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Millions of Americans Get Wages Garnished Over Credit Card Debt

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Re: Millions of Americans Get Wages Garnished Over Credit Card Debt

#81

Post by zo1 »

Someone1234 wrote: post #48
joshuaheard wrote: post #21

People don't wake up one day and find their wages garnished. They must have a lawsuit filed against them, be served with a summons, get a judgment against them, and finally have their wages garnished. And the money that is being garnished is to pay back the creditor for the money and/or services that the debtor received. It's called justice.

> And the money that is being garnished is to pay back the creditor for the money and/or services that the debtor received. It's called justice. Not even close, take the example from the article, the debtor owed 110% of the original debt (7K Vs 15K) and that is with some payments in the interim. Is over 100% of the original debt "justice" or exploitation? With fees, fines, and other penalties rolling over (i.e. fines…

"Is over 100% of the original debt "justice" or exploitation?"

Would it make any difference to your reasoning if the individual was financially illiterate as opposed to financially educated? Because from my point of view, it's neither justice nor exploitation, but agreed and consensual contract. Now whether those individuals made a good decision to get into the contract is a different discussion entirely, and is why I ask the above question of you.

Re: Millions of Americans Get Wages Garnished Over Credit Card Debt

#82

Post by shmerl »

zo1 wrote: post #72
shmerl wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Agreed" because they had no choice. Profiting from other's debt is simply crooked, but became acceptable in society.

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. What is your argument, exactly?

You said that profiting from debt is alright since parties have agreed to it. I'm saying that it's not, and such agreement comes from limiting circumstances, not because it's a good practice.

Re: Millions of Americans Get Wages Garnished Over Credit Card Debt

#83

Post by allegory »

zo1 wrote: post #74
allegory wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been there. I now have no debt after spending 14 years paying it off. 14 years lost.

"14 years lost." 14 years lost how? Do you not have the house/item that you spent 14 years paying off? Or was it credit-card debt?

Credit card, new car and catalogue debt. Everything purchased is gone or broken.

I threw a lot of money into a mortgage and ended up in negative equity for 2 years as well.

This is how I learned that status and material things are not important. Unfortunately my parents taught me the opposite to this and I paid with slavery for a long time. I realised that they too are slaves to their purchases and status.

Shit happens! Everything I own is worth about £1000 now and I can afford to just replace it and go "meh".

Re: Millions of Americans Get Wages Garnished Over Credit Card Debt

#84

Post by bryanlarsen »

zo1 wrote: post #78
bryanlarsen wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many, choosing not to have a kid means choosing not to have an abortion. So you appear to be saying that having an abortion is the moral high ground. I'm not saying that you're wrong, but I am saying that you shouldn't be surprised when people react vehemently

I don't mean to be facetious here, but babies don't just pop out of nowhere. They have to be conceived through sexual intercourse (generally). Not having unprotected sex is the moral high ground, not abortion. Let's not get into that sticky topic as it's a corner case (rape, etc). I'm not so sure that that is the sole reason they get touchy about the topic. I think somehow people view having children as some sort of…

Are you familiar with the rates of birth control failure?

Re: Millions of Americans Get Wages Garnished Over Credit Card Debt

#85

Post by zo1 »

shmerl wrote: post #82
zo1 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. What is your argument, exactly?

You said that profiting from debt is alright since parties have agreed to it. I'm saying that it's not, and such agreement comes from limiting circumstances, not because it's a good practice.

So could you boil down your argument for "limiting circumstances" for me, then? i.e. X is bad because Y, etc.

Credit exists because different people/entities have different time preferences for money, which is a value differential. Sure, this can be influenced and skewed based on life-circumstance.

e.g. one of the posters in this thread noted how "10,000" in debt helped them get through a very troubling time in their life and how they're very grateful they had access to it at the time. Are you going to say that it was "not okay" that the creditor helped him with that? Are you saying that they should have given him/her the money for absolutely no reason, no profit, nothing? Are you implying that lending is okay if it's for charity? What, really, I can't even fathom how you can hold your opinion as logically consistent.

