Helbing Law Office Logo by Timothy Helbing located in Appleton, WI serving chapter 7 and chapter 13 bankruptcy

Get your finances under control before they get worse

We recently discussed some of the tips you might use when you are battling high credit card bills. One thing that many people don’t realize is that there are times when offers that you receive might be too good to be true. Trying to use one of these means that you are going to be […]

You have options for handling mounting credit card bills

Have you ever sat down with your credit card bills and added up what you have due for minimum payments each month? This is often a troubling realization, especially if you have multiple cards. There are ways that you might be able to handle this situation if you find that you aren’t able to keep […]

Millennials are postponing major life milestones because of debt

According to a new survey by NBC News and GenForward, about 75 percent of American millennials (those between 18 and 34 years old) have some sort of debt. Further, many are postponing major life events like buying a home, getting married and having children because of it. The life event most likely to be moved […]

Debt collector harrassment complaints continue

Debt collection is not illegal, but some of the methods used by debt collectors are. According the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), in 2017, consumer complaints about debt collectors were in the thousands; CFPB took about 85,000 complaints alone. Investigations into the complaints revealed numerous violations of the Fair […]

Americans owe trillions in debt including student loan debt

If you had to guess what category holds the largest debt for Americans, most of you would probably guess it was mortgage debt. You would be correct. But you may not as easily guess that the second debt category is student loans. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household […]

How to get out of debt

If you are suffering from debt overload, you know what it is like to have creditors calling all hours of the day and night. How many times can you tell them you don’t have the money, and then sit and listen to a lecture on how serious the situation is? Creditors are trained to be […]

Swimming in medical debt?

Are you swimming in medical debt? If you do not have insurance and need any kind of medical treatment, this can quickly become the case. Even if you do have insurance, there are some services that are often billed separately, such as bills from the anesthesiologist, surgeon or a radiologist. You may receive these bills […]

Debt-reduction calls via robocalls

Did you know that the National Do Not Call Registry contains more than 229 million phone numbers, and more than 7.1 million complaints to the Federal Trade Commission were received from November 2016 to October 2017? The majority of calls: marketing calls for debt reduction, warranty plans, and vacation and timeshare plans. It may come […]

Eliminating Christmas debt before it starts

Maybe you make the same resolution every year: “Next year, I’m going to shop for Christmas during the year, and then relax as I glide through the holidays worry-free.” Then somehow that resolution is forgotten by the time New Year’s Day rolls around? Here we are in the Christmas season again, and those of us […]

Will bankruptcy get rid of my Federal student loan debt?

According to State Senator, Jennifer Shilling, Wisconsin, comes in at 10th place across the country for the number of debt-ridden college students. An estimated 67 percent of residents who have graduated from four-year colleges have student loans to pay off. Further, student loans currently hold second place in the nation as the largest consumer debt. […]