Credit card debt collection

That definitely also happens in UK, financial illiteracy and poverty/desperation exists everywhere I suppose.

Yeah, I’ve had a few things go to collections agency in Europe, most of them small debts from FedEx paying customs charges for a package delivered to me and never telling me they did, sending it right to collections agency.

I have a policy of simply ignoring these.

not really. fascism isn't just "doles out severe punishments." It's a slightly tired trope to trot out Umberto Eco's definitions of fascism but suffice to say it's a name for a political tendancy that appeals heavily to imagined glorious history and family while stoking fear of a destabilising influence within society, taken to extremes. It usually also emphasises emergency needing reliance on strong leaders and distain for comittee and taking time to make right decisions that work for everyone.

Sometimes people get all upset when they hear some of these characterisations, because they personally think family ought to be more important, or that people are ignoring a proud shared history. Maybe they feel that beuracracy and comittee meetings have led to overcomplexity. It turns out as with anything else these things are perfectly fine and not bad until this way of thinking becomes the sole goal of the leading class, they become highly authoritarian, and it lashes out more and more at any percieved imperfection in society regardless of severity.

Does this fit with singapore, to a greater or lesser extent? I really don't know. But I understand why people would feel annoyed by simplifying it down to "strong laws against drugs"

Great article. I like to learn how businesses really work and the unexpected ways they make money.

One nit. The author wrote "... the impression among many informed people that most defaulted debt is medically-related is the result of successful advocacy work rather than being substantially based in reality." Followed by links to illustrate the magnitude of credit card debt and some facts about medical debt in the US.

I worked for several years for a company that provides mandatory bankruptcy counseling. Debtors considering personal bankruptcy must, by law (thanks to lobbying by the credit card industry) complete a counseling/personal finance course. I could write about that fake and fraudulent process and the industry that sprung up around it (unfunded mandate, anyone?) but I'll stick to the point.

The main reason people give for considering or starting a bankruptcy filing is medical debt. Their other debts, mostly credit cards, mortgages, utilities, etc. may total to much more than the medical debt, but medical debt has more urgency. Hospitals and their corporate owners can get very aggressive collecting debts, and the same consumers that patio11 describes often fear they will lose access to their physicians, hospital, clinic, and prescriptions if they default on medical debt. So they let the credit cards and cell phone bills slide and scrape to pay the medical bills. Medical debt triggers a bigger financial meltdown, maybe leading to bankruptcy, in other words, even though it doesn't amount to nearly as much as mortgage or credit card debt.

A lot of medical expenses get charged to credit cards, as anyone who has visited a hospital, clinic, urgent care center, or pharmacy knows. The first thing you get asked at a clinic, lab, or hospital in the US is how you will pay, and if you don't have good insurance you can expect to pay up front for non-emergency or diagnostic procedures. When my grandmother died I helped clear up her finances, including paying off and closing her credit card accounts. After a long illness she had racked up thousands on credit cards, all to pharmacies and labs. That all shows up as consumer credit card debt, not medical debt.

Personal bankruptcy counseling has some of the same depressing call center aspects patio11 describes: Tales of woe, often heartbreaking to hear. Confused consumers not sure how much they owe, or to whom. Threats and intimidation from debt collectors. Debt collectors calling days after a spouse dies asserting the survivor has to pay immediately. The people who end up in bankruptcy counseling, very often poor, uneducated, and/or elderly, frequently fall prey to the bottom-feeding law firms that specialize in the field, charging hundreds or thousands of dollars for their "services," that amount to filling out boilerplate forms and filing them with the court, pulling credit reports, and getting kickbacks for sending their clients to a bankruptcy counseling provider. The government encourages bankruptcy counseling firms to push debtors into debt repayment plans or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which are almost always going to benefit the creditors without offering much relief to the debtor.

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