35% of Americans are Dealing with Debt Collection

A new study that was jointly performed by Urban Institute and Encore Capital Group (a debt buyer) found that 35% of US adults are in some way a part of the debt collection system. In addition, of this 35% the average amount of debt that is being collected on is around $5,178.The study is entitled “Delinquent Debt in America” looked at a sample of consumers with a TransUnion credit report in 2013. With these accounts, they looked at how many delinquent accounts were present, the collection trade lines, closed accounts and charged off accounts. The same utilized 7 million reports from TransUnion, which was out of around 220 million credit files on Americans.The results that were found was the 35.1% of people qualified to be sent to collections. This coincided with a 2004 study by the Federal Reserve that found 36.5% of people were in collections.The authors of this study are warning that this figure is really too low, as there are low income adults, around 22 million of them, that do not have credit files, thus were not represented in the study.Within the findings, the authors note that they did not look at mortgage debt, as this is extremely rare. They did utilize credit cards, loans from banks and the like. Through all the research, they did find that medical debt, membership fees, phone bills, and utility bills are some of the most common debt that is charged off.The study also looked at the delinquency that can be seen in these credit reports. They found that around 5.3% of Americans have at least a 30 day late note on one of their accounts. Those who have past due debt on average have a current debt that is around $2,258.If you are being harassed over a debt, you may be entitled to money damages. Get up to $1,000 for harassment, and $500-$1,500 for illegal robocalls. Under various state and federal laws, we will help you based on a fee-shift provision and/or based on a contingency fee. That means, the collector pays your attorney’s fees and costs. You won’t pay us a penny. We have settled thousands of debt collection harassment cases. Let us help you today. Contact Mike Agruss Law at 888-572-0176 to stop the harassment once and for all.