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Bankruptcy: Reasons stay the same, but number of filings have nearly doubled in 10 years
Great Falls Tribune ^

Posted on 02/09/2003 8:55:56 AM PST by RCW2001

Edited on 05/07/2004 7:33:59 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

About one of every 240 Montanans turned to bankruptcy last year as a life preserver of sorts -- the only thing keeping them from drowning in a sea of debt.

Bankruptcy filings in the Treasure State totaled 3,779 in 2002, just 73 shy of the record-breaking number in 2001.


(Excerpt) Read more at greatfallstribune.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; US: Montana
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To: Rebelbase
Someone I know recently confided to me that that they are $65K in credit card debt. Can someone here calculate a ballpark minimum payment for that amount?

Depends on the interest rate. Assuming the commonly used 18% rate, that person would need to come up with $1,625 for a minimum payment with a balance of $65,000. And if that person insisted on making only the minimum payment, it would take 48 years to pay it off, and he would end up paying about $100,000 in interest (in addition to the $65,000 principal). That's assuming, of course, that he never used a credit card again!

There is a calculator here that will figure out all the gory details for you!

21 posted on 02/09/2003 11:22:35 AM PST by SamAdams76 ('Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens')
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To: templar
Your comment about getting out of debt without pain and suffering. I am in the process of paying off my credit cards and what I do is that when I spend money I only spend paper money and pocket the change. At the end of the month I wrap the change and run down to the bank and deposit it in my checking account; then I write a check to the credit card company that I am trying to get out of my life. It is working well.
22 posted on 02/09/2003 11:45:18 AM PST by peter the great
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To: RCW2001
There is nothing wrong with going bankrupt.

Lots of very famous and admired people have went bankrupt. We enjoy lots of products which came to into being only because many inventors went bankrupt, and were able to start over again.

Davy Crockett, Rembrandt, Mark Twain, H. J. Heinz(ketchup would not even have been invented if Heinz did not go bankrupt), Milton Hershey(chocolate), Henry Ford(we would not have Ford cars if Ford did not go bankrupt), P. T. Barnum(we would not have circuses if he had not gone bankrupt), Debbie Reynolds, Burt Reynolds, Jerry Lee Lewis, Wayne Newton, Mickey Rooney, Donald Trump, the Bass brothers, etc.

Since we no longer have "The Year of Jubliee", bankrupcy is the closest we have to the bibilical principal of canceling debt every so often.

I also have no sypmathy for banks, and their practices.

23 posted on 02/09/2003 11:51:38 AM PST by waterstraat
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To: templar
You nailed it. I beleive that is one reason consumer spending is down, is that so many have tapped out their credit and its slowing down the economy.
24 posted on 02/09/2003 1:20:09 PM PST by L`enn
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To: Rebelbase
The sad thing is at that sum they will pay it forever. An affordable minimum monthly payment probably only pays the interest and the principal never goes down.
25 posted on 02/09/2003 1:21:55 PM PST by L`enn
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To: SamAdams76
re: I'm just saying that I don't want to see these credit card companies bailed out for making high-risk loans. )))

Exactly. The credit card companies, who take no trouble to examine credit worthiness, should get no new breaks from the legislature in bankruptcy law. Many parents of college students would rather they not have credit cards, but because they are over 18 there is nothing the parents can do to prevent getting the cards--at least the companies can't go after the parents!

26 posted on 02/09/2003 2:16:13 PM PST by Mamzelle
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To: waterstraat
I can't believe your would equate cancelling debt 'every so often' as a biblical principle. Filing for bankruptcy is in direct opposition to the Biblical priniciples I know. In my personal opinion, filing for bankruptcy instead of paying off personal debts is the same as stealing...since the rest of consumers must pay for your irresponsibility. You are one scary person.....and certainly do not know your Bible.
27 posted on 02/09/2003 2:28:07 PM PST by Faithfull
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To: SamAdams76
Makes you wonder whether you and I are the real suckers, don't it?

Ultimately, "atlas will shrug". Personally, I believe before atlas shruggs, the US current account deficit will make a mess of this economy. Then, the US policy makers will have to figure a way out and there will be hell to pay for all.

