American car manufacturer General Motors has spent the past year aggressively shedding assets, aiming to return to complete profitability and go public within the year. The financially troubled automotive company was forced to reorganize its divisions after filing for bankruptcy in 2009.

An assembly plant in Wilmington, Delaware is among several planned asset sales. The plant will be sold to Fisker Automotive, a California-based company that plans to build electric cars. Designed in California’s Silicon Valley and engineered to take advantage of federal tax incentives, the cars are expected to sell for around $39,000.

Electric cars were one of several GM divisions prior to the company’s collapse. Industry analysts have blamed the company’s collapse on a narrow focus, with the major American carmaker aiming its sights on large, inexpensive, and inefficient vehicles within its final years. GM has a range of electric car projects in the works, including the much anticipated Volt family automobile.

The United States government currently owns sixty-one percent of GM, an asset which it plans to progressively sell off over the coming years. Investors have hinted at a 2010 IPO, though many remain sceptical that the company can meet current sale and production targets.

There’s been an overwhelming rise in personal and business bankruptcies over the past year, a rise that seems distinctly out of place in today’s ‘recovering’ business environment. With a large number of Britain’s consumers financially stretched and an even larger number of businesses pushed to the limit, debt-ridden spending sprees and unsustainable borrowing appear to be becoming the norm.

But there’s no sense in borrowing without a strategy, as the recent wave of company insolvencies has demonstrated. Credit cards and corporate billing accounts can be tools of financial strength, but for today’s debt-troubled consumers appear to be little more than vices for irresponsible spending.

We’ve tracked down seven credit card mistakes, debt disasters, and bankruptcy errors which seem to keep popping up, both in personal and business bankruptcy cases. If you want to secure your debt and keep your finances healthy, it might be best to work these debt disaster fixes into your financial acumen.

1. Juggling “Zero Interest” Credit Cards

As tempting as those ultra-low introductory rates can be, they’re rarely something that lasts longer than a couple of months. Consumers and businesses alike are constantly caught out by zero-percent credit cards and ultra-low starting balances, leading to massive initial spending and an expensive repayment process.

Always look beyond the introductory interest rates, and calculate how much you’ll be paying over a year or two. Creditors have used ultra-low introductory rates to gain customers for years, often at the expense of businesses and consumers looking for easy credit.

2. Closing Zero-Balance Credit Accounts

Every business owner is familiar with the importance of cash flow. Whether they’re a sales-based operator or the leader of a service business, the importance of steady income and quick financial access is essential for the survival of any business. This year’s biggest company insolvency cases have rarely been due to a poor business strategy or dead market – most have been prompted by limited cash flow and poor access to credit.

As tempting as it may be to shred your credit card, close your accounts, and remove the temptation of borrowing, it’s rarely the best strategy. Your company’s credit score is calculated by its access to debt and the amount which is used, leaving every closed account as little more than a point against you. Let zero-interest accounts sit without use, but don’t close them out of pride or temptation.

3. Managing Too Many Credit Cards

There are hundreds of assumptions about personal debt, the most pervasive and irritating of which is that access to debt is what drives people to overspend and look past financial planning. It’s an idea that’s made credit cards an ‘evil’ force in the world, and it’s one that’s very much untrue given the huge variation in spending needs and credit usages.

There’s nothing ‘evil’ about having access to debt, but plenty of poor strategy in having confusing access to debt. We’ve all heard classic horror stories about juggling different credit card debts and repaying one with another, and most of us have wondered just how such a situation happens. Keep your access to debt open and you’ll gain opportunities; keep it confusing due to several different credit cards, overdrafts, and borrowing outlets and you’ll end up tempted to use and every each one.

4. Completely Avoiding Debt

Striking the perfect credit score requires a careful level of balance. Those who leap into the world of credit cards and overdrafts tend to stay there, forever repaying purchases made years ago and utterly frozen by their financial decisions. On the other hand, those that ignore debt entirely can end up in a similar situation, unable to find major loan providers due to their limited credit history.

We thin it’s best to take on a small amount of debt at some point, at the very least to create a record of spending and timely repayments. Think of short-term debts as a long-term investment; paying an extra hundred pounds for a hire purchase television may help you negotiate a better rate on your car repayments, home mortgage, or future business financing.

5. Limiting the Amount You Can Borrow

Building and maintaining a great credit score can be tough. There’s the endless small purchases, the never-ending short-term loans, and a gradual build-up of financed expenses to stick to. There’s also the temptation to limit your access to credit – a mistake that many would-be borrowers make when trying to make their credit profile appear ‘responsible’ and restrained.

Paradoxically, few creditors are interested in your credit-based modesty. Most view your access to credit as a good thing, rewarding borrowers who give themselves access to credit but rarely make use of it. Don’t be afraid of a £40,000 credit limit and certainly don’t think it’s something that you should worry about; creditors will view a rarely used credit facility as a sign of your responsibility.

