From Reddit’s IAmA section:

I am a Bill Collector, ask me anything.

Extracts:

Question:

I’ve had my share of ER bills and more than a few of them have gone unpaid. When the collection agency starts calling, I tried to politely explain that I just couldn’t pay because I didn’t have any money. I have lost my temper on a few occasions, particularly when a debt collector suggested I take out a loan to pay my unpaid medical bills. So my question is this: how much influence do you have over an individual’s credit rating? At what point does the uncollected bill start to effect my credit rating? If I start ranting and raving at you, do you just press a button that says I defaulted or didn’t pay or something like that?

Yesterday we referenced a Floyd Norris column in the New York Times called “Why So Glum? Numbers Point to a Recovery,” which discussed the persistence of gloom in the air despite an improving economic outlook. The American economy appears to be in a cyclical recovery that is gaining strength. Firms have begun to hire and [...]

From the blog Birds & Bills: Thrashing my way through the financial morass: How to celebrate the anniversary of screwing up your taxes: Do it again “We have a letter from the IRS saying we owe them money!” is not what you want to hear when you pick up the phone to answer a call [...]

Well lookie here, we have one more OddTodd toon up our sleeve. Here’s the Tuesday Morning Coffee Show: Business Edition, in which OddTodd discusses corporate criminals and personal finance in typical vulgar fashion.

Blog post from How To Be Poor In America, by Susan Kemp, who has “gone from being a teenage welfare mother to being appointed Assistant Welfare Commissioner for my State.” Now, due to her health and ‘bad business decisions,” she has fallen on hard times. Foreclosure – Finding the Federal Mortgage Money …The day the [...]

One of the sticking points in enacting the financial reform bill stuck in the Senate is the creation of a new consumer financial protection agency, which Republicans have ardently opposed.

This post from the financial sector policy blog Finance: Facts and Follies summarizes the dismantling of consumer protections in the mortgage and credit card industries in the 2000s.

Many of the steps violating unsophisticated consumers’ protections against predatory lending came from a cascade of federal, not state, regulatory actions and legislation.

“These painful phone calls involve my trying to explain why I cannot pay a bill on time or in full or both. The person on the other end of the phone falls into one of two categories Either they’ve been in my shoes or they cannot possibly imagine being in my shoes.” Here’s a very [...]

On Super Bowl betting, from The Sports Economist: The Saints beat the Colts 31-17 for their first Super Bowl victory. It was a thrilling win, with the outcome in doubt until Tracy Porters’ 74 yard “pick six” with 3:12 left in the game and the Colts driving for the potential tying score. The other big [...]

A New York Time article called More Men Marrying Wealthier Women has attracted some fascinating comments on the paper’s web site. First, from the article: An analysis of census data to be released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center found that she and countless women like her are victims of a role reversal that is [...]

The site Being Frugal.net has a feature called Tightwad Tuesdays with some interesting tricks for saving money on cleaning around the house: Homemade cleaning products – how to clean almost anything with baking soda, vinegar, and dishwashing detergent More Homemade cleaners – stain remover, car cleaner, dishwasher detergent, oven cleaner The Frugal Cleaning Cabinet – [...]