Masters Thesis

Consumer credit knowledge of a select group of bankruptcy petitioners

Doubtless, many factors enter into the decision to file bankruptcy, but to what extent is this increasing rate of bankruptcy the result of inadequate consumer education in the use of consumer credit? If the bankruptcy petitioner could have avoided bankruptcy by being more informed on the subject of consumer credit, it would seem imperative that home economists take immediate positive steps to improve the quality and quantity of consumer education available to all individuals. All consumers who must resort to the National Bankruptcy Act are lacking some quality or qualities which inhibit their ability to effectively allocate their available resources. In their studies of the petitioner, some researchers have excluded those individuals who file under the Wage Earner Plan, or Chapter XIII of the National Bankruptcy Act. The writer of this study has chosen to include these individuals for this particular investigation for it is a common occurrence for these individuals to convert to what is known in legal terminology as "straight bankruptcy" or the legal discharge of debts (14).

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