The people's bailout was a form of protest that resonated with me:
they take donations to buy debt and instead of then trying to call in that debt, they just forget it, absolving the original debtor
Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
241–250 of 269 posts
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#242This is actually something I think a startup could do a really good job at disrupting, but you'd have to have a very high tolerance for both a) schleps and b) dealing with poor peoples' problems. Billions of dollars are being thrown around at companies where the average level of technical sophistication is Excel spreadsheets and the prototypical competitor is a high-school graduate with an average of N weeks of exper…
I came to the same conclusion from a slightly different angle: you'd be disrupting an area of financial services which is largely unregulated, full of shady middlemen and the big banks and lenders actually want you to succeed. Even just a platform for buying and selling debt of verified provenance sounds like potentially low risk profits (though I'm less sure about the attractiveness of the customer base...)
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Then, if they rescind the offer later because they don't like what they see on a credit check, threaten to sue for promissory estoppel." At which point they'll promptly hire you, and let you go in the first week, as you're "just not working out", and you're most likely in an "at will" state.
I doubt they'd do that. First, "at will" employment is pretty complicated. It's not as cut-and-dry as it's made out to be. Besides, this is a detrimental reliance case: you're arguing that you relied on an offer that was fraudulent, and if they fired you in the first week and couldn't show that it was part of a business layoff or due to criminal behavior on your part, you'd still have that argument. Second, once you…
The problem is, if they're doing it right, they won't even know you failed background because of your credit score. Companies outsource background checking to protect themselves from exactly this. They don't even want the potential liability of knowing why you failed the check. They pass your name and address as parameters to the background check company, and the background check company just returns a boolean value. The offer is always conditional upon passing background, so if you don't, the offer is null and void. You don't get to know why.
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not saying paying extra is feasible for someone without much money, but this whole comment thread was a response to one guy who basically said credit doesn't matter much if you aren't poor. Going with the implicit assumption that we're talking about someone who's making a pretty good bit of money, but who has a bad credit rating, I'm only arguing that it's not impossible to rent an apartment. I love your blog by…
I'm not rich. I make about 150 right now, which around here isn't much. I am just informing you cowed bougie woosies that your "oh noes my credit report" panics are not grounded in reality. If you pay your legit bills on time and make a solid living, credit is not a valid concern when someone is trying to fuck you. In cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore most of the households are chronically arrears on utilities.…
Wow, talk about money causing a person to loose perspective...
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
> are not connected to the original debtor in any way, who did not receive and will not receive a red cent that explains why many years ago some collector hung up on me when I kept on explaining to them that I had lost the bills and if they could resend... they couldn't do that.
Yeah, if I ever get a call from a collector I'm just going to ask them if they have my signature on a contract. If they don't they don't actually own anything and I'm free to ignore them.
Yeah, force them to take you to court and show that they own the debt. None of this "passing the paper" non-sense, there has to be a legal contract or some document saying that your debt was given to someone else. Otherwise, it's just some guy claiming you owe him money, because of "paper".
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#246Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#247This is one of the most unbelievable articles I've ever read. If you didn't read it all the way through, do so over lunch or something; it's amazing. The idea of "millions of dollars" worth of debt being traded for around on thumb drives, and that all those thumb drives really contain are excel spreadsheets is mind boggling . Those people in those spreadsheets are real people , and they're being completely duhumanize…
You are totally right! +1. The article had me at "stolen". If you owe a bit of money, some of the dipshits that call you may actually have misappropriated the collection account and are not connected to the original debtor in any way, who did not receive and will not receive a red cent. This passing of the buck helps to explain why numerous agencies may be involved: people get calls from various toms, dicks and harry…
That was seems like the most bizarre thing about this whole business to me. The collection agencies that the debt has been sold to have no real legal basis or practical resources for doing anything other than calling the debtor and asking them to pay. They have no idea what the debt was for, how legitimate it is, what the debtor's situation is, or even if some clerk at the original company fat-fingered a data entry form somewhere and the information is completely wrong.
Which conversely means that, as a debtor, you can basically convince them you have no money and ignore them, and there's nothing they can do. Any kind of investigation or strong-arming would blow their budget for turning a profit on their debts. It's not like any of the money is actually going to the company you supposedly owe to anyways
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#248I was called by a collector once. Old medical bill, the clinic had sent it to an old address and the mail forwarding had expired. Why they never called or tracked me down I don't know, but they eventually sold it to a collector who had no trouble finding my phone number. When they called I was confused at first, then remembered and realized it was legit, paid it, end of story. They were utterly professional and court…
Medical debt rankles me like nothing else. The US, supposedly the most advanced nation on Earth has the worst notion of all: health care for profit. Simply evil. Health care is a basic human right. Full stop. Health care should never be based on one's ability to pay. Never. I pray I see socialised medicine in the US in my lifetime. If Hilary Clinton gets elected, the push for this will be stronger than the thin edge…
My "national insurance" is about that much, £400/mo, at current exchange rates. You would be no better off if the US had an NHS.
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not saying paying extra is feasible for someone without much money, but this whole comment thread was a response to one guy who basically said credit doesn't matter much if you aren't poor. Going with the implicit assumption that we're talking about someone who's making a pretty good bit of money, but who has a bad credit rating, I'm only arguing that it's not impossible to rent an apartment. I love your blog by…
I'm not rich. I make about 150 right now, which around here isn't much. I am just informing you cowed bougie woosies that your "oh noes my credit report" panics are not grounded in reality. If you pay your legit bills on time and make a solid living, credit is not a valid concern when someone is trying to fuck you. In cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore most of the households are chronically arrears on utilities.…
> I almost get the sense that upper middle class nerds have no idea how most of society actually operates and how strong a position solid income puts you in.
Much truth to this. Also much truth that pointing out to HN that most of them have no idea how the world really works is rarely useful.
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are totally right! +1. The article had me at "stolen". If you owe a bit of money, some of the dipshits that call you may actually have misappropriated the collection account and are not connected to the original debtor in any way, who did not receive and will not receive a red cent. This passing of the buck helps to explain why numerous agencies may be involved: people get calls from various toms, dicks and harry…
That was seems like the most bizarre thing about this whole business to me. The collection agencies that the debt has been sold to have no real legal basis or practical resources for doing anything other than calling the debtor and asking them to pay. They have no idea what the debt was for, how legitimate it is, what the debtor's situation is, or even if some clerk at the original company fat-fingered a data entry f…
Collection agencies will attempt to bully you into paying. They'll call you repeatedly, call your partner, family members, probably your job. They might even show up at your place and try to use scare tactics.