Re: Millions of Americans Get Wages Garnished Over Credit Card Debt

#86

Post by smtddr »

zo1 wrote: post #71
smtddr wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>The debt begins with the parents that choose to have kids when they are unsure of their financial wellness and security for the years to come of their child's growth to adulthood. Having children should not be tied to having X amount of money - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8177836

I'm not saying that you should have X amount of money in order to have kids. The statement is "you should have enough money to enable you to take care of your kids into adulthood, because doing so otherwise is negligent". It's not a matter of money, but about lack of negligence and burden.

>>you should have enough money to enable you to take care of your kids into adulthood, because doing so otherwise is negligent

I would phrase this as "Society should be structured such that money isn't a concern because there is a safety net for everyone to be caught in aside from the extreme cases like say that "octo-mom"[1] situation.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadya_Suleman

Re: Millions of Americans Get Wages Garnished Over Credit Card Debt

#87

Post by shmerl »

zo1 wrote: post #85
shmerl wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You said that profiting from debt is alright since parties have agreed to it. I'm saying that it's not, and such agreement comes from limiting circumstances, not because it's a good practice.

So could you boil down your argument for "limiting circumstances" for me, then? i.e. X is bad because Y, etc. Credit exists because different people/entities have different time preferences for money, which is a value differential. Sure, this can be influenced and skewed based on life-circumstance. e.g. one of the posters in this thread noted how "10,000" in debt helped them get through a very troubling time in their…

Limiting circumstances is any case when people can't pay off the debt right away. For instance when buying living property which requires them to pay it off in 30 years because of insane pricing or simply when they have consumer debt like described in this article.

Re: Millions of Americans Get Wages Garnished Over Credit Card Debt

#88

Post by sjg007 »

morganvachon wrote: post #53
joshuaheard wrote: post #21

People don't wake up one day and find their wages garnished. They must have a lawsuit filed against them, be served with a summons, get a judgment against them, and finally have their wages garnished. And the money that is being garnished is to pay back the creditor for the money and/or services that the debtor received. It's called justice.

It does happen out of the blue like that sometimes, though. A little over a decade ago, my biological father who lived in another state had died suddenly. Because I had been covered under his social security plan when I was a minor and had battled cancer into adulthood (resulting in a $400,000 bill), the remaining debt of nearly $100,000 ended up in my lap. The only way I found out was when my wages began to be garni…

Why were you responsible for his debt?

Re: Millions of Americans Get Wages Garnished Over Credit Card Debt

#89

Post by misaelm »

Jtsummers wrote: post #70
misaelm wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to know exactly goes into the credit score calculation since the algorithm is proprietary but, anecdotally, you can carry a small balance (e.g. <10% of your credit line) without it having a negative impact on your credit score.

Yes, but you're paying interest. Again, anecdotally, I've never carried a balance. I've had two loans (student loans, paid off; auto loan, almost paid off) and never carried a balance on my CCs, my credit scores (across all three) are fine. It doesn't make sense, to me, to pay more interest than you have to on something you can afford to pay off (the auto loan is only still around because I'll lose another $100 to in…

Not necessarily. For FICO scoring purposes, you may carry a balance and still never pay a dime in interest: FICO considers your balance at the end your cycle, not the balance after your due date.

For example, if I have a balance of $800 when my statement was generated, my bank is going to report that $800 to the credit bureaus and FICO will calculate my credit score accordingly. So, for this cycle at least, it doesn't matter that I pay in full before my due date (thus avoiding any interest expense), my credit report will show an $800 balance on my account. This is why it's more likely to experience big month-to-month jumps in your credit score when you have fewer accounts/lower credit lines.

I do agree with you, I think that not carrying a balance doesn't have any negative impact on your credit score.

Re: Millions of Americans Get Wages Garnished Over Credit Card Debt

#90

Post by gretful »

geebee wrote: post #18
gretful wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit is a trap for the unwary and those that fail to plan ahead. I include myself in that group, as I have credit debt. Don't do - save your money.

My brother asked me for advice, when he was in college, about whether he should get a credit card. I told him that he should, if he was confident that he make a small charge and consistently pay the bill, on time, every month. However, if he wasn't confident that he could do this, he shouldn't. He decided against the credit card. In retrospect, I didn't give him good advice. It's not that the overall approach is a ba…

yes, like fire, credit is useful servant but a terrible master. If you relax your attention it's easy to turn the relationship upside down.
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