Credit card debt collection

Someone with poor credit may be assumed more likely to commit fraud or steal from the company. Someone with poor credit might also be assumed to be personally irresponsible and lazy, and more likely to slack off, ignore necessary details or cut corners.

It isn't fair but in the US money carries moral weight, and many people assume the less of it you have, the worse of a person you are.

I think they're using this to mean "doesn't have a visible ethnically different underclass". Such a thing would never be allowed to be visible in Singapore.

Similarly with the British system, especially the disability system. You have to fill in a 160-page form and turn up to an appointment. They interpret everything you have written on the form as evidence of ability, including turning up to the appointment itself. Ability to fill in a form and turn up to an appointment is used as evidence that you should be capable of having a job, and are therefore ineligible for help. You are denied.

You then take the case to tribunal, where it is put in front of a normal non-rigged judge who interprets the law in a reasonable manner, and are awarded your disability benefits.

This process takes about a year and is basically impossible unless you get help from someone who is "professional managerial class" enough to work the system for you.

Coda: periodically they write to you to check that e.g. the two legs you lost have not grown back. This must also be dealt with.

The EMTs assess your financial situation before deciding if you can afford their actions?

(Charging people for emergency treatment is one of the most insane aspects of the US system, and we need to fight it as long as possible in the UK before it gets inflicted on us)

Recycling my post from when this link was submitted 32 days ago.

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While I highly encourage everyone to read this in its entirely, I think it's worth a quick summary of the bits that may be personally-useful to those who don't:

* If it comes to a lawsuit in a court case, DO NOT IGNORE IT. If you don't show up, collector gets a kind of automatic win called a default judgement, and that's how you end up losing your house or having money vanish from your bank-account. If you do show up, they might instantly offer you a discount deal, often because they know their position is very shaky and they don't actually want to spend money fighting a court case that might be unwinnable against a strong opponent.

* Ask for proof. Debt collectors often lack documentation that you are legally-entitled to. ("Debt verification" under the "FDCPA".) Many never got it form the original bank, and don't want to spend time/money getting it. Asking for that proof means they may just give up and move on to a cheaper/easier person.

* Don't be fooled into paying for other people's debt. At least in the US, debts end when the original debtor dies, except in the sense of money taken away from the debtor's stuff before it reaches heirs. You can't ever "inherit negative money". Spousal stuff is more complex, but don't get fooled into paying something you don't even owe.

* Debt collectors will often make threats that are both impossible and illegal. This means you can only benefit from having everything in writing. (Or by clearly announcing that you will record a call, and then recording it.)

* The law (FDCPA) only allows debt collectors to call family members in order to get your contact information... But some of them use this as a form of harassment/coercion. There's no magic-wand for this part.

* If you agree to a vague "payment plan" and then send them the first check or bank-account info, watch out: Even if you don't write another check, they will find ways to withdraw money out of that account at the exact worst moments for you... but the best for them.