Study Finds More Consumers Making Payments on Their Credit Cards Before Their Mortgages
TransUnion, one of the large credit reporting agencies, is out with a new study that is quite alarming, but not surprising. The study, which finds that, for the first time, consumers are more often defaulting on home mortgages rather than credit card payments, contains a lot of fancy data and conclusions.
I don’t find this trend surprising for two simple reasons. One, mortgage payments have jumped beyond control for folks with adjustable rate mortgages. More consumers are choosing to surrender their home rather than pay the outrageous interest and payments. Two, the telephone terror tactics that credit card companies and collection agencies use to collect on their delinquent debt has risen to new heights of absurdity. Consumers, I think, are falling prey to this new level of scare tactics that collectors use and are paying credit cards to stop it, sometimes to the detriment of mortgage payments and other important debt like child support. Congress should strengthen the fair debt collection laws to help eliminate this behavior by debt collectors.
