Bankruptcy Alternatives

North Charleston Debt Relief Law Firm

If you are having financial difficulties and want alternatives to bankruptcy, contact a debt relief lawyer who can help you understand your options. You may be behind on payments and have creditors calling every day. You may be unsure of how to deal with the situation. But you don’t have to handle it alone. Call a skilled attorney at our North Charleston Debt Relief Law Firm Steadman Law Firm, P.A. to help you decide which path to debt relief is right for you.

Finding the Right Alternative to Bankruptcy

At the Steadman Law Firm, P.A., based in North Charleston, S.C., we understand that bankruptcy may not be the best course of action to obtain the debt relief you need. Depending on your situation, there may be another alternative to bankruptcy that has less impact on your credit rating and take less time to implement.

We offer a variety of other debt relief services that provide sound alternatives to bankruptcy and that can help you get back on the right financial path. Our founding attorney, Richard A. Steadman Jr., has been practicing law for more than 30 years. When you choose our firm, we will learn all about your financial concerns and goals. We will recommend a variety of options and give you all the information you need to make the best decision for your situation.

Offering a Variety of Alternatives to Bankruptcy

When considering alternatives to bankruptcy, you don’t have to choose only one method of managing your debt. There may be several options that work for you. Our debt relief lawyer will review your specific situation and help you develop a strategy to manage your debt and start fresh.

We can help you with the following alternatives to bankruptcy:

Foreclosure Defense

If foreclosure suit has been filed against you, your time is limited. Contact us ASAP to determine if a legal response can help you save your home.

You may want to protect your house and keep it instead of letting it go in a foreclosure. Or, you may simply want to stay in your home throughout the foreclosure process and gain time before the foreclosure is complete. Both of these situations and others are reasons to contact a debt relief lawyer to help you deal with foreclosure defense.

Other reasons to contact an attorney include the following:

• Bank is stalling or dual tracking;
• Creditor did not follow proper procedures when foreclosing on your home;
• Creditor cannot show valid proof that it owns your home loan; or
• The creditor made an error on your mortgage loan account.

If you are in the military, then you have additional protections against foreclosure. For example, if you obtained your mortgage before you went on active duty, then the bank or loan servicer cannot foreclose on your house unless it obtains an order from the court or waiver from you. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) provides you with many protections against foreclosure. A debt relief lawyer can help you understand all of your rights.

Mortgage Modification

The availability of loan workout plans provides the opportunity for “at-risk” homeowners to rework the terms of their mortgages to a more manageable level. A debt relief attorney can help you with mortgage modification by negotiating with your loan servicer and protecting your rights throughout the process.

Banks and other mortgage servicers often engage in loss mitigation when a borrower falls behind on payments. Loss mitigation may take many forms, but the most common is mortgage modification. Through loss mitigation, the loan servicer is willing to renegotiate terms in order to prevent foreclosure and repossession of the home.

A mortgage modification is a process that will permanently change the terms of the promissory note. This often makes mortgage payments more affordable. This may take place by extending the loan, rolling past-due amounts into the principal, or lowering the interest rate. There are many strategies that can be used in a mortgage modification. In order to obtain the best situation for your mortgage, contact a debt relief lawyer.

Debt Negotiation

We can work directly with your creditors to negotiate better interest rates, better payment terms and possibly a lower principal on the loan.

When negotiating with your creditors as alternatives to bankruptcy, you should work with a debt relief lawyer who understands your debt and laws that apply to your situation. Creditors often try to threaten debtors with legal action. However, if you obtain the help of an attorney early in the process, you will have nothing to fear.

Before you attempt debt negotiation, you need to know if your debt is secured or unsecured. Secured debt is that which is tied to an asset, such as a car, boat land, or house. If you don’t pay those debts, the creditor may repossess the asset and take the property. Unsecured debt is that which is not tied to any security, such as credit card debt, medical debt, and others. If you do not pay unsecured debt, the creditor has no property to repossess. Both secured and unsecured creditors would prefer to be paid by the debtor, so most will engage in debt negotiation.

You should also know what a creditor can and cannot do when seeking alternatives to bankruptcy. While secured creditors can repossess property, they must follow the law in doing so. They cannot threaten to take action that is illegal. Unsecured creditors may:

• Call you
• Send you letters in the mail
• File a lawsuit against you
• Garnish your wages if they win a lawsuit
• Levy your bank accounts if they win a lawsuit

If a creditor threatens to take action against you that is illegal, they can be held legally liable for their actions. You should report any illegal activity by creditors to a debt relief attorney right away.

A lawyer can help you with debt negotiation by protecting your rights and making sure you get the best deal in your situation.

Debt Consolidation

In some cases, a consolidation loan may be all you need to solve your problems. A consolidation loan can help to lower your interest rate and allow you to pay all your bills with one payment.

Debt consolidation involves getting one loan that will pay off all of your other loans. This makes your debt easier to manage and allows you to pay off debt more quickly.

Debt consolidation is a method of paying your debt in full so that it does not impact your credit. This is different than debt settlement, where you pay debts at a lower rate, which may be reflected on your credit. It’s best to obtain a debt consolidation loan before you fall too far behind on your other debt payments. This will prevent extensive fees and charges due to late and missed payments.

You may consolidate your debt as alternatives to bankruptcy through secured loans or unsecured loans. If you use secured loans, then you would use your assets, such as a home or property, to obtain a loan. These interest rates are generally very low and there is less risk to the lender, so they may be easier to obtain. Unsecured loans allow you to obtain money for debt consolidation without risking your property if you’re unable to pay the loan in the future. However, unsecured loans often have higher interest rates and can be more difficult to obtain.

Contact a North Charleston Debt Relief Lawyer for Help Today

Our firm can help find an alternative to bankruptcy that best suits your financial circumstances. Consult Steadman Law Firm, P.A. today.  We’re standing by to represent you and we guaranteed to have the training and experience to be able to handle your case.