Category Archives: Debt
Learning Financial Literacy The Hard Way
Conventional wisdom says that you should read the fine print before you take out a car loan or sign a credit card agreement, but sometimes even reading every line carefully will not prepare you for all of the possible pitfalls of your decision to borrow. Most adults in Florida are in debt; the ones… Read More »
Beware Of Fraudulent Medical Bills
Most of the time, when you get a medical bill that you can’t pay, your best choice is to be honest with the healthcare provider about your financial hardship. With enough research and resourcefulness, you might be able to persuade the provider to settle the debt for a much lower amount than they originally… Read More »
Pet Store Loans Through Rent-A-Banks Are A Perfect Storm For Debt
Most people’s debt problems are not the result of consumers wantonly spending beyond their means. Instead, catastrophic debts usually result from medical emergencies, chronic illnesses, the need to support family members who are unable to work, or just the simple fact that everything is expensive and many jobs do not pay well enough to… Read More »
Legal Protections Against Predatory Automatic Renewals
Most people’s debt problems are not due to poor financial decisions but simply to the fact that, unless you were born into money, necessary expenses have become unaffordable. Despite this, cutting your expenses as much as possible can help you reduce your debt and put yourself on firm footing for bigger interventions like applying… Read More »
The Statute Of Limitations For Florida Debts
Conventional wisdom about personal finance holds that ignoring debts can only make them worse. Meanwhile, debts have a statute of limitations, which means that, if you have not made payments toward a debt after a certain amount of time has gone by, there is little that creditors and debt collectors can do to get… Read More »
Are Microloans Your Best Hope For Getting Access To Credit?
In 2006, the economist Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in founding Grameen Bank, an organization that provides microloans to women in Bangladesh who would not otherwise have access to credit. In 2008, Professor Yunus founded Grameen America, which operates on a similar model to provide microloans to women in… Read More »
Another Extension Of The Student Loan Pause Gives Borrowers An Opportunity To Tackle Their Debt
In some ways, life has gone back to normal two years after Florida reported its first cases of the illness now known as COVID-19. The mask mandates are a thing of the past, classrooms are full of students, and tourists have returned to Florida’s beaches. No one knows when the next new variant is… Read More »
Can You Talk Your Way Out Of Unfair Medical Bills?
Yes, it is good news that credit reporting agencies will exclude many medical debts from your credit report. It is also encouraging that the No Surprises Act has lowered the cost of emergency treatment for patients with health insurance. Meanwhile, medical bills remain a major source of debt and financial insecurity for Floridians. It… Read More »
Can Your Cannabis Business File For Bankruptcy In Florida?
Floridians love weed and have loved it for decades. Local lawmakers’ attitudes toward it vary from one jurisdiction to another, which is why recreational cannabis remains illegal at the state level, even though it has been decriminalized in some counties and municipalities, starting with Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties in 2015. Meanwhile, federal… Read More »
What To Do If A Creditor Sues You
Have you ever heard someone tell a bully to pick on someone their own size? Someone should say that to businesses that sue consumers for unpaid debts. Business to consumer lawsuits have become frighteningly common in recent years. Most of the time, the court allows these lawsuits to proceed without regard to the fact… Read More »