The ZipDebt Blog
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A new report released by Experian shows that consumer debt levels have increased over the past two years. Based on an analysis of millions of consumer credit files, the average revolving and installment debt has increased from $10,371 in 2005 to $11,669 in 2006. This represents an increase of nearly 13% over the past two years. Installment debt includes auto loans, student loans, or other loans with a fixed monthly payment (Click to continue reading this post…)

A debt purchasing company has been sued by Illinois’ Attorney General — Lisa Madigan. The suit alleges use of illegal collection tactics by the firm. A detailed press release on this latest enforcement action against the collection industry is available here. (Click to continue reading this post…)

The latest big news in the world of debt and credit is the IRS’ attack on the credit counseling industry. The IRS has canceled the tax-exempt (non-profit) status of some of the largest counseling agencies in the industry. A total of 41 organizations have had their non-profit status revoked, and this represents about 40% of the industry’s revenue. There are at least 740 other agencies that have not yet been audited, so obviously the IRS (Click to continue reading this post…)

With all the news these days about identity theft, it’s important to examine your credit report for errors at least once or twice per year. If you’ve been using credit for, say, 10 years or more, the odds are high that you’ll see older accounts still listed on your reports, even though you haven’t used those accounts for several years or more. This commonly happens when you purchase items like furniture, stereo equipment, or (Click to continue reading this post…)

Imagine that you loan someone $10,000 with the understanding that they will pay you back on a monthly basis with interest. After a while, they fall behind on their payments, so you call them to discuss their financial status and encourage them to make a payment. But they dodge all phone contact and you’re not sure they are even getting your messages. No return phone calls. No contact. Nothing. Then you receive a letter in the mail (Click to continue reading this post…)

If you’re in a type of business that’s subject to government regulation (designed to protect consumers from some of the more abusive practices of your business model), and you don’t like one or two of the laws, just spend a bunch of money lobbying Congress and presto — no more pesky consumer protection laws to worry about. That appears to be what’s going on in the latest Congressional chicanery designed to stick it to the (Click to continue reading this post…)

An interesting article appeared last week under the title, “Bankruptcy Law Does Have Supporters.” Well, no kidding. Of course the new law has supporters. How else would it have passed Congress? I’m sure most of the executives in the credit card industry think it’s a pretty good bill. They should know. Collectively, they spent millions of dollars lobbying to get it passed. (Click to continue reading this post…)