Next to your budget (see this post), knowing the value of your assets is an important key to bankruptcy success. At first glance, this admonition may seem obvious, but most people really don’t know the value of their stuff and tend to overestimate. The problem with overestimating is that what you can keep and what must be surrendered in bankruptcy is nearly entirely determined by the value of the asset. For example, in Colorado, you may protect up to $60,000 of home equity, the Colorado Homestead Exemption. So, if your mortgage is $250,000 and you think your house is worth $340,000, you may lose that house since it has $90,000 of equity. The bankruptcy trustee is entitled to that $30,000 of equity above the protected amount and therefore, you could lose the house. (more…)
Archive for the ‘Pre-Bankruptcy Planning’ Category
Bankruptcy Success Commandment: Know The Value of Thy Assets!
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
Can Pre-Paid Debit Cards Be Garnished?
Thursday, March 24th, 2011Question:
Can pre-paid debit cards with Visa or MasterCard logos be garnished by a judgment creditor?
Answer:
Actually, YES. I had done some Google’ing on this topic and most articles were rather vague and the answers seemed more like guesses. So, I decided to go to the source. I called one of the major players in the Pre-Paid Visa/MasterCard Debit Card industry and spoke to a high ranking individual (that sounds too Woodward and Bernstein to say it like that, but oh well).
Can pre-paid debit cards be garnished, yes; have pre-paid debit cards been garnished, yes. Is a garnishment common, no. (more…)
