I wrote an article a while back titled 5 Reasons NOT to Pay Your Credit Cards. Understandably, many e-mails came in asking, "But what happens if I don't pay?"
Just as the Mafia has their collections department, so do the banks. A Mafia enforcer might employ a pipe to the knee, threats to your family, or other nefarious means of collecting debts for the boss. Much the same, collections agencies use guilt, the credit rating system, threats of legal action, and many tools of harassment and deceit from their bag of tricks.
If you are one of the many who have fallen into the hands of the enforcement division of the banking cartel, there is good news: they are not the true Mafia. There is not much they can do to you or your family that their boss the credit card companies haven't already done. The best suggestion is to ignore them until you plan a proper strategy to defend yourself.
Here are 5 reasons to ignore collection agencies:
Realize that you are not defined by your credit rating: Americans have become accustomed to revealing their credit rating practically by way of introduction. Realize that this is a number, and not your identity: the higher the number the more virtuous, honorable, hard-working, and moral you are supposed to be. Rather, it is has produced a type of caste system where a bad credit score can render one untouchable by potential employers. This system encourages class distinction based on economic viability and should not be encouraged by submitting to it.
I HIGHLY recommend that you follow the link to the rest of the article by clicking on more... There you will find a post by rklawson1 that shows how to deal with a belligerent collection agency. Legally, I don't know if what rklawson1 advises will work; but it sure is worth a try. I imagine that he is correct that the debt can't be transferred to the collection agency and that they won't be able to satisfy the other requirements in the sample letter. My personal belief is that this is brilliant. Kudos to him.
ReplyDeleteI would normally advise the payment of debt, however, having observed the operations of the credit card companies (Discover, Bank of America, etc...) I would be more inclined to disregard. The piling on of fees, penalties, increased interest rates (to ridiculous levels) is the worst kind of activity I have ever seen and frankly should be criminal. As such, I flip the bird in their direction... IMHO.
Right and wrong is very easy to identify. People work very hard to build a case for not repaying money they spent of their own free will. What kind of society will we have when personal responsibility is completely exinguished? I do not agree with all the added fees and mafia style collection tactics but folks you exercised free will getting involved with this racket. At the very least pay what you borrowed and a reasonable fee for the service then fight like hell or quit paying. The USA won't worth a damn without personal responsibility.
ReplyDeleteI agree with parts of it, who cares about a credit rating? It is only usefull to the extent you want to borrow money. The notion that we were all tricked is stupid. that banks some how worked together to manufacture this situation to trick us all lunacy. Man up and pay your bills. Why because the vast majority of people did not borrow money they don't have and spend it. I am sorry for those that did and now see the error of their ways. The system has ways to work through the problems and people should do everything they can to stay honorable throughout the process.
ReplyDeletethe us system is a joke, capitalism has and will always fail as it is now,
ReplyDeleteGiving people credit (loans) based on payment history alone is insane. If you rack up 10's of thousdands of credit card debt and you earn a low wage, how did it happen? The idiot banks provided unsecured loans to people that did not have the ability to truly service the debt.
ReplyDelete"But their credit score was high"
People are brainwashed about this moronic number.
in a country where
ReplyDeleteillegals get free everything
only an idiot would play by the rules
game on
also we are at war
alls fair
Right 3:09, can you adumbrate for us anything other than capitalism that worked before? Remember serfdoms before the Renaissance? Or Socialist countries everywhere else who never had a chance to do anything.
ReplyDeleteWe could always go back to bartering. Does anyone have a horse? Yeah, the guy wants me to give him five dogs for it... where the hell am I going to get that!?
The irony is that everything you use in your cozy life came from capitalism.