6. Rushing Through Business Structure and Formation

Whenever there’s equity involved, there’s a chance for shady characters to give themselves an unfair advantage. Founding a business or company can be a stressful process, but it’s a process that’s best extended and checked for any possible errors.

That misplaced signature, misspelled word, or poorly written document could end up making you liable for debt that you never knew anything about. The list of equity disasters and contract wording nightmares is acres long – look at Apple’s initial cofounder Ronald Wayne for a classic tale of early contract negotiations gone awry.

7. Using Debt at the Expense of Cash Flow

Over the last two years, thousands of British businesses have been forced to file for bankruptcy due to limited cash flow and depleted short-term capital. It’s a phenomenon that’s occurred slightly after the financial crisis, and we believe it’s due to the exhaustion of debt options.

It’s tempting to think that a large line of credit can insulate your business from late payments and cash flow disasters, but it’s rarely the case. Rely on credit and you could find your business like so many others – unable to meet expenses and facing a possible bankruptcy. Balance your short-term income and long-term debt options and you’ll face a more secure financial future.

Newspapers have been quick to report that Britain is falling into it’s largest personal debt crisis in history. Stories of ‘disaster debts’ and personal bankruptcy have dominated the headlines – stories that are often backed up by sound financial evidence and real statistics.

Take, for example, the ten percent increase in estimated personal insolvencies throughout 2010 – a figure that’s currently being suggested by insolvency group R3. Personal and company insolvency figures are expected to rise throughout the year, marking 2010 as one of Britain’s most financially devastating years.

But alongside the rise in bankruptcies, insolvencies, and debt-related issues is a distinct change in Britain’s attitude to spending. For the first time in twenty years, consumer spending has dropped below savings figures. Families that were once interested in borrowing are now relatively frugal, keeping their income in savings accounts and limiting their spending to essentials only.

It’s been suggested that the rise in savings is a result of large debt repayments and limited financial abilities, although not everyone is behind the idea. Experts suggest that the savings increase could represent a new attitude amongst Britons – one that’s geared towards sensible spending and long-term financial planning.

Three months ago, the Newspaper Association of America released its estimated advertising income review. The review catalogued the spending activities of the newspaper industry’s biggest inventory buyers, showing how major companies and political powers spend their print advertising budget.

The results show a startling, if somewhat expected, conclusion. The newspaper industry has faced years of reduced spending, with advertising revenues shrinking from almost $50 billion in 2000 to just over $25 billion last year.

For the Philadelphia Enquirer, it appears that the near constant decline in advertising expenditure took its toll. The newspaper closed its doors in February 2009 – one of several business bankruptcy cases in the newspaper industry. Just three years before its financial collapse, the paper had been purchased by a Philadelphia-based holdings company for over $500 million.

The company’s assets are to be sold for approximately $139 million over the coming weeks, giving the publishing group’s previous investors a limited return on their financial input. Investment groups Angelo Gordon & Co and Credit Suisse Group AG currently lead bidding on the newspaper’s assets, and plan to complete the sale and asset transfer within the next three months.

Nevada politicians have spent the last week debating the possibility of insolvency within the state’s pension and social security fund. Critics of the state’s current government claim that social security payments could exceed tax-related income within the next two years without drastic action and a revised retirement and pension system.

It’s a potential problem that’s certainly not limited to Nevada alone. The New York Times recently reported that social security payments may need to be reduced in the next decade, claiming that low tax levels and a larger payee base could force the system into insolvency.

Public and company insolvency cases have been in news frequently over the last two years. With several of the world’s largest financial institutions forced into bankruptcy and numerous American automotive companies struggling to stay afloat, many experts are sceptical that the economy will fully recover this year.

The situation is alarming similar within the United Kingdom. After years of record spending and major borrowing, almost 150,000 Britons are expected to become insolvent this year. Businesses are expected to fare slightly better than consumers, with cash flow slowly increasing and investor confidence returning to pre-crisis levels.

As American carmaker General Motors prepares to go public once again, many industry analysts are predicting a return to form for the American automotive industry. Despite speculation over the company’s value and immense dissent from political pundits, many believe that GM will go ahead with an initial public offering at some point in 2010.

Given that the company recently declared its first profitable quarter in years, the move towards an IPO certainly seems worthwhile. Partially owned by the federal government and backed by a more stable product lineup, GM could see steady commercial recovery as it regains the backing of share-holders.

But CarMax CEO and auto industry expert Tom Folliard believes that recovery might not come as quickly as investors think. Speaking to shareholders at an investor meeting, Folliard claimed that customers are returning slowly to car dealerships, adding that industry recovery may be “a slow burn.”

Folliard certainly isn’t the only sceptical automotive chief executive. Others close to the automotive industry have speculated that GM’s “return to form” may not be as grand or soon as expected. With many of its top brands discarded or partially revised, GM faces an uphill battle in going public.