debts to spiral beyond control take advantage of the free consultations most every certified and experienced debt settlement firm now offers to see just what the settlement negotiation professionals could arrange. While the sparsely populated areas of our state may be both unnaturally affected by the horrid economic signals rumbling the nation as well as, shall we say, less than stocked with adept attorneys equally familiar with the seismic hurtling of the national bankruptcy code and those statutes particular to Maine, the newly minted settlement programs – independent of the calcified community traditions and high priced real estate of the banks best suited to aiding borrowers’ debt concerns centuries past and refreshingly free from ties to the old boy network that informs the most successful deliberations between scandalously expensive attorneys and those trustees mandated by the Maine courts – conduct the lion’s share of their business on the telephone and internet. The debt settlement professional will not have any reason to ever talk to the credit card company shill they’ll have to back down face to face. Personal finance no longer has much to do with hand shakes – even bankruptcy protection doesn’t merit lender interaction most cases for ordinary Maine households – and, to wage war against their debts, all interested borrowers scattered around Maine would be well advised to talk with their debt settlement specialist over the phone. After all, that’s the only way their enemies in credit ever know them.
Credit card companies begin instilling purchasing habits borne upon unnatural optimism and a sense of mercenary entitlement around the average Maine consumer’s adolescence; for that matter, most Maine and New England lingers on solely in a national distrust of bankruptcy protection. Debt settlement negotiation companies do not advertise their program as a final alternative, and, relatively alone among the competitors for the affection of bankruptcy lawyers, they distrust the competence of any supposed resources. More than anything, debt settlement inspires the vision that workaday Maine residents need not feel pressured by bankruptcy nor guiltily drawn toward those pointless counselor services which do little more than scare desperate borrowers away or keep them paying minimum monthly obligation forever (or, at least, until compound interest has reached exponential figures). Through debt settlement negotiation, borrowers in Maine can employ the services of a counselor located anywhere around the nation and, through combined efforts, force the creditors to abandon the rights to the majority of their holding. It’s not, still, the cleanly wiped slate Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection promised luckless Maine debtors decades past, but, in a world where credit card conglomerates no longer even reside in America, debt settlement also isn’t a request for mercy. Today, lenders are the emblematic scofflaws who’d bit off more than they could chew through avarice and irresponsibility, and, unlike the junked wreckage of bankruptcy protection, debt settlement negotiation makes it nearly impossible to root against the borrower.
The decision to reach out for help with your debt is not one that's easy to make. You were raised to "do the right thing", but now it’s nearly unbearable. You struggle along while your creditors are turning up the heat. And now you’re at the point where the late fees, penalties and interest expense make it impossible to keep your head above water.
Ask yourself this. If you could eliminate your debt without permanently damaging your credit, why wouldn't you?
