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• First thing is to gather all your credit card bills and find out exactly how much you owe. Once you have you bills map out the minimum payments on each card.
• Make sure to pay at least the minimum payments due. And if you can add as much extra as you can afford. Not only will this help you pay off the debt faster, it will also help keep your credit score intact.
• Pay on time! I can not stress this enough, do everything you can to make these payments on time. This way you will avoid going further into debt with costly late fees and finance charges.
• If you simply can not make a payment, contact your card holder as soon as you can to let them know. They may be able to help you arrange a payment plan, or give you grace period if you pay on the interest, or any number of options. Its best to face these problems head on.

Once you have a solid plan in place, the overwhelming feeling will start to go away, and you can rest more easily knowing you have a plan. You should also keep in mind that if you have gifts spread across many different cards, it will be worth your time to check out the interest rates on all your cards.

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When people are considering bankruptcy as an option to overwhelming debt, they often wonder about whether being “judgment proof” applies to them and how it relates to the decision of whether or not to file a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

• If a creditor is planning to sue you over unpaid debts, your creditor will generally consider if they have grounds to win the case, and whether you have enough assets available to cover the time and expense of taking action against you.  If your assets and income are so small that a creditor has nothing to seize or garnish, then you are said to be “judgment proof.”

• Some forms of income are protected and some may be at risk for bank/paycheck garnishment Some forms of income, such as Social Security payments, cannot be garnished by creditors, and a bank account containing only deposits from Social Security income cannot be levied by creditors either.  If you have forms of income that are not protected, your creditors could try to garnish them.  Also, if your bank accounts contain deposits from Social Security mixed with deposits from unprotected income, then the whole account might still be at risk of being seized.

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Some things are sacred. The holiday season is a perfect example: it’s a special time of gift giving, filled with joy and wonder, especially for children. So it comes as a shock when we hear of a particularly ugly violation of the spirit of the season: parents, who are supposed to give the gift of love and devotion to their children, stealing their identities instead.

According to a series of articles in the Huffington Post called “Burdened Beginnings,” child identity theft is a startling reality for some individuals. One article cites a study done by ID Analytics that shows a large group of parents and children in the United States is inappropriately sharing identity information. Here are some statistics that may surprise you:

• Approximately six million parents and children improperly share identifying information, specifically Social Security numbers.
• Nearly 500,000 children under the age of 18 have had their identities stolen by a parent.
• More than two million elderly parents have had their identity information used for fraudulent purposes by adult children.

So, why are parents using their children’s information instead of their own? Bad cre

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While the news may not come as a huge surprise, recent research shows that people who suffer from chronic illnesses are more likely than others to have large amounts of medical debt.

And, in turn, people suffering from chronic diseases or those requiring long-term medical care may file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy more often in order to reduce their heavy medical debt loads.

In sum, the research portrays a stark picture of an American health care landscape that offers little aid to those who need it most.

According to data compiled by the Commonwealth Fund, and reported on MSNBC.com, Americans were more likely than citizens of other high-income countries to have problems getting medical care because of high rates of medical debt.

Some of the most interesting nuggets of information include:

• High costs of care. The Commonwealth Fund poll questioned 18,000 adults, and found that 42 percent of all Americans with health problems decided to forego medical care because of high costs.
• The burden of debt. In addition, of the adults with chronic health problems, more than 25 percent reported that they were unable to pay all or some of their medical bills.
• U.S.

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A report from Financial-Planning.com notes an unsettling trend in bankruptcy filings: in recent years, the number of Certified Financial Planners (CFPs) filing for bankruptcy protection has increased. CFPs are highly trained financial experts who must undergo rigorous training and pass difficult tests in order to become certified.

In 2010, according to sources, as many as a quarter of the disciplinary cases heard by the CFP Board involved CFPs filing for bankruptcy protection. So far in 2011, that number is on pace to reach one-third of all cases.

In fairness, the CFP board only began tracking bankruptcy statistics in 2010, though its guidelines have always required the board to investigate any personal or business bankruptcy filings it heard about. Still, the frequency of bankruptcy filing seemed high to Board members, and at least one attributed the 2010-to-2011 climb to the failing economy.

One encouraging fact that emerged in the Financial-Planning.com report was that the Board takes a number of factors into consideration when deciding how to proceed after a CFP’s bankruptcy. D

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