Consumer Bankruptcy Filings Finally Drop in the US, says ABI Report
A recent survey by American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) discloses that filings for consumer bankruptcy in America have finally dropped. Bankruptcy rates have been shooting up for quite some time but the filings in November this year has been surprisingly the lowest in the last nine months.
The ABI report reveals that the number of bankruptcy filings in November was around 115,000. This is more than 10% less than the number of filings in October. ABI stated that the figures were provided to them by the National Bankruptcy Research center. The report also mentions that Chapter 13 bankruptcy constituted close to 30% of the total consumer bankruptcy filings in November.
The ABI people view this drop down in consumer bankruptcy filing as a positive development. They are optimistic that consumer debt in the U.S, which was creating havoc for the past few years, might finally get under control. However, ABI made it clear that consumer bankruptcy filings will cross one and half million before the year ends. This is a substantial increase from last year when 1.4 million consumer bankruptcies were filed.
The financial analysts opine that consumer debt in the U.S shows signs of declining. Though the statistics for the month of September is a little unnerving, things are slowly getting better. Consumer debt no longer looks as much threatening as it looked a year back. Just remember the situation in January 2009: consumer debt in the U.S was more than $2.5 trillion. Thankfully, this came down to less than $2.5 billion by November of this year.
However, the dark clouds of debt, economic instability and unemployment still hang over the U.S citizens, says Mr. Gerdano, director of ABI. Clearly, it will take a few more years to overcome the effects of the financial tsunami that hit the US shores some years back.
Kevin Craig is a financial writer associated with Oak View Law Group. He has helped many indebted people to get out of debt by giving them proper financial advice for debt settlement.
While the numbers for November are definitely a move in the right direction, at this stage it may be just an unusual blip. Further months will reveal if it is a real trend.
One other small fact, the November numbers are big drop from October, but they are a 2.2% INCREASE over November of 2009. That's not a good thing.
When my husband dies of cancer. I did not know he never took out insurance to protect his Navt retirement check. My income dropped by two-tirds. Now I only have Social Security to live on. The IRS has caused alot of my income loss, by taxes on IRA. Then Social security over paid my husband and is charging more for medicare B because I took money from the IRA. They added the IRA to my Social Security . Now i have to pay taxes on ocial Security. The IRS and Social Security has dded to my debts. This is helping cause me to file bankrupsy.
What a great post!! 2010 has been so brutal on people and it is good to see things starting to improve.