1 in 3 Americans (with credit history) in debt collections

[Zorkorist]

Do you not know that each individual currently owes some $80,000 to the Federal Debt?

Why does it surprise you that people are abusing debt?

-John

 

[BoberFett]

Voting Republican is all about being convinced to vote against your own interests if you're poor.

LOL, silly Democrats. You believe your party gives a shit about you.

 

[Zorkorist]

I think it was the Dire Straits that first asked for;

Money for nothing, and chicks for free.

-John

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

People should ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS keep an eye on their credit. You are entitled to a credit report every year for a reason. Places like CreditKarma will give a free FIKO score weekly as well.


That said, your average person can't handle such HARD tasks as managing how much money you have. Thankfully, people like me get to waddle in extra cash earnings as I collect on cashback credit cards. Hell, I looked at my cash back history for my Discover card alone the other day... I hit $900 in cashback for one of my 6 cards - and I've only had the card for ~4 years.

 

[Zorkorist]

They should also watch the way their politicians are spending their money.

-John

 

[Zorkorist]

Or more accurately, spending money they don't have, and putting them in deep debt.

-John

 

[Zorkorist]

Because, I don't know where you are from, but where I am from, when a Politician puts me in debt, I'm in debt.

-John

 

[alkemyst]

I posted that many people had credit problems and the like many times before and the conscientious was I was full of shit.

Also some of these people didn't set out to be bad creditors, many had mortgage issues that had their credit card companies raise them from 10% type rates to 26% and higher even despite paying their cards properly and even better.

 

[JEDIYoda]

You need to go into debt to buy a 60" LCD at today's prices?

He is buying it from the IDF........they monitor his posts here and adjusted the price accordingly....

 

[JEDIYoda]

conscientious

consensus..lol

 

[DrDoug]

I would be interesting to see what is on those credit card bills;
- TVs?
- iPhones?
- tattoos?
- online Canadian Pharmaceutical website purchases? ,... gotta get my oxy on,...

In all seriousness, if indeed that credit card debt is made up of electronics, restaurant meals, and shopping at Macys - then these people are certainly living beyond their means.

If the credit card debt was used to pay for super market purchases, doctor visits and other necessary spend - then it is a lack of jobs / well paying jobs.

Now, any other type of debt, you have to assume it slid into debt, because the money was spent someplace else of course. But, only defective alarmist conservatives automatically assume the money was spent on stupid shit. So, insight into the credit card data would shut up a whole lot of loud mouths; it would be nice to see the details and finally settle this drive to vilify people who are in distress.

The recent article at Slate that I linked to above says that it's only 5.3% in collections if they count only credit card and loan debt. One of my lawyer clients is a bankruptcy attorney and he says that the majority of filings he sees are solely related to medical debt so that seems that type of debt may be a major factor in people being in arrears.

 

[Zorkorist]

lol

-John

 

[Zorkorist]

He is buying it from the IDF........they monitor his posts here and adjusted the price accordingly....

Lol!

-John

 

[highland145]

The recent article at Slate that I linked to above says that it's only 5.3% in collections if they count only credit card and loan debt. One of my lawyer clients is a bankruptcy attorney and he says that the majority of filings he sees are solely related to medical debt so that seems that type of debt may be a major factor in people being in arrears.

Well that doesn't make for good headlines.

 

[werepossum]

That's what I'm looking for. I file all 1099-Cs (charge offs $600+) and I want the IRS to garnish something...maybe EITC... with penalties because it's been several years before the IRS bothered to look.

I'm seeing a decent revenue stream here.

Yeah, but the IRS would keep the money, and they'd probably investigate you too for disturbing their cushy government jobs with your grubby peasant hands and wild ideas about how they should do their jobs.

 

[alkemyst]

consensus..lol

lol auto-correct.

 

[squarecut1]

I would be interesting to see what is on those credit card bills;
- TVs?
- iPhones?
- tattoos?
- online Canadian Pharmaceutical website purchases? ,... gotta get my oxy on,...

In all seriousness, if indeed that credit card debt is made up of electronics, restaurant meals, and shopping at Macys - then these people are certainly living beyond their means.