This article is absolute nonsense. People who have earned high credit scores are the best folks to hire, rent to, befriend and marry because they are honorable and trustworthy. Just my opinion. I have a high credit score, and having friends and family members who don't and do, I can see the difference clearly. And I'm not talking about medical emergencies,etc. Sure anyone can be down on their luck. I'm talking about people who have NEVER had a high credit score; people who as soon as they get plastic in their grubby little hands go out and spend a lot of money they don't have on things they don't need. People who have the rent in their hands, but go out and spend it on other stuff, because, "I never had extra money". I know them and how they think very well. They never shop for sales, because they "need it now". They never think to shut off a light or turn down the water heater or AC. They buy cars and houses they can't afford, etc.
ReplyDelete9:24 is correct in many ways...This whole "Don't pay back because you were tricked man!" dogma is crap.
ReplyDeleteCredit score may NOT mean the person is a good person but it does show a pattern of being reliable.
If I rent I'd like a credit score to show if you are a deadbeat or not...If I take checks from your business for my products I want to know you don't bounce them...ANNNND easiest way to find out if a man is a liar or a woman a golddigger is through credit history.
I do think the financial businesses take advantage of the good people but I also agree that scores do have weight...I speak from running a business years ago not just from semi-socialist college textbooks.
One day those with strong ideology may own something and trust me they won't want to rent to people like themselves or their friends who rent and wreck while ranting about the evils of capatalism.
When I was poor I saw money as something that should be shared...As I grew up I saw some earned it and other squandered it...I began to understand that not all are equal...Some people really are nothing more than "mouth breathers" who never have contributed but have always took from society...I hope they get their @#$% together because the hunger times are coming to those who don't learn to adapt to having less very soon...In fact the wolf is at the door already.
Man up and pay your bills, two wrongs don't make a right, you're a better person if you have a higher credit score, when you borrow money from a bank you are getting it from their depositors.
ReplyDeleteWhat other fables were you told when you were growing up?
Get real. The credit card companies lent money they did not have in the first place and you're going to pay it back, with interest? Bullcrap. Stop being a slave to debt. Stop the banking elite who have ruined our country.
GMAC has been asked to stop foreclosures in 23 states. The Florida Supreme Court has been petitioned to halt foreclosures from the states 3 largest foreclosure law firms. Fraud is rampent.
Grow some balls America! Start with the Banking Elite. Not your home town institution (although they have played a part as well), Bring down the too big to fail. All those banks who took TARP.
Until we take the $1 trillion plus back from them and regulate them in to non existance, our children are going to wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs!
The same people who believe the system is crumbling, is a ponzi scheme, and out to rob every last man, woman, and child are the same ones who will defend it to the grave. They are indoctrinated into doing the "right" thing. They fail to see how gouged the average system really is and how rich the big corporations really are by comparison.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe one should make excuses or blame everything on the world while not taking responsibility for one's own self, but let's call a spade a spade. The system is milking the average system dry. The top 3% of the world own's 40% of the world's wealth for god's sakes.
If I owed credit card debt and was just starting to ignore the collection agencies I would consider living in a debt friendly state and going through the process of writing verification letters and telling them to contact you by mail only. If one is in trouble financially, as many, many are today, one should be able to work to rebuild. Just as value is created out of thin air from fractional reserves, every now and again people have to liquidate and start from scratch. The endless trap of credit card fees and credit debt that continues to mount seeks to keep us in debt forever.
Citizens, not system.
ReplyDelete10:43pm nicely put but as you're looking at one side of the coin...Those screaming the loudest of getting ripped off are also the ones who misspent and wasted what they recieved.
ReplyDeleteThink about it...Say the last 3 main people stories put on here by EA about personal debt:
1. The girl who on her way to get a BA in phtography spent 172K and her fiancee left her
2. The Boeing worker making $80 a year and having a nest egg of $180k somehow wasting most of it on vacations, early penalties, shopping sprees and NOW crying because she can't find a job and her unemployment is running out
3. The midwest couple who were crying because both were unemployed but both still smoked, sat around the house ate crap, drank soda/beer and watched their cable TV all day long
I'm sorry but this dog don't hunt...Some people are getting what they deserve.
