If any of the following dangers to the Portland metro area consumer appear familiar to you, please make arrangements to see one of our bankruptcy attorneys. Pacific bankruptcy attorneys have offices on the Eastside and Westside of Portland, in Beaverton, S.E. Portland and Hillsboro. Contact Portland metro area bankruptcy lawyers at 503-352-3690. Alternatively, simply fill out a bankruptcy evaluation form so that one of our bankruptcy attorneys can contact you at your convenience.

1. Portland area used car dealers who offer to “tote the note” for consumers who purchase cars on credit. Usually the so-called price of the vehicle is 3 to 4 times the actual market value and the vast majority of the cars are in less than sound condition. This sales practice creates a “hidden interest” on the real value of the vehicle that approaches the rate of pay day loans.
2. Credit Card Banks that exercise the dreaded “universal default” terms of the fine print of the card-agreement so as to raise the interest rate to 35.99% if a Portland area consumer fails to pay the utility bill on time.
3. Credit Card Banks who encourage Portland area consumers to pay the minimum balances each month so as to guarantee that they will be paying the banks for the rest of their natural lives. And, then when they have built up a high enough balance with a good enough minimum payment history, the Banks then offer them more pre-approved cards and increase the approved credit balances on the old cards.
4. Portland area Pay Day lenders who charge consumers more than 500% interest for a $300.00 two week loan. And, if they fail to pay, then threaten them with a civil action for legal fees at best or with a criminal prosecution for a worthless check at worst.
5. Portland metro area car dealers and lenders who up-sell area consumers into high interest contracts and leases with all sorts of bogus fees and charges including credit life insurance, credit disability insurance, extended warranty contracts, document preparation fees, undercoating fees, VIN stenciling fees, delivery fees, vehicle preparation fees, and every other fee they can either think of or get away with. And, then, just to make matters worth force consumers into higher interest and more expensive vehicles by yo-yo sales, bait and switch sales, and spot deliver sales.
6. Mortgage Servicers who fail to timely apply Oregon mortgage payments to the outstanding balance, who charge improper late fees, who buy insurance from their own companies when the consumers actually have insurance, who add bogus legal fees, property appraisal fees, property inspection fees, and all sorts of other fees to the mortgage loan. In many cases, the addition of these fees and charges creates defaults that lead to improper foreclosures.
7. Mortgage Originators who entice Portland area consumers into unaffordable mortgage loans with all sorts of Adjustable Rate Mortgages, Interest-Only Mortgages, Interest-Loan Increasing Balance Mortgages, High Interest Home Mortgages, 125% loan to value mortgages, first and second combination mortgages, and all varieties of fixed rate mortgage loans. Many of these mortgage originators also kick-back hidden fees to the mortgage brokers and use inflated and bogus appraisals to justify the amount of the loan.
8. Portland area Rent to Own and Rent to Buy operations that lure consumers into easy no-money-down lease-purchase contracts with no credit check that in many cases require the Oregon consumer to pay 3 to 4 times market prices for their consumer goods and to pay hidden interest rates that approach and in some cases exceed the rates charged by the pay-day lenders.
9. Oregon Mobile Home dealers who engage in the same practices as the mortgage lenders with the addition of the “land package” deals that only serve to double their opportunities for more unlawful acts and practices and to garner even more illegal profits.
10. The Debt Buyers who purchase hundreds of thousands of “charged off” accounts from creditors for virtually pennies on the dollar and then proceed to aggressively attempt to collect the accounts against Oregonians whether or not the debts have been discharged, settled, paid in full, barred by the statute of limitations, or canceled in a bankruptcy case.