If the credit card debt was used to pay for super market purchases, doctor visits and other necessary spend - then it is a lack of jobs / well paying jobs.

Now, any other type of debt, you have to assume it slid into debt, because the money was spent someplace else of course. But, only defective alarmist conservatives automatically assume the money was spent on stupid shit. So, insight into the credit card data would shut up a whole lot of loud mouths; it would be nice to see the details and finally settle this drive to vilify people who are in distress.

Yes, good post. That kind of data would be beneficial. But I doubt that data can be obtained publicly, due to privacy / legal reasons probably.

 

[Pantoot]

http://money.cnn.com/2014/07/29/pf/debt-collections/index.html?iid=HP_LN&hpt=hp_t2

Of course, my take is that debt was used to supplement falling wages as jobs left this country. Once the credit card was cut off and a large recession hit, bam....there goes the neighborhood.

From the study:

An alarming 35 percent of people with credit files have debt in collections reported in these files. This percentage is nearly identical to results from a 2004 analysis of credit bureau data by the Federal Reserve, which found that 36.5 percent of people with credit reports had debt in collections reported in their files

So, things are actually getting better?

 

[brandonb]

I would be interesting to see what is on those credit card bills;
- TVs?
- iPhones?
- tattoos?
- online Canadian Pharmaceutical website purchases? ,... gotta get my oxy on,...

In all seriousness, if indeed that credit card debt is made up of electronics, restaurant meals, and shopping at Macys - then these people are certainly living beyond their means.

If the credit card debt was used to pay for super market purchases, doctor visits and other necessary spend - then it is a lack of jobs / well paying jobs.

Now, any other type of debt, you have to assume it slid into debt, because the money was spent someplace else of course. But, only defective alarmist conservatives automatically assume the money was spent on stupid shit. So, insight into the credit card data would shut up a whole lot of loud mouths; it would be nice to see the details and finally settle this drive to vilify people who are in distress.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I work for the collection industry. Typically the 3rd party debt collectors don't have access to the individual statements to see what was on the card. However, we do pull credit reports on people and have analytics on what that tells us.

I can honestly tell you that most people who are in debt have many cards which are in collections, and usually one card is up to date and paid for.

For men, the one card left up to date is their gas card (Holiday, Super America, etc)... That is usually up to date and paid off.

For women, the one card left up to date is their Victoria Secret card. That is usually up to date and paid off.

I'm not kidding.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

LOL, silly Democrats. You believe your party gives a shit about you.

I didn't say anything about democrats caring, but one side clearly undermines the interests of the poor (and not just in the sense of handouts). They do say a lot of "feelgood" stuff to get the poor frothy and willing to vote for them though.

 

[T9D]

Well I'm sure there are a lot also from company incompetence.

I have great credit but Verizon sucks. I closed an account and paid in cash. They said they never got it. I went into the store 3 times with the receipt. They couldn't figure it out, said they would refund the money and I can pay it again. Never got the refund. Years later it goes to collection. I showed the collection agency the receipt. Doesn't matter. Nobody cares if you paid it or not. They just blow you off and keep trying to charge you. Then it stays in collections for like 6 years so... bunch of bull spit.

 

[BoberFett]

I didn't say anything about democrats caring, but one side clearly undermines the interests of the poor (and not just in the sense of handouts). They do say a lot of "feelgood" stuff to get the poor frothy and willing to vote for them though.

Again, I can't tell if you're describing Democrats or Republicans.

 

[bshole]

LOL, silly Democrats. You believe your party gives a shit about you.

Bober,

You need to relax a bit. Too much bitterness and cynicism is not good for one's well being.

Democrats don't care if their party cares about them. They only care that their party does what they want it to do.

 

[Sattern]

Well seeing this isn't too shocking to me.

My cousins boyfriend bought a $5,000 dollar toolbox on credit, he isn't even a licensed mechanic and works at a body shop doing oil changes.

He just had his car repossessed and has countless other debts piling up.

He's about 24 right now and is going to end up being bankrupt.

 

[PricklyPete]

I feel for people who wind up in this situation because of medical debt. In just about every other case, it is people living beyond their means. I'm not going to pretend that life is easy for people in the lower half of the income scale, it isn't, but extending them credit is only reducing their quality of life.