Collect-Judgements.com

[Birds & Bills] Pulitzer Prize jurors will meet next week to mull over the best of this year's journalistic offerings, and one series getting notice is the Boston Globe's in-depth Debtor's Hell investigation. I've been reading through the pieces during my downtime; there's a lot of material, and it's excellent. The Globe documents both the skyrocketing growth of the problem -- between 2000 and 2005, the number of debt-collection lawsuits filed in Mass. ...

[Birds & Bills] Pulitzer Prize jurors will meet next week to mull over the best of this year's journalistic offerings, and one series getting notice is the Boston Globe's in-depth Debtor's Hell investigation. I've been reading through the pieces during my downtime; there's a lot of material, and it's excellent. The Globe documents both the skyrocketing growth of the problem -- between 2000 and 2005, the number of debt-collection lawsuits filed in Mass. ...

[Free Money Finance] We're continuing with the first round of Free Money Finance March Madness (if you wonder what's going on in these posts, see my article announcing March Madness and/or click on my March Madness category link and scroll down to read all the posts involved in this subject.) I've listed each "game" (one post versus another) in segments along with the wording provided by the author when the post was submitted. Be sure to comment which one you like the best out of each set of two as commenters have the chance to win a free book. ...

[Blogging Away Debt] It’s my turn to host the Carnival of Debt reduction next week. Bloggers - please get your articles to me as soon as you can because I’m trying to do something special. I hope it works! It is very important that all articles submitted are about reducing debt. If they aren’t, they will not be included. Directly from the home of the Carnival of Debt Reduction: “The Carnival of Debt Reduction is a weekly blog carnival that highlights posts on getting out of debt. ...

[Finance Jobs] This position performs all functions related to the firm's collection of customer unsecured accounts. Responsibilities: Responsible for the collection of the firm Location: Arlington, VA Source: Jobs.net

[Birds & Bills] My posts about debt expiration and statutes of limitation weren't wholly theoretical. I've been dodging calls for the last few months from a collector trying to shake out money for a debt from 2000 that I don't consider valid. (It's a long story, as these things generally are.) Instead of running through hoops trying to track down all the paperwork to prove that the debt is well and truly not legitimate, I opted to wait out the clock till 2007, at which point it became an indisputably expired debt. ...

[Schneier on Security] In Raleigh, N.C., employees of Capitol Special Police patrol apartment buildings, a bowling alley and nightclubs, stopping suspicious people, searching their cars and making arrests. Sounds like a good thing, but Capitol Special Police isn't a police force at all -- it's a for-profit security company hired by private property owners. This isn't unique. Private security guards outnumber real police more than 5-1, and increasingly act like them. ...

[Blogging Away Debt] Hi Everyone! Welcome to the 74th Carnival of Debt Reduction. We’ll start off with a few highlights: Sarah Winfrey presents Bad beliefs and emotions that lead to debt. “…I realized that the good beliefs weren’t directly connected to money, they were connected to my confidence, happiness with my life, and security in myself and my choices. To grow financially, I had to grow in all of those areas first, before I could even begin to look directly at the weird urges to spend…” David presents Living Below Your Means - What It Really Means To Me. ...

It is never a good idea to continue to use credit when you know you are not in position to repay the debt. In the bankruptcy context, creditors can object to the discharge of recently incurred debt. There are complicated rules about this, but suffice it to say that if you are in financial trouble you should NOT be using your credit cards.

If you end up filing for bankruptcy, the portion of the credit card debt you incurred could be held non-dischargeable and you could be stuck paying it back, despite the bankruptcy. These types of objections from creditors are uncommon. However, when the facts clearly show the debtor used credit cards recently before filing, creditors are much more aggressive about pursuing a court order holding the recently incurred debt non-dischargeable.

If you have recently used your credit cards and you are seeking bankruptcy advice, you should disclose this fact to your attorney. This issue once again highlights why it is important to consult experienced counsel to represent you. Your attorney can discuss specific time frames and potential solutions to these types of problems.

The Center of Responsible Lending recently published a new study called "Debit Card Danger" that revealed most overdrafts are not caused by checks anymore. They are caused by debit card usage. This isn't surprising as most people don't make entries into their check registers every time they use their debit card. In fact, most people don't even save the receipt.

Banks have routinely approved debit card transactions that overdraft a bank account. Instead of refusing the transaction, banks accept the transaction and charge hefty overdraft fees to their customers. The bank acts like it's doing you a favor by calling the fee a "courtesy overdraft." Banks collected overdraft fees of approximately $10 billion in 2005! 38% of overdrafts were caused by debit card transactions. Paper checks accounted for 27% of overdrafts and online payments accounted for another 27% of overdrafts.

The irony here is that most people believe that if there are not sufficient funds in their accounts to cover a transaction, that the bank would deny the transaction. A lot of people, therefore, assume they are overdrafting their account when the debit card transaction is approved.

These "courtesy overdrafts" are essentially expensive, short-term loans. Banks started doing this several years ago, but no one is really sure when. The median transaction amount that causes an overdraft is $14.75. Since the average overdraft fee is more than double this amount and since most people pay the overdraft fee within 3-5 days, these "courtesy overdrafts" have an effective interest rate of 20,000%! Why do banks allow these transactions to occur? Money! Financial institutions that adopt these "courtesy overdraft" programs can expect their overdraft revenue to increase from 200-400%!

All of this would be fine, in my opinion, if consumers knew this was happening. According to the study, 61% of consumers asked preferred that the bank reject transactions if the transaction would cause an overdraft.

The best way for consumers to protect themselves from these "courtesy overdrafts" is to link the checking account with a savings account or a credit card. Essentially "overdraft protection." Fees still apply to these transactions, but the fees for accessing the overdraft protection are a fraction of the average $30 insufficient funds fees banks charge for overdrafts. The bottom line is that consumers need to be more responsible than they have realized in keeping up with the balances in their checking accounts to prevent incurring overdraft fees. At the very least, consumers should take advantage of "overdraft protection" to avoid the big fees.