Bringing Expired Debt Back to Life

[mfcorey1]

No one was more surprised than Thomas Carpenito with the credit-card invitation that landed in his mailbox earlier this year.

The 27-year-old deli owner from White Plains, N.Y., had about $10,000 in old debts and a credit rating 200 points below "good." He recalled thinking the post office had delivered the letter to the wrong house.

Far from a mistake, the offer was part of a controversial and growing partnership between debt collectors and banks that profits both. To get the new credit card, Mr. Carpenito agreed to repay $400 on a seven-year-old debt that had expired under New York's statute of limitations.

"It was totally worth it," he said. Having no credit cards made Mr. Carpenito feel "like dirt," he said, especially when out on dates. His new credit card, stamped with the MasterCard Inc. logo, was offered by Jefferson Capital Systems LLC, the debt-collection arm of CompuCredit Holdings Corp., in Atlanta.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bringing-expired-debt-back-to-life.html

[pitohui]

1. you can't help the helpless

this guy was not only scammed into paying money he didn't owe, he is now marked as an exceptionally stupid person who makes terrible financial decisions and will pay any ridiculous cost or fee to hold a credit card, no wonder the creditors would like to have his business

who is the more valuable customer? the idiot who will pay $400 he doesn't owe or the smart consumer like me who demands a fee-free credit card

i don't blame companies for chasing the stupid money, at some point we have to accept that you can't fix stupid

[marlakay]

2. All he had to do was pay on time for a few years

and maybe get a credit card that is backed up by a savings acct for 1 yr and he could have one without paying money back.

I know so many people who had bankruptcies and got cards a few years later it surprised me how easy that was.

[liberalhistorian]

5. It's "easy" because credit card companies

deliberately target those who've had a bankruptcy debt discharge. Why? Because they cannot declare bankruptcy for another seven years. So, if they get into trouble again before the seven years are up, the companies know that the consumer will be on the hook for the money with no way out. They have marketing departments that are specifically charged with doing nothing but researching the bankruptcy lists and marketing cards to the bankrupt.

Also, ironically enough, during the ten years that your bankruptcy stays on your credit report, you actually have a higher credit rating than you normally would. Why? Because FICO lumps people in "groups" of consumers and you are in the same group as all others who've declared bankrupty, which means your credit is higher than it would be if you were rated with the general consumer public. Your score actually drops once the bankruptcy goes off your credit report after ten years because you're then put in with the general non-bankrupt consumer public.

[AtomicKitten]

3. That's extortion.

[Donnachaidh]

4. evidently didn't learn a thing in the first go-round

Bet he'll walk away a second time too.

[liberalhistorian]

6. Yes, because people should always be slaves

to their "creditors" whether they actually owe the money or not.

[TheMadMonk]

7. Always no. Sometimes, a lifetime of debt peonage would barely...

...be a beginning.

I have no opinion on how he got into trouble the first time around.

This time though his words say almost all that needs saying about his "plastic fantastic" status bloody symbol. That he chose to accept it from a corpratised loan shark says the rest.

I'll go with Donnachaidh on this. It's a fairly safe bet that he will fuck up and attempt to walk away again. Ans do it with every chance of getting bitten on the arse by the seven year rule you mentioned earlier. Quite possibly deservedly so.

Although many do get into debt trouble through no real fault of their own, (medical emergency and loss of job being the two majors) most manage it through their own stupidity: Never making more than minimum repayments on their credit cards; failing to discharge "interest free" store loans on time; not using honeymoon periods on large loans to pay down principle; not negotiating with creditors (utilities being a big one here) before they start proceedings against you.

Saddest thing is this. Pay on time and in full, and YOU will come out on top with almost all of these products. Late/minimal/non-payment and you're an idiot financing a fur coat for the CEO's mistress.

"No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby." (H. L. Mencken)

Half of all people are of below average intelligence.

You can quite literally explain in words of one sylable exactly what buttons the Demtel Man is punching, and many will still reach for the phone to order that "Handy Dandy Dialamatic Sponge Sharpener" (with free steak knives).

People will buy two of something they don't need one of, just because it's "a huge saving" to pay nothing but the p&h on the second item.

