At Howard Law, P.C., Vincent Howard and our team of Highland foreclosure defense attorneys were interested to see a case in which a mortgage lender was penalized for failing to foreclose after the borrowers gave up the property. In Canning v. Beneficial Maine, Ralph and Megan Canning of Sanford, Maine, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after falling behind on their mortgage payments, and ultimately agreed to surrender the property. However, after the surrender and after their discharge, Beneficial Maine wrote the Cannings to demand that they repay the considerable balance on their underwater loan. They reopened their bankruptcy case and filed an adversary proceeding to require Beneficial to either repossess or give up lien to the home. The bankruptcy court found that the collection letters violated the Cannings’ discharge, but that failure to foreclose did not.

The Cannings bought their home in 2007 and found themselves unable to refinance a year later because of a price drop. This led to a default and their Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition in 2009. With their petition and a separate letter to Beneficial, the couple indicated that they would surrender the home.

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More than half of people aged over 60 are finding it harder to manage their outgoings compared to a year ago, new research has found.

Age UK, the leading British charity, has found that 55% of over 60s are finding it harder than last year to keep on top of their finances.

Despite CPI inflation dropping slightly last month, it still remains way above the government’s target and is still making life tough for many people.

And it is the older generation who are often affected the most; with things like energy costs meaning that RPI inflation for the over 50s is still around 5.5%.

“Living costs have risen somewhat less fast in December but today’s inflation figures are nothing to celebrate,” said Dr Ros Altmann, Director General of Saga. 

“Inflation remains over double the Government’s 2% target and older people are suffering worse than anyone.”

Research by Age UK has revealed that nearly one in ten people over 60 are struggling to get by on their income.

As the economic downturn continues to take its toll on people’s bank accounts, the majority of over 60s surveyed said they were cutting back as much as possible.

Age UK estimates that as many as 4.5 million people over 60 can only afford to buy the basics they need to get by.

“Living on a low income is hard work. Currently ther

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Aussie families are under a lot of financial pressure. In fact, households have not been in such a bad place financially for over a decade.

The Melbourne Institute household financial conditions index fell to 25.2 points in June, its lowest level since the start of the survey in March 2001. The March 2011 survey recorded an index of 33.3 points.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul is becoming the norm for many. Cost of living is continually going up. Recent price increases on everyday items including food as well as basic services have been squeezing many families budgets. Water, power and gas prices are going up in most states, while the summers floods restricted supplies of many fruit and vegetables with lingering effects for many produce costs.

The household financial conditions index shows the proportion of households who are saving relative to the proportion of households who are running into debt or drawing on their savings. The survey tapped responses from 1200 households nationwide.

People are trying to keep up their debt repayments, paying loans out whenever possible and saving more than in prior years.

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“He cooks, cleans – and lets his wife climb the corporate ladder.” This perfect husband stars in a recent cover story in Bloomberg Businessweek, echoing one published in Fortune almost 10 years ago: Many women who are chief executives depend on a husband willing to take on a job that wives have traditionally performed: chief domestic officer. Unless someone else manages the home, it’s hard to compete successfully with other managers at the office.

Role reversal generally helps reveal the importance of other people’s roles. As both stories clearly document, gender norms are loosening up, though in 2010, husbands were the sole earner in about 20 percent of all marriages, wives in about 9 percent, according to a recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Homemaker fathers seem to enjoy a little more cultural respect than they did 10 years ago, even if women remain the “default” parent. The Bloomberg Businessweek cover pictured a handsome, casually dressed young man (standing inside a giant pink baby bottle), while the Fortune cover pictured an older man dressed in a distinctly dowdy apron. Most homemake

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Do you have a question about consumer credit? You may find an immediate answer by using the search engine. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, please fill out the form, being as specific as possible.

Please note: The Ask Experian team cannot respond to each question individually. However, if your question is of interest to a wide audience of consumers, the Experian team will include it in a future column.

Can a Chapter 7 bankruptcy get deleted earlier than the 10 years if your lawyer had you agree to pay off some of the debt owed to the creditors and you also reaffirmed some of the secured debt owed in the chapter 7 case?

Neither repaying a portion of the debt nor reaffirming some debts will cause the bankruptcy filing to be deleted earlier. However, that doesn’t mean there is no benefit to doing so.

There are two elements to bankruptcy in a credit report. The first is the public record court filing. Once filed, the bankruptcy record will appear for 10 years in the case of Chapter 7 bankruptcy or for seven years in the case of a Chapter 13 filing.

The second element is the accounts themselves. E

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