Live data from Hacker News

Credit card debt collection

bitsaboutmoney.com

71–80 of 568 posts

Re: Credit card debt collection

#71
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Let me describe the situation the other person is talking about, with two examples that happened to me in the past year. 1. I scheduled a colonoscopy with a hospital. They charged me $300 for the procedure, which I paid up front. Everything went smoothly and there were no delays, complications, or followups. A week later they sent me a bill for over $1k. They had not applied my $300 payment towards the total. They ha…

FWIW for #1 if you had paid the fraudulent $1k bill, after your "insurance" paid you could have likely spent more time on the phone with the provider and gotten them to refund you. Of course if you had paid the fraudulent bill promptly they might not have even bothered billing your "insurance", meaning even more time/rounds on the phone in order to get them to do that.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#72
post #55
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.

Why? The debt issuer has already written the debt off, why do they care whether it's bought by someone intent on forgiving it?

Re: Credit card debt collection

#73
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…

whoever wants to do that should knock themselves out. OP, just told me it doesn't matter if it gets paid or not at this point.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#74

>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…

[deleted]

Re: Credit card debt collection

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

More like you went to your favorite restaurant and wanted the fish but there was no price on it, and when you asked how much it would cost they would ask if you had insurance or not because that would determine your price, so you say no insurance and they say okay well it could cost anywhere between $10 and $1500 and then you get the fish and enjoy it and they give you the bill after and it's actually $10,500.

Don't forget the social shaming where the waiters act like you're ridiculous for possibly caring about how much the fish might cost. No well defined consideration means there is no contract. No contract means there is no legitimate basis to bill for anything more than reimbursement of costs that have been actually incurred.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#77
It’s even more cathartic to show up in court with a motion in hand to dismiss with prejudice and a second motion barring them from both servicing and selling the alleged debt. That’s almost a money maker, since winning their suit entitles you to compensation for filing fees, and violating the second order can be wildly punitive if you haul the collector back into court.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#78

Can I max out all my credit cards and then never pay?

> This effectively makes paying consumer debts basically optional in the United States, contingent on one being sufficiently organized and informed. That is likely a surprising result to many people. Is the financial industry unaware of this? Oh no. Issuing consumer debt is an enormously profitable business. The vast majority of consumers, including those with the socioeconomic wherewithal to walk away from their debts, feel themselves morally bound and pay as agreed.

try it out, let us know how it goes.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#79

Article is great, (with it being written by pat mckenzie that is almost tautological) > The value of portfolios is a huge discount to the face value of the debts; at the point where a lender has only worked it themselves and the debt is a few months delinquent, portfolios generally fetch about 5 cents on the dollar. That value will continue to decay over time. I agree with his point directionally (the value of the so…

If the contracts and supporting documentation were digitized, you could theoretically upload them to S3 or similar and include links to them in the CSV.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#80
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I can count on one hand the number of times in my entire life that I've agreed to a price for a healthcare service in advance and they actually billed me the agreed upon price and no more.

Dentists tend to work that way. Now, the price they'll charge for any given service is super-arbitrary, as is what they'll claim you need. But they will quote you up-front for what they'll be charging you.
Post reply on HN