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...years, the typical caller at CareOne Credit, one of the biggest debt-counseling outfits in the nation, has been a woman in her 30s with a yearly family income of $30,000 to $35,000 and a credit score around 550 (that's low). In the past two months, though, the people at CareOne have noticed a shift. It's still women who usually get stuck making the call, and the age range isn't dramatically different. But credit problems are rapidly moving up the income scale. More and more calls are coming from people with family incomes...
...help in January and 64,000 in February. Those numbers are up more than 15% from a year ago, Croxson said, but the really dramatic changes are in the composition of the callers. What happens after the call? The traditional solution in the credit-counseling business has been the debt-management plan, a three-to-five-year repayment schedule with the terms largely dictated by the creditors. Lots of debtors today are in so deep, though, they can't afford those terms. In that case, bankruptcy is one option - and bankruptcy filings, after dipping in the wake...
...Settlement is a renegotiation of debts that stops short of bankruptcy. Unsecured creditors such as credit-card issuers are willing to accept sharply reduced paybacks from especially troubled customers because they might not get a penny in bankruptcy court. The field has been replete with shady operators and high fees, but states are beginning to regulate it, and Croxson thinks it's headed for mainstream legitimacy (CareOne does not do debt settlement but sometimes steers clients in that direction). Big-time financial trouble is on its way to becoming a respectable middle-class phenomenon...
Fresh on the minds of Kentucky Republicans, and probably McConnell, too, is the race McConnell just won. He spent $20 million, three times the record-setting $6 million Bunning raised in 2004, and by the time the votes were counted found himself more than $2 million in debt. There's no reason to suspect that a race in 2010 will be any cheaper, Jennings said. With Democrats in power in Washington, competitive candidates like Mongiardo can expect a torrent of money, while Bunning's campaign war chest is lacking. With less than $200,000 raised for the 2010 race, even...
...maximum $1.5 million lifetime benefit allowed under her father's employer-provided plan; the Connecticut grocery-store worker who put off the radiation treatments for her Stage 2 breast cancer because she had used up her company plan's $20,000 annual maximum and was $18,000 in debt; the New Hampshire accountant who, unable to work during his treatment for Stage 3B stomach cancer, had to stop paying his mortgage to afford a $1,120 monthly premium for coverage with the state's high-risk insurance pool. (Facebook users, comment on the story below...