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Credit card debt collection

bitsaboutmoney.com

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Re: Credit card debt collection

#231

Post by lr4444lr »

pjc50 wrote: post #227
lr4444lr wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hell for all we know it was an ER visit and they had absolutely no say in the matter This has been tried in case law, and failed. Even if you're documented unconscious, the EMTs are allowed to make a good faith assumption that you want reasonable efforts of resuscitation. Look up "implied consent" laws.

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)

No, they just treat everyone, and their employer sends you a bill. (Sorry if that wasn't clear.)

Re: Credit card debt collection

#232

Post by williamdclt »

Aardwolf wrote: post #218

> you, reader, use credit cards in preference to debit cards as a payment instrument Reader from Europe here. I use debit cards for daily payments, that's just the most standard expected payment method in Europe (with mobile payments now replacing it. Is a mobile payment app more like a debit or like a credit card? I have no idea actually!). But credit cards for online payments on the internet because (despite some d…

> Is a mobile payment app more like a debit or like a credit card?

My understanding is that the mobile payment app is just a medium for a virtual debit or credit card

> on the internet credit cards seems to be the main supported payment method

Over many years, I've never had any issue paying with debit cards on the internet, except _once_ to rent a bike on a taiwanese website (bc they do a credit card hold).

Re: Credit card debt collection

#233

Post by wheelerof4te »

Or, how to describe a nation living on credit. In Europe, we still prefer to use debit cards for normal payments.

It's really scary how much power banks and other financial insitutions have in the US.

Of course, they are almost as powerful in Europe.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#234

Post by dkjaudyeqooe »

b112 wrote: post #187
RobinL wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose the problem is that if that becomes too prevalent, people will stop paying their bill in the hope that the credit card company will give them a discount

Poor credit can cost you dearly. Higher rates on everything, and a .5% difference in a mortgate rate is massive. It's a way to burn your credit for years, at great personal cost, so not likely that people will take the out without desperation.

Back in the early '10s I was reading a report from a guy who had stellar credit and the card limits to go with them. He ran up about $100,000 of debt on his cards on purpose and stopped making payments. He then approached his bank to settle the debt and negotiated a 60% discount. The account was marked "paid by customer" so it never appeared on his on his credit report as a default. He did get dinged for missing payments though, but was $60,000 richer.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#235

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

nologic01 wrote: post #159

It is in this domain, of broken promises and broken people that you can establish what a society is really made of. Graeber's Debt is obligatory reading (alas not easy to read) if you want to dig into the painful history of debt relations between humans. The post provides excellent insights into the odious side of consumer finance. It feels like a follow up with ideas about reform would not be wasted effort: Once thi…

It's worse than that.

Some credit card companies - in the UK at least - specifically target people with poor credit scores with rates up to 99.9%(!)

And it's normal practice - but utterly perverse logic - to increase the rate of anyone who starts missing payments.

Debt collectors can get a court order to put a lien on property, and then get another court order to force sale of that property and repayment of the debt.

Of course the collectors bought the debt for some tiny percentage of its nominal value, so this is immensely profitable.

The outcome is that if you lend to poor people with poor credit scores there's an excellent chance you'll be able to secure a supposedly unsecured debt on their property and make them homeless, with a huge margin of profitability.

There are also ambiguous and murky connections between the debt collectors and the credit card companies which allow the latter to distance themselves from the harassment and aggression of the collection companies.

At the same time there's an incredibly toxic combination of wages decreasing in real terms, exploding property prices (both renting and buying), exploitative health care costs, constant ad noise promoting pointless lifestyle spending, and constant reinforcement of the belief that if you're in debt in a glorious economy of freedom and opportunity it's entirely your own fault.

It's a perfect storm of financial servitude. The credit industry is just one part of it.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#236

Post by prophet_ »

Aardwolf wrote: post #218

> you, reader, use credit cards in preference to debit cards as a payment instrument Reader from Europe here. I use debit cards for daily payments, that's just the most standard expected payment method in Europe (with mobile payments now replacing it. Is a mobile payment app more like a debit or like a credit card? I have no idea actually!). But credit cards for online payments on the internet because (despite some d…

The difference I see is that in Europe, at least where I live, at the end of the month the bank will charge your bank account with the full amount of whatever is the balance of your credit card.

If you have no money you will go into overdraft and that’s about it, you basically have a problem and the bank will keep nagging about that overdraft if you don’t have an agreement.

The goal is to use the “credit” of the credit card for 30 days as a convenience. The implicit expectation is that it will be paid in full at the end of the month.

In countries like US and South America (e.g.) many people see credit card as free money (that they don’t have), so when the end of the month comes they simply don’t have the money to pay the balance or pay very little of it. The consequence is what we all know: high interest on the balance which keeps snowballing.

I know in south america banks even have interface for payment in instalments etc. Here in Europe, at least my bank they don’t have have such feature, I guess it’s just not meant to be used and abused they way it happens in other places.

This is my view at least.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#237

Post by pm215 »

Aardwolf wrote: post #218

> you, reader, use credit cards in preference to debit cards as a payment instrument Reader from Europe here. I use debit cards for daily payments, that's just the most standard expected payment method in Europe (with mobile payments now replacing it. Is a mobile payment app more like a debit or like a credit card? I have no idea actually!). But credit cards for online payments on the internet because (despite some d…

This probably depends a bit on which part of Europe. In the UK the consumer protection law surrounding credit cards is stronger so it's better to use a credit card for larger purchases especially.

For daily payments shops all accept both credit and debit and there's no difference to the consumer whether they happen to tap a credit or debit card.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#238

Post by rcxdude »

Reason077 wrote: post #177

One thing that's not mentioned in this article is that credit card companies will sometimes make last-ditch "clear your debt at a discount" offers before passing your debt on to a collection agency. This happened to me many years ago. In the wake of the '08 financial crisis, I'd lost my job abruptly and decided to go travelling. I'd accumulated a balance that was fairly substantial for me at the time (on the order of…

This is because debt collection is a terrible deal: debt like this sells for a very steep discount, because debt collectors generally have a low rate of success of collecting. They essentially rely on apathy, ignorance, or compliance from the debtor, and if there's any resistance put up they essentially just write it off as it's no longer worth the effort (especially because debt collectors often don't have any actual evidence of a debt owed: they get a spreadsheet with names, addresses, and amount owed, and that's it. Something like that doesn't tend to stand up in court). So you probably gave them a better deal then the debt collectors.

Re: Credit card debt collection

#239

Post by RugnirViking »

thrtythreeforty wrote: post #34
pests wrote: post #25

> The former advocate in me will observe that the single most effective method for resolving debts is carefully sending a series of letters invoking one’s rights under the FDCPA (and other legislation) Can we get a summary of which letters / rights to invoke?

Patrick has previously written the exact guide you're after on his personal blog: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-r... It is also fantastically well written.

this was an awesome article that I think will literally help myself and others in dealing with bureaucracy of any kind. Wow. saved that one. As well as the things the other commenter mentioned I liked the parts about finding who to write to at large companies. very useful

Re: Credit card debt collection

#240

Post by developer93 »

Aardwolf wrote: post #218

> you, reader, use credit cards in preference to debit cards as a payment instrument Reader from Europe here. I use debit cards for daily payments, that's just the most standard expected payment method in Europe (with mobile payments now replacing it. Is a mobile payment app more like a debit or like a credit card? I have no idea actually!). But credit cards for online payments on the internet because (despite some d…

The advantage to the company with rewards is they get to keep your money while you think about how to spend it and you might never spend it. See gift cards & book tokens too, what a scam.
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