Since the days of the original thirteen colonies, citizens of New Hampshire have ever been resistant to federal intervention in their affairs and suspicious of governmental programs that place the consumer’s household under the oversight of authorities of the court system. Nevertheless, any economy as dynamic as that of the United States – which, by extension, directly impacts the economy of New Hampshire – inevitably runs up against significant problems which require extraordinary measures to protect the least fortunate of its citizens. Even the thriftiest of households run up against the occasional emergency which sadly necessitates utilizing credit in order to put food on the table or pay for unexpected damages or, God forbid, take care of a family member’s sudden hospitalization, and, exacerbating the problem, so many of our households spent above their earning potential and ignored reasonable budgets during even the boom periods of our state’s and country’s recent expansion. As the ever increasing dependence upon consumer loans leapt up throughout the past few years, the size of the debt footprint of New Hampshire families grew larger alongside, and, with the budding complexity of consumer finance and the methods employed by credit card conglomerates to disguise the effects of compound interest growing ever more convoluted, it’s more and more difficult for the lay consumer to even grasp the extent of their financial dilemma or the fundamental principles of a potential solution. New Hampshire borrowers who recognize that their obligations have become untenable honestly should find that they have no other choice but to examine the potential benefits that bankruptcy protections may hold in store no matter how the regulations guiding Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy have changed.
This storied emblem of democratic leniency which once safeguarded the most adventurous statesmen, artists, and captains of industry alike has been so weakened by the legislation of four years past that New Hampshire borrowers should quite reasonably question whether, no matter their debt loads or the pressures that they face from creditors and collection agencies, bankruptcy would be the best solution for their quickly increasing monthly obligations. Most worrisome, we have found that the majority of borrowers within our state have trouble distinguishing between the other types of debt elimination available to New Hampshire beyond bankruptcy protection. Even as much as the working men and women of New Hampshire may be hesitant about merely investigating the various methods of debt management for fear that they’ll be overly tempted to erase their liabilities, there’s nothing underhanded about simply keeping track of the mercurial protections that our bankruptcy system represents in an age of such heightened economic turmoil throughout New Hampshire, the United States, and, for that matter, the world. With too many borrowers, all it would take would be one bad month for household budgets already stretched to the breaking point to suddenly begin the slippery slope toward complete insolvency. With unemployment rising just as fast as the property values around New Hampshire fall (not, in any case, that overleveraged New Hampshire home owners could hope to find a lender following the implosion of the sub prime mortgage industry) and a health care crisis that could potentially ruin even the most stable of New Hampshire families, no borrowers holding sufficient amounts of debts either secured or unsecured could truly be considered safe.
All of which means that the changes brought on by the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 have unnecessarily corrupted an extremely important governmental safety net. New Hampshire borrowers imagining that Chapter 7 bankruptcies would always be available should the worst circumstances come to pass must now accept that, if they made more than the median income for their state in the first six months of the year before their initial bankruptcy paperwork was submitted to the New Hampshire court clerk, they may not genuinely be allowed to liquidate their debts through the Chapter 7 program. Even more potentially burdensome, those borrowers that have made so little money that they could qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcies might not actually be able to afford the program. The administrative expenses charged by the New Hampshire trustee continue to rise, experienced bankruptcy law firms become ever more important to the successful bankruptcy declaration while their fees multiply alongside, and, most irritating and certainly embarrassing, a high priced course of credit management is now required from the borrower before they could even turn in their original bankruptcy petition. Considering how very many New Hampshire households have only been put in the position of filing for bankruptcy because of a sudden hospitalization of a family member or lay offs that came about because their company went out of business during this dreary economic slowdown, the condescension should genuinely irritate every American that believes his or her fellow citizens deserve the opportunity to renew their household’s potential following a series of poor choices or unavoidable tragedy. Even those relatively few New Hampshire debtors that manage to both come up with sufficient amounts of money up front to fund their attempts at bankruptcy while yet demonstrating the limited earnings in past years which would prove the legitimacy of their case would be all too likely to discover that even the seemingly poorest household may be ripped asunder by the new US Bankruptcy Code statutes which essentially judge most any family possessions to be subject to forfeiture by the courts.
Acting on increasingly feverish ventures intent upon lowering credit card burdens while yet avoiding the ever more gruesome threats that Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection represents, New Hampshire households have come to take active measures toward debt resolution before fully researching the origins and practices of the strategies presented. Hard to argue against any residents of New Hampshire grasping at the few straws that they believe may prevent the total collapse of their financial viability, but, aching to elude the destructive effects of bankruptcy upon credit scores, too many families simply avoid studying the solution altogether and ignoring even the potential benefits of bankruptcy protection only succeeds in worsening the severity of the situation. This ever widening chasm increasingly obscures the path toward an effective management of debt loads, and the possibility of New Hampshire households regaining their financial foothold becomes continually less attainable. This is a common misstep within the actions of New Hampshire borrowers more worried about the problems of bankruptcy than the positive elements of such protection. The popularity of these supposed solutions may be partially due to the commercial onslaught of supposedly less damaging methods such as Consumer Credit Counseling, for example, which may actually be more ruinous toward the household’s credit scores than even Chapter 7 bankruptcies, but that’s still no excuse for failing to garner accurate information about each of them. Even though the corporate charters would like as not advertise these firms as non profit (an essentially silly designation that means little more than that the companies pay as much out in salaries and commission to their sales force as they take in), the putatively responsible Consumer Credit Counseling agencies should be presumed to be subsidiaries of credit card companies or similarly commercial lenders determined to prevent their New Hampshire clientele from ever considering Chapter 7 bankruptcy debt elimination programs.
Much as we appreciate the extent to which borrowers may wish to avoid phone calls from bill collectors or protect their family’s economic well being, Consumer Credit Counseling truly only addresses the specific symptoms of problem debtors, and New Hampshire families should stay far removed from any similar strategies even if bankruptcy would be the only other option: which, happily, it should not be. If the New Hampshire borrowers are genuinely focused toward the sharp and sudden reduction of the funds owed credit card conglomerates and have not yet extinguished the hope of alternative methods of debt elimination by declaring Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy or signing up for a Consumer Credit Counseling program, there may be a more effective solution to their towering debt balances. Settlement negotiation not only manages to lower New Hampshire clients’ credit card accounts and other unsecured debts by as much as sixty five percent after only a series of phone calls by settlement specialists with representatives of the lenders (who are made to fear the chances that said clients would contemplate Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection whatever the realities of their situation may be), the trained counselors within the program also take pains to help guide borrowers away from previously destructive spending habits and avoidance of proper budgeting procedures. Especially when compared to the dangers of bankruptcy protection and the multitudes of New Hampshire consumers who have braved the program only to realize – after spending thousands of dollars on the administrative expenses, newly de rigueur credit management classes, and bankruptcy attorney fees – that they either would not qualify for Chapter 7 debt liquidation bankruptcies or that the consequences to credit ratings and family property were not worth the eventual savings, debt settlement negotiation should be thoroughly analyzed as a relatively pain free solution to the credit card debts of New Hampshire households.
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?
