Alexandria Legal Blog

Taking a look at your finances can be a real wake-up call. Some people don't realize just how deep in debt they are until they gather all the bills into one place. When they compare the debt to their income and add in their normal bills, such as rent or mortgage payments, they realize that they can't possibly make everything work while making headway on the credit-based payments.

Filing for bankruptcy once you have this moment of realization, is one course of action. However, not everyone is comfortable with that. If you can't even make minimum payments on the bills, bankruptcy might be an option. If you are able to make the minimums and keep up with other expenses, you need to determine if you are going to have enough to live throughout the month. If you don't, filing bankruptcy could be an option.

No, "zombie debt" does not refer to the credit card balances owed by characters on The Walking Dead. It's debt that is, like zombies, dead. It's no longer owed. That may be because the statute of limitations for collecting it has passed, it's been discharged in bankruptcy or it's already been paid off.

Unfortunately, if you have any zombie debt, you may still be receiving calls or other notifications for collectors trying to get you to pay it. That's because debt-buying companies sometimes purchase debt that can no longer be legally collected and contact the debtor in an effort to get payment.

Overall throughout the U.S., the number of foreclosure filings fell during the first half of the year. The total number was down over 296,000 from the first six months of 2018. That's an 18% drop in a year and a whopping 82% decrease from 2010. Those numbers are from ATTOM Data Solutions, which recently published its Midyear 2019 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.

However, the news was not good in every state -- including Louisiana. Foreclosure filings rose by 19% over last year. All of the states that reported the highest increases are in the southeastern region of the country. Mississippi saw a 56% increase, followed by Florida at 28% and Georgia at 22%. Four metro areas within Florida were among the relatively few (16%) where foreclosure starts increased. They also made up four of the five metro areas with the highest increases from 2018.

If you've got a child going off to college this fall, you'll be interested in -- and perhaps alarmed by -- this statistic: 36% of college students in this country report that they have over $1,000 in credit card debt. That's according to a recent survey by AIG and EVERFI.

College students are popular targets for credit card companies -- particularly those who've turned 21. They aren't required to have a regular income to qualify for a card without a co-signer.