It’s a Great Time to Be in Debt

Posted by Average Joe on January 17th, 2010 at 08:11am

If you read enough of what I’ve written around here, you probably know that I now have a complete and total hatred for being in debt. I think this whole system of credit, FICO scores, easy transactions using your VISA, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover is a pile of dog doo. It has led to dramatic increases in irresponsible behaviors, people becoming chained to jobs (even careers!) they hate, and the destruction of relationships. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.

If we all learn our lesson, we’ll never borrow another penny again.

That being said, if you were going to get caught owing people a lot of money, this is a great time for it. I’m sure as heck not saying you should run out and apply for a bunch of credit cards… I’m simply saying that of all times (at least in most of our lifetimes) to find yourself buried in debt, this is a great time for it.

Why?

Well… partly because it’s happened to so many people. So many, in fact, that the credit card industry can’t keep up with the collections efforts. Sure… they have their automatic dialers pounding away at our phones. But they are so slammed with people who have fallen behind that they don’t have time to fry the small fish.

So… unless you owe an enormous sum of money to one company, you’re not likely to end up actually getting sued, for example.

In my case, we have a pile of accounts that are past due. Some of which, we haven’t made a payment on in over a year. Others, we got ourselves onto little miniature payment plans (small payments for 6 months while we tried to get our crap together) which expired months and months ago.

Aside from the phone ringing, there’s been nothing. Most of them have stopped sending us crap in the mail. A few days ago I got a nifty settlement offer from one of them which would save me 40 or 60 percent (I forget which) if I’d just fork over a buncha cash.

Here’s a clue: if I haven’t made a $60 payment in 6 months, chances are I’m not turning over a 4-figure sum to you today just to make you go away.

My wife and I are actually close to having a plan to get all of this straightened out. And we’ve had plenty of time to do so. And that’s my point: if this had happened to us 6 or 7 years ago (and actually we hit a rough patch back then that we got straightened out), we’d have been sued by everybody and their brother by now.

But since it happened to us at the same time it happened to everybody else… it really hasn’t been so bad.

There. I said it.

Look… I’m not recommending this. It’s stressful, painful, stretching, annoying, harassing, and just about every other negative adjective you can think of to throw at it. We’ve been through marriage counseling, any number of arguments, spats and fights, and much more that I’m not going to write about here.

Thankfully, we were committed to each other. Otherwise, this would’ve all ended badly before now.

But… my point is simply this: if you’re in a jam, it’s a great time for it. Be thankful that you’re in the company of lots and lots of other debtors. And let the advantages of the timing work in your favor.

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Tags: American Express, credit card companies, credit score, creditors, Discover, Mastercard, phone calls, stress, VISA

Under Consumer Debt