In the face of the immutable laws of physical chemistry, there are people are still absolutely convinced that the oil companies are suppressing an engine capable of running on nothing but water. As a matter of fact, if done correctly, an admixture of water to ordinary fuels will significantly increase compression ratios resulting in a cleaner burn. BUT it's not the oil companies. It's the US military which demands fuel that has a shelf life of 20 years, just in case there's a post-apocolyptic America/world to conquer.

If you don't like this, you get out there and try to play nanny to the idiots of the world. It's a good bet one of those idiots will soon kill you for daring to point out that "the emperor has no clothes".

[liberalhistorian]

8. Nice RW talking points there.

Yes, there are, indeed, irresponsible deadbeats out there. No question. But the majority of people in debt trouble are there through no fault of their own and they don't need further kicking down. And the reason many people make late/minimal/nonpayments is for the simple reason that THEY DON'T HAVE THE FUCKING MONEY, and not because they simply don't want to do so. I've seen it in my former legal aid work and in the lives of many friends and family, and my own life at times. I'm watching my parents deal with it, they worked damn hard all their lives and now almost everything they have is going to my dad's illness, which leaves them almost nothing for regular bills that they've always been able to pay before. It's to the point where they've turned their phone off most of the time because dipshit debt harassers won't leave them alone trying to get blood from a stone and making them feel horrible while the harassers are making a ton of money off of the misery and misfortune of others.

They were responsible people all of their lives and look where it's gotten them. NOWHERE. While those who are irresponsible always manage to find a way to get around, and those responsible for the current financial situation and who sit around thinking up more ways to play with and ruin the nest eggs of others make their millions.

It doesn't take much. Job loss, medical illness/injury (even with insurance, and even with good insurance), a major cut in pay, disability with resulting inability to work, divorce, family member's illness, etc., etc. Even if you have a savings cushion, that can quickly get eaten up, especially with a medical issue. And now with too many employers checking credit, even when it has absolutely nothing to do with the fucking job, and it doesn't take the context of the informaton into account, that can make it a vicious cycle.

[TheMadMonk]

9. How many don't have the money, because they overspent on "free" products?

Yes I could manage a TV loan, or a loan for a new bedroom suite, or, or, or. But on my wage as a bog cleaner for the local railways, there is not a hope in hell that I could manage, this, that and the other. AND if I were to allow all of those "and"s to fall due unserviced I'd be in even bigger trouble.

Many of those burnt in the real-estate crisis, got burnt because they took out impossible to service loans on the "promise" that rising real-estate values would allow them to flip the property before the honeymoon period expired. Or, because they were certain of an upcomming promotion which would give them the pay increase needed to service the loan in the long term.

I've seen the same idiots who then fully furnished their McMansions on "interest free" store credit.

Or "buy" cars through the ONLY lender who will give them money.

And when the inevitable drop in realestate prices came, the whole bloody mess colapsed, just as it did with the dot com bubble, with the S&L scandal, and so on back to fucking Dutch Tulips and beyond.

People saw (or were offered) something too good to be true and jumped in with no fucking knowledge whatsoever of what they were getting into.


Yes, the banks do send out pre-approved credit cards in the mail. They did push irresponsible financial products. The smarmy bastard in the store (or on the late night infomercial) did point out: "For just $100 more..."

Yes, yes, yes, the people at the top did do a lot of bad and wrongful things, but mostly what they did (and do) was lay bets that people would do as they've always done and flock to the "egress" simply because there was a sign saying "This way --->"


Good and blameless people, got burnt, not simply because the Koch Bros are evil (no doubt about it they are BTW), but because too bloody many of their neighbours got greedy and the Koch Bros positioned themselves to take advantage of that greediness.

BTW a good many responsible, and completely non-evil people took equal advantage of that greediness, simply by paying off store loans and CC debt before interest fell due, and by taking full advantage of low interest teaser periods to pay down 10-15 years worth of principle on their homeloans before the higher interest rates kicked in.

Stores can afford to offer interest free loans, Amex 60 days interest free because 1 in x WILL fuck up and at 20% per annum cover the cost of servicing the (x-1) in x who never pay a cent in interest.


Yes you have a fucked up Medical and welfare system, but it's the system you voted for, because you collectively as a nation are far more suspiscious of the n*****s, s****s, k***s, m***s, etc, than you are of the people actually writing the rules you sign off on with every bloody election.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. He could have used a debit card or Visa gift card

Lot of people survive without credit cards.