“Congratulations, you’ve won a free Chrystler” “I’m about to die and want to give all of my money away before I pass. All I need is your bank account number” If you’re like me, you’ve received these phone calls or emails before. My hope is that you’ve completely ignored them. They are SCAMS! The scams above are probably pretty obvious for the average person to pinpoint. However, some aren’t so obvious. Target is a very popular store, and it’s been in the news recently for it’s data breach. Now there’s a new Target scam. This scams offers a $25 store credit at Target for taking a survey – this seems very practical and easier to fall for than the examples
Buying an engagement ring doesn’t have to put you in debt By: Darrell Castle Marriage is a beautiful thing, however the decision to get married and the process along the way can be stressful, especially when it comes to buying the engagement ring. But, should it be stressful? The rule of thumb is to spend at least two to three months salary on an engagement ring – but is that really anything more than a clever marketing campaign aimed to get you to spend too much money on a ring? Financial advisors say you should have two to three months worth of your salary saved up in case of a job loss or medical emergency. That means, if you’re planning
This weekend will bring a lot of last minute Christmas shopping. Just be sure to spend wisely and don’t spend money you don’t have. Stay out of debt. Merry Christmas. If video above doesn’t work, click here Video Transcript Hello, this is Darrell Castle with Darrell Castle & Associates and I’m here today to wish you a Merry Christmas and to tell you that I have some free advice for you today. After 33 years in bankruptcy practice – 33 years of handling bankruptcies from different jurisdictions around the country, I can tell you without any doubt that it starts that first time you buy something with money you don’t have – money you can’t pay back. So I’m
As the housing market improves, the number of foreclosures should decrease, right? Not necessarily. According to a report, the number of foreclosures could increase as lenders will speed up the foreclosure process, moving homes to be auctioned quicker. This could be a result of more buyers lining up as the prices for houses rise. After the housing market collapse, some lenders decided to let borrowers keep their homes even though they weren’t paying. These lenders feared they wouldn’t be able to sell the foreclosed houses and pay fines for not maintaining the properties. Not anymore. “Lenders know there’s now a much better chance they can get those properties sold, so they’re moving to do that,” said Daren Blomquist of RealtyTrac,
Don’t Let Them Take Your House! By: Darrell Castle Transcript Connie is behind on her mortgage payments and now she’s facing a foreclosure so she comes in and talks to Darrell. “When you’re a little bit behind on your house payment, the first thing I always ask people is, if you were current on your house note today, would you be able to make the payment? You already told me that you could – you had a temporary setback in income so that you missed some payments and now the mortgage company wants all that money at the same time. You’re unable to do that, and if you can’t pay all that money at the same time, then their threats
Don’t let them take your car By: Darrell Castle Video Transcript Connie is stressed out and frustrated. She’s far behind on her car payment and is now facing a car repossession so she comes in to talk to Darrell: “So you missed you car payments, and you’re behind on your loans and now the car company is trying to take your car. Well, that is reasonable – that’s what they do when they don’t get your money. They take back their collateral, but there are ways you can stop them. We don’t live in a system anymore that grinds people down, under the thumb, of repossession or credit. We have a system that has two chapters of bankruptcy in it
A bankruptcy can stop creditors from taking your property By: Darrell Castle Transcript Hello, my name is Darrell Castle and I’m an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of Tennessee and on this video, and in future videos, we are talking about collections. This will be the first in a series of videos about collections. When you have debts that you cannot pay on time, every time, what can the creditor (the person you owe money to) do to enforce collection of his debt or to enforce payment of his debt. Some of those things, of course, depends on the nature of the debt. If you have a home mortgage and you miss mortgage payments, mortgages are protected by law,
Need to stop wage garnishment immediately? We offer ZERO DOWN TO FILE! Call 901-327-2100 to see if you qualify. Wage Garnishments in Memphis Video Transcript Connie is behind on her credit card bill and is facing wage garnishments. She’s frustrated and upset so she comes in and talks to Darrell. “Connie, you’ve got some credit card bills that you can’t pay and I know that makes you feel helpless – makes you feel powerless. But you’re not powerless and you’re not helpless. You’ve already done the right thing by coming in and seeing me. Many people don’t do the right thing. They get credit card bills and they can’t pay them and they get sued on these debts, and when
Don’t Let Your Golden Years be Spent in Debt By: Darrell Castle People 55 years and older account for 22% of all bankruptcy filings in the US. Why is this? Basically, people aren’t retiring well. Dennis Miller’s “Money Weekly” this week highlights “monetary collateral damage among seniors,” in which he sums this up, and he uses the following stats to help him: 37% of 65-74 year olds still had a mortgage or home equity line of credit in 2010, up from 21% in 1989. This number jumped from 2% to 21% during the same time frame for those 75 and older people ages 65 and older are carrying the most debt than any other age group with an average
Dennis Miller’s newsletter this week had a very powerful article called “Escaping the Toy Trap.” The theme of the article was that no matter how much money you have, it’s possible to spend yourself into debt. When people grow older and retire with a strong financial foundation, they can either enjoy the luxuries in life to the extent they can afford them, or they can “keep up with the Jones” and consistently buy expensive things that bring short term satisfaction, but in the long term result in a depleted retirement account and a broke end to their life. Miller featured five good points in his article. 1. Someone always has a bigger, faster boat This is easy to understand. You