Open Thread

No I think you got the correct scenario for that fiasco.

This is what happens when you listen to idiots like Dave!

Debt Negotiators May Give Little Relief to Consumers (Update1)
By Jamie McGee

May 29 (Bloomberg) — Ulish Hopkins, a former bus- dispatcher from Chicago, turned to a debt-settlement company last year after piling up about $30,000 in credit-card bills. Seven months later, he owed close to $40,000.

Hopkins says the company told him it could reduce his bills by about 50 percent through negotiations with lenders. He was told to stop paying creditors and to put monthly payments in an escrow account, which the firm used to cover its fees. Instead of reducing his bills, interest and late fees raised his indebtedness and damaged his credit score.

“They never told me that the money I was paying wasn’t going to my debt, it was going to them,” said Hopkins, 59, who quit work in January 2008 after a brain tumor led to surgery. He now receives $1,539 a month in disability checks. “You are better on your own.”

Credit-card delinquencies are at record highs, according to Fitch Ratings, and the U.S. unemployment rate of 8.9 percent is the highest since 1983. As more consumers fall behind on bills, settlement companies often end up adding to the debt burden rather than offering a cost-saving solution, said Gail Cunningham, a spokeswoman for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling in Silver Spring, Maryland.
“There has been significant growth in the debt-settlement industry based on the economic decline,” Cunningham said. “People are financially distressed and when that happens, the unscrupulous among us seem to come out in droves.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=aGxuVt3lKLhY

The What

Someday this war is gonna end…

^^^forgot the: LOSERS!

Maybe you’re right. I’ve been known to be wrong before.