Case in point, I love my sis but since 2004 I tried to get her to sell her HUGE home in Riverside...She got it for 186K but at one time they were selling for almost 700K...She was insulted I would even mention that...Took out equity loans bought cars and furniture, upgrades and took a few vacations...Now market is dead...Equity loans are due...Wolf is at the door and her new stuff is now old.
I don't say anything but every now and then I help her out...The reality is many people had a chance to get off the crazy ride but chose to continue...Including the friend with the custom Chevy with the huge stereo sound system and the...FIVE TVs in it...Wonder if he misses his repoed truck?
Nothing is 100%...And yes the banks and Credit Cards companies are evil but when does SOME personal responsibility fall into it?
Even me I went BK for a reason...But it was only when they wouldn't work with me on the payments...If there's a health or job loss that's understandable but there's plenty of people tagging along trying to get a free ride off those who actually did deserve a Jubilee.
There is no free lunch. Time to man up kiddies.
ReplyDeleteYour income shows your ability to pay. Your credit score shows your willingngess to pay.
ReplyDeleteSpoken well like brainwashed robots.
ReplyDeleteA few extreme examples of carelessness and waste does not make everyone careless, wasteful and greedy. We seem to agree the banks and credit card companies are evil. Where we probably disagree on is that this whole financial crisis is entirely the average person's fault. I Think it is only partly so. The truth is the system is deeply flawed. It encourages greed and selfishness and that is what we have. Your self righteous morality is flawed, and you know what, who cares? It's not like credit ratings will mean much anyway. So why dont you go back to slaving to your ideals and stop worrying about everyone else.
ReplyDeleteAlso consider reading the whole article before you comment.
ReplyDeleteFortunately for you scofflaw deadbeats the moral majority ARE STILL PAYING their debts. Thank them for keeping the economy alive so you can continue to drink beers and eat chips in front of your big screen you skipped out of paying for. All from the comfort of your soon to be foreclosed home they will also bail out, so drop to your knees and say a prayer for them each night because when they stop, you will be on your own in the jungle.
ReplyDeleteNothing is free.
Not paying a debt you have incurred is stealing. It's as plain as that. Justify your way out of it as you like, you are still a thief if you refuse to pay a debt.
ReplyDeleteYou're an ignoramus. I have no mortgage. I dont sit ni front of the TV and drink beer. The only debt I've ever stopped paying on was due to unfair charges by the credit card company and because of $400 dollars in charges I did not accrue. Stop being a judgemental arsehole. There are many people getting ripped off by credit card companies and lured into adjustable mortgages they end up gettign swamped in thinking they will be okay down the road when the economy is fine just like everyone is saying.
ReplyDeleteYou're a mere lackey who keeps perpatuating the status quo because you do what you are told and how to do it without questioning the system. The system steals every single day. All the wealth of the world is taken from corporations rearranged by cheap labor (us, the workers) and sold back for a profit makign them rich and us poor. You dont get something for nothing, but every person should have fair access to the worlds resources. It may not be true for the average joe pick-up driver gun toting bass boat pulling individual such as yourself preaching about religion and paying bills, but as it is now the majority of the world is owned by the wealthy while the poor suffers from their lack. All because you think its moral to feed the corporations that bleed the planet.
American "Caste"and "gods work"
ReplyDeleteThe debt peons should be strictly classified and ranked as castes acording to their value to usury capitalism .
Being 'working people" doesnt mean much in a de-indusrialised America Ponzi services economy.
I think a credit score of 666 would be a convenient number and cut off point ,dividing upper middle class caste peons worthy of more credit from the foreclosed on debt ridden rabble.
A lot of people here talking their book methinks... Man up? LOL Man up on this (and the bird flies high...)! If you are in a position, and the law is on your side, walk away young men and women, walk away... Let the banker scum eat cake; and consider themselves fortunate...
ReplyDelete