28 posted on 02/09/2003 3:04:51 PM PST by staytrue
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To: waterstraat
There is quite a difference between going bankrupt in an honest business venture (90% of all new businesses fail in their first year) and going bankrupt because you used your charge cards and easy credit to finance a lifestyle beyond your means. I have no sympathy for the latter.
29 posted on 02/09/2003 3:09:05 PM PST by SamAdams76 ('Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens')
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To: Faithfull
In my personal opinion, filing for bankruptcy instead of paying off personal debts is the same as stealing

I can agree that if someone was given an interest-free loan, say by a friend, and then uses bankruptcy law to avoid repayment, it is morally the same as stealing. But it seems to me that if a bank is lending out money at 15%-20%, as is common with credit cards, debtors are paying through the nose, right from the start, to reimburse the bank for insolvency risk. The high interest they have already paid during the period they did make monthly payments was equivalent to insurance against their own bankruptcy. So if they do go bankrupt, and there is no bankruptcy fraud, it is unfortunate but not, morally, stealing.

30 posted on 02/09/2003 4:01:10 PM PST by Steve Eisenberg
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To: RCW2001
I have alot of trouble comming up with enough saline to give a tear to the banks,

This stupid punk kid who lives next door is 19, he isn't in college, he didn't finish high school and he doesn't have a job. Stupid hippie parents just don't have a clue

Rumor in the neiborhood is he is a stand-in in porno movies

This stupid kid just declared bankruptcy with something like $40,000 in creditcard debt.

Any bank stupid enough to give an unemployed 19 yearold high school dropout a creditcard DESERVES to get ripped off

Bad credit is a cost of doing business, they took the chance giving this stupid punk a creditcard, that was their business decision to make, it turned out to be a bad one

The government shouldn't be in business of defending corporations from their own stupidity

31 posted on 02/09/2003 4:34:14 PM PST by ContentiousObjector
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To: Faithfull
I can't believe your would equate cancelling debt 'every so often' as a biblical principle. Filing for bankruptcy is in direct opposition to the Biblical priniciples I know. In my personal opinion, filing for bankruptcy instead of paying off personal debts is the same as stealing...since the rest of consumers must pay for your irresponsibility. You are one scary person.....and certainly do not know your Bible.

If you never heard of The Year of Jubilee, the Day of Atonement, or understand why God commanded it, they there must be plenty of "Biblical priniciples that you dont know of".

People who have never read the Bible, and certainly people who have never read Leviticus, should never make such wild statements as you just did.

The Year of Jubilee, is known by all jews and protestants, and anyone who has read the Bible. All debts canceled, all mortages ended, all foreclosed property returned, all people sold into slavery freed, etc.

It is "scary" that YOU have never read Leviticus(esp Leviticus 25 and 27), that you have never heard of The Year of Jubilee, and that you equated a command of God(periodically forgiving debt) to "stealing".

It is scary that you pretend to speak as either a jew or christian yet you know nothing of this holy principle, or of the principle of "forgiving", not only explicit in The Year of Jubilee, but in the entire Bible itself. There is nothing more Biblical that the principle of forgiving - even if you never specifically read Leviticus or heard of The Year of Jubilee. A true jew or christain sees no contradiction in forgiving, or in forgiving debt periodically.

32 posted on 02/09/2003 6:37:20 PM PST by waterstraat
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To: SamAdams76
There is quite a difference between going bankrupt in an honest business venture (90% of all new businesses fail in their first year) and going bankrupt because you used your charge cards and easy credit to finance a lifestyle beyond your means. I have no sympathy for the latter

Bankrupcy law already prohibits all fradulent debts from being canceled - so spending money on credit that you never intended to repay is not a "dischargable debt".

And there is no difference between being irresponsible in business, or irresponsible in family finances. Irresponsiblity is irresponsibility.

If anything, if you want to compare the moral aspects, a "business bankrupcy" is the one that is immoral, since it hurtrs so many more people: suppliers, and employees who no longer have jobs nor 401-k retirement funds, and maybe no pensions either.

One has to ask himself if he thinks Gary Winnock of Global Crossing, etc, etc, etc, is morally superior because he ruined so many lives with layed off employees and wiped out all their retirement funds------ to the employee who lived on credit cards for a while after being layed off by that same Global Crossing to feed his children?

33 posted on 02/09/2003 6:45:15 PM PST by waterstraat
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