519-646-2222Category: Insolvency News
Real Estate Bubble and Bankruptcies
The value of your real estate can impact what you must pay in a bankruptcy In estimating the asset value of your home trustees had treated the value of real estate as if the value were fixed at the time of the bankruptcy filing until the decision of the Ontario Appeals Court in LePage of […]
Read moreAre You Broke or Broken?
There is a difference but being broke can break some people’s spirits. It is important to separate out, in your mind, the difference between having no money and having no future. Unfortunately for some people their lives are so tied to being in debt that they feel like failures when they are not in debt […]
Read morePROPOSAL OR BANKRUPTCY
Which is better to help rebuild credit? This is an older topic that we have often talked about in the past but it is certainly worthy of repeating. Proposals are good alternatives to bankruptcies but they are always more expensive than bankruptcies and provide little to no advantage in terms of rebuilding credit. In fact proposals can […]
Read moreIncome disparity between men and women
Is there really a huge wage gap between men and women when the top 2% are removed from the data sample? This is an interesting and intriguing question which is certainly not resolved by our brief survey of a limited population set. However, we did look at thirty (30) random, joint insolvency files and compared […]
Read moreYOU COULD BE A UNICORN
In today’s economy a “unicorn” is someone who is debt free – like real unicorns they are very rare indeed. Lack of employment opportunities, lower incomes, higher taxes, more expensive cost of living – we hear it all the time. Canadians are broke! By the same token people are fed up with being broke, they […]
Read moreAre my statute barred debts still collectible:
This question cannot be answered with a simple YES or NO! The complexity arises from variants in the application of laws, rules and regulations. The Limitation Act of Ontario imposes a basic two (2) year period for legal action to be brought before the courts. In the simplest example let’s assume you owed me $10,000 […]
Read moreINFORMAL VERSUS FORMAL PROPOSALS
There is no substitute for a qualified professional bankruptcy trustee. Last year we tried to help out a debtor out by assisting with the filing of an informal proposal. The offer to the creditors was set out in the form of an agreement and the supporting documentation suggested something like this: INFORMAL PROPOSAL If you […]
Read moreCRA SCAM
Relax, the Canada Revenue Agency is not the perpetrator of the scam. There is a perennial phishing scam that pops up every year – it seems to be two pronged on one hand collecting data, confirming email addresses are working, and on the other hand they may be trying to obtain bank account information. In […]
Read moreBANK FEES FOR PAYING YOUR BILLS
Here’s an idea – it may not get a lot of traction, but it is a thought – read on… Fortunately the government is reviewing the RBC’s notion of charging people fees for paying their bills and the RBC had apparently decided to move away from the implementation of the plan anyway. However, some companies […]
Read moreHOW LONG BEFORE I GET MY CREDIT BACK
Way faster than you might think! Although it’s counter intuitive some lenders are so eager to lend that they will approve debt for people who are not yet discharged from their bankruptcies or still under consumer proposals. This is of course a sad indictment on the ethos of our lending industry and is something we […]
Read moreSome Canadians cannot file for bankruptcy
This blog was inspired by an article posted on the Bankruptcy Canada website. This is the criteria for people to qualify make an assignment into bankruptcy in Canada: 1. Have at least one thousand dollars ($1,000) worth of debt;2. Be unable to pay debts as they become due;3. Ceased paying creditors in the ordinary course […]
Read moreDO YOU WANT TO REPAIR YOUR CREDIT RATING?
Many people do! Be wary of Ôtoo good to be true‘ schemes and scams – there are many of them around. There is no easy way to Ôrepair’ your credit. Contact Equifax and/or Trans Union to get a free copy of your credit report – it comes with explanatory notes – read it very carefully, […]
Read moreNOT SO FAMOUS BANKRUPTS
We previously posted a blog listing the names of famous bankrupts – this time we are listing “not so famous bankrupts” (if the names listed sound like someone you know it is purely coincidence we just made it up). Julie Wong – Waitress aged 29 – credit cards & student loans totaling $62,000- cause of […]
Read moreSOMETIMES BANKS GET IT RIGHT
Great promotional campaign! Whether it was just a gimmick or a real effort to show appreciation the campaign worked – jerking tears from some viewer’s eyes. Have you seen the viral video it was very clever, very exploitative and very well done!
Read morePLANNING A BANKRUPTCY
Do people really plan to go bankrupt, and if they do when is the best time to start thinking about it? It may sound surprising but very few people actually plan to go bankrupt. Think about it from a logical point of view – how many people do you know who plan to fail at […]
Read moreDON’T GET CONNED BY BOGUS EMAILS
There are lots of them around, all kinds of solicitations and promises, some are by telephone. “Dear MyBell member, The credit card we have on file for your MyBell Internet service was declined when we attempted to bill. Please visit our Account Information pages. Click Here , and update your credit card information as soon […]
Read moreBANKRUPTCY & SURPLUS INCOME
Is a strict reliance on the LICO a fair and reasonable way to calculate surplus income? In at least one discharge hearing, Plamondon, before the bankruptcy courts the Registrar felt that a strict adherence to the Superintendent’s Standards for calculating surplus income would be unfair. The Registrar, in rendering his decision, observed: “In my view, […]
Read moreSHOULD BANKS BE MORE RESPONSIBLE?
Current lending policies encourage people to get into debt. Consumer debts are bankers assets. There is little doubt that the credit granting industry promotes a culture of greed and immediate gratification both amongst its employees and customers. Even low level bankers are driven by bonuses and are known to fudge numbers to help people qualify for […]
Read moreIF I GO BANKRUPT WILL I EVER GET CREDIT AGAIN?
We have talked about this topic before but it is a question that keeps arising and is worthy of revisiting. There is an urban myth that “if you go bankrupt you will not be allowed to get credit again for seven years”. This is in fact utter nonsense. But the myth arises from the fact […]
Read moreARE YOU AFFECTED BY THE WAGE GAP?
And where did the gap come from anyway? Although it sounds as though opportunity is being taken away from younger workers they don’t have an exclusive on weaker wages. Since 1970 average Canadian family incomes have dropped by about 40% after being adjusted for inflation. A critical difference between then and now is that in […]
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