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Credit card debt collection

bitsaboutmoney.com

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Re: Credit card debt collection

#51

Post by Aperocky »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #44
ars wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've done the same, with the same results, because I've rarely come across a medical bill that is actually correct. I'll call the provider once and explain what's wrong with the bill. Either they fix it, or I ignore them completely after that. Their bills go straight to the trash unopened. Frequently as soon as you explain they need to fix something they just completely drop the bill for the same reasons as in this a…

If they fix the bill, maybe it causes trouble for them with insurance companies? Whereas sliding some money back is a quiet way to deal with it.

That aligns with incentives. It's the medical insurance company where the money's at, even in the US people are only so rich.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#52

Post by mathieuh »

sschnei8 wrote: post #35
Forgeties79 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When they agreed to the service 12+ years ago, were they shown the costs? Would you say their purchase was fully informed? Hell for all we know it was an ER visit and they had absolutely no say in the matter.

[flagged]

Healthcare should be as close to free as possible at point of use. If you can get away with not paying I say congratulations.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#55

Post by totetsu »

smeej wrote: post #37

Weren't there reports back in the Occupy Wall Street days of people organizing to buy up debt like this and then just forgive it all? It sounds like debts are sold in such bulk that there's no way to do something very targeted, like starting an org in your town to buy debt from your ZIP and collecting contributions to cancel your neighbors' debts, but if these debts are already only worth 5¢ on the dollar to the sell…

I think that works only the first time.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#56

Post by kstrauser »

rfrey wrote: post #29
kstrauser wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can file a dispute[0] about items with credit reporting services. The reporter has a time window to reply with supporting evidence. If they don't, you win the dispute by default. If they do, you can dispute it again. I had a completely BS negative mark on my credit report[1]. I ran that process in a loop (maybe 3-4 iterations IIRC) until the reporter was either bored with it, annoyed by the paperwork, or on vacat…

>I eventually had to involve my senator You say that the way a teacher might say "I'm going to have to involve your parents". How does one get a senator involved in a payment dispute?

You write them a polite and direct letter (or email or webform or...). A couple of things to remember: 1) They literally work for you. You (collectively) elected them, and they get a salary to represent you. That's their job. 2) YMMV, of course, but by and large representatives love helping their constituents. It's the official reason they ran for office in the first place, and a lot of them take that seriously. And cynically, it also looks great come re-election time.

My letter looked like:

"Senator Schmuckatelli:

Please get ${federal_organization} off my back for a debt I already paid to them. # ${federal_organization} claims that I owe them $X. However, I have receipts proving that I already paid that amount in full. (See enclosures A through J.) They have threatened to garnish my tax returns and wages (encl. K, notice of garnishment), and as a hard-working plebe, I can't afford that. I have written (encl. L through P, copies of my letters) and called them multiple times (encl. Q: call log) multiple times without receiving a reply.

As my senator and beloved Protector Of The Little People, could you please contact them and ask them to stop trying to collect this invalid debt?

Many thanks, and see you at the polls! - Me"

Tell them at the start of the letter what you'd like them to do. That helps them sort your mail quickly into the right bucket. Then make your case clearly and concisely, including all the evidence you might have. You don't want them to have to look at a wall of text with a phone book's worth of unlabeled paperwork. In short, make it easy for them to help you.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#57

Post by neither_color »

>they will use their substantial experience in dealing with people in poor economic circumstances to target the dates and times of day when benefits payments or paychecks have posted to your account. They’ll surge collection attempts at 3 AM on the 1st of the month, learn the differences between various banks as to when Social Security payments post, etc.

In an article full of eyebrow-raising statements this hits the hardest. Taking people's social security or welfare payments so that they might not eat is just so dirty

Re: Credit card debt collection

#58

Post by dylan604 »

smeej wrote: post #37

Weren't there reports back in the Occupy Wall Street days of people organizing to buy up debt like this and then just forgive it all? It sounds like debts are sold in such bulk that there's no way to do something very targeted, like starting an org in your town to buy debt from your ZIP and collecting contributions to cancel your neighbors' debts, but if these debts are already only worth 5¢ on the dollar to the sell…

I never heard of buying credit debt, but I had heard of people buying medical debt in this manner. I get and respect the medical debt concept. Credit debt though is a tough one. How can you tell that someone ran up credit debt because they were paying for medical bills or something vs debt financing shopping sprees or vacations? Giving those who fall on hard times help is admirable. Giving people bad at personal finance a free ride is not

Re: Credit card debt collection

#59

Post by mukara »

smeej wrote: post #37

Weren't there reports back in the Occupy Wall Street days of people organizing to buy up debt like this and then just forgive it all? It sounds like debts are sold in such bulk that there's no way to do something very targeted, like starting an org in your town to buy debt from your ZIP and collecting contributions to cancel your neighbors' debts, but if these debts are already only worth 5¢ on the dollar to the sell…

There are some non-profits specializing in buying up medical debt and forgiving it (e.g. RIP Medical Debt [0]). These non-profits usually rely on individual donations, and $100 can relieve as much as $10,000 of medical debt. They also frequently rely on donations from other organizations such as churches [1]. There are examples of churches buying up tens of millions of dollars worth of debt [2]. I'm not aware of this being done for other kinds of debts, although I would assume it happens.

[0] https://ripmedicaldebt.org/ [1] https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/26/us/debt-jubilee-medical-trini... [2] https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/10/25/metro/new-england-chu...

Re: Credit card debt collection

#60

Post by nico »

eru wrote: post #36

> I will bet you that, in practice, they simply avoid collecting against anyone who demonstrates ability and financial resources to enforce their rights. This is one for the history books of borked equilibriums. We devoted substantial efforts to pro-consumer legislation to address abuse of (mostly) poor people. We gated redress behind labor that is abundantly available in the professional managerial class and scarce…

This is the same with tax collection in the US (seen different versions of this done by IRS, California’s BOE and SF treasury)

It goes something like this: they send you a scary looking letter telling you there’s something off about your taxes, you then need to call them (because they don’t do email and mailing anything will go over the time limit to comply), then they tell you more in detail what the problem is and push you to amend your return forms, once you do, you’ve legally accepted liability for whatever extra taxes they convinced you you owed (and will have to pay)

What most people should actually do: they send you a scary letter, you tell them to audit you, usually they’ll stop here, if they audit you and make a final assessment against you, you tell them you want to go to court, they’ll almost definitely drop it at this point, unless you actually owe them taxes and it’s such an easy and big case that they are willing to go through the trouble

Most people will just amend their return forms and pay, because it’s just too scary to even think of going against these agencies

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