I’d love to build tools that automatically exercise your rights as a consumer against these large corporations. The simple truth is that they rely on the social norms of a society as weapons against them, whilst simultaneously breaking the codified ones.
Paying consumer debts is basically optional in the United States
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Re: Paying consumer debts is basically optional in the United States
#12Link to Patrick McKenzie (the actual source, rather than Cory Doctorow's blogspam):
https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/the-waste-stream-of-c...
Re: Paying consumer debts is basically optional in the United States
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Another called me work repeatedly and told my boss Even from a purely self serving perspective, why would they do this? If your boss gets mad that you have bad debt and fires you, then it’s now even less likely that you will be paying off the debt, no?
My experience with debt collectors is they don’t act rationally and once they’re able to find someone they harass you using any means necessary. The fear of being fired is a good motivator to get people to pay.
It's basically stalking made a profession.. So it draws a certain crowd.
Re: Paying consumer debts is basically optional in the United States
#14What's with people not offering RSS?
Re: Paying consumer debts is basically optional in the United States
#15As a lawyer who has fought a few collection cases, I would disagree with the notion that the collectors typically can’t document the debt. They can. Moreover the fdcpa doesn’t require the collector to prove the debt to you with absolute metaphysical certitude. They just have to verify it.
Re: Paying consumer debts is basically optional in the United States
#16Sort of. I got into a rough spot after I got out of the military and I ended up defaulting on all my credit card debt. I got kicked out for being gay with no notice and had no savings. What little I had went to moving and finding a new job. Only AmEx sued me (and we settled). I later sued most of the collection companies with the help of a lawyer and netted about $40K in settlements. Some had called my parents and to…
> Another called me work repeatedly and told my boss Even from a purely self serving perspective, why would they do this? If your boss gets mad that you have bad debt and fires you, then it’s now even less likely that you will be paying off the debt, no?
I think part of it is simply competition against other collection efforts. The scariest collector will probably get paid before the others.
Re: Paying consumer debts is basically optional in the United States
#17Isn't there like a credit score system in the US that companies can check?
In Mexico there's something called the Credit Office (buró de crédito) that banks can check if you've paid all your debts.
Re: Paying consumer debts is basically optional in the United States
#18You can believe that collection agencies behave illegally and also think that is unethical not to pay your debts to the best of your ability. Even if paying consumer debts is optional, not being able to get credit in the future, especially a home mortgage, is an incentive to pay. Some employers check the credit scores of applicants, and such scores probably are a decent indicator of whether someone has their life in…
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Re: Paying consumer debts is basically optional in the United States
#19> Without addressing the politics of it, 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.
Is this actually an impression informed people have? I’m the prime target for such opinions because of my issues with the U.S. healthcare system, but even I always understood the common understanding to be that most bankruptcies are caused by medical debt, and not debt defaults in general (most debt default doesn’t lead to bankruptcy, especially with credit card debt. It usually just leads to a payment plan).
Re: Paying consumer debts is basically optional in the United States
#20Sort of. I got into a rough spot after I got out of the military and I ended up defaulting on all my credit card debt. I got kicked out for being gay with no notice and had no savings. What little I had went to moving and finding a new job. Only AmEx sued me (and we settled). I later sued most of the collection companies with the help of a lawyer and netted about $40K in settlements. Some had called my parents and to…
> I got kicked out for being gay with no notice and had no savings.
Same, in December 2002. Feels a little strange how it works now, compared to be drug out of the barracks by MPs like a criminal. The Army never apologizes.