What Happens to Our Debt When We Die?

[JustCurious]

Dying with debt: A dirty little retirement secret



40%?!?!?! Wow!

On the other hand, how did they pick this survey group?

The group is a representative sample of the population as a whole. According to the most recent EBRI retirement confidence survey, 48% of people over the age of 55 have less than $50,000 saved for retirement.

http://www.ebri.org/pdf/surveys/rcs/2010/FS-04_RCS-10_Age.pdf

 

[retiredtuna1]

What happened to honesty & a willingness to be responsible for one's own debts? is there a link between this and the current financial mess which the U.S. is in?

 

[skyvue]

Ever try to rent a car without a CC? I hear it doesn't work. Buy stuff online? Airline tickets? iTunes? Apps? A lot of cell phones use CCs for pmt...etc. Most of us here would be paying them off every month (I haven't paid a finance charge on a CC in nearly 20 years, still in my 20s, and for something that was major, necessary, and needed right away). So, they are used primarily for convenience (for the folks here) not for financing.

R

I get the point but one could use your debit card for all this and get by just fine without a credit card. I have several credit cards but only use them once or twice per year just so they will not close my accounts. I keep them because there is about $75K in available open credit on them. I look at them as a backup emergency fund should something catastrophic happen. I suspect many seniors who blow through their cash quicker than expected, begin using their open credit for daily living expenses rather than more severly cutback on the lifestyle.

 

[RonBoyd]

I get the point but one could use your debit card for all this and get by just fine without a credit card.

Ah, yes. The Debit Card; the same thing as a Credit Card... without the safety and convenience. However, both are so "last century."

Customers pay by swiping smartphones, not credit cards

 

[ERD50]

What happened to honesty & a willingness to be responsible for one's own debts? is there a link between this and the current financial mess which the U.S. is in?

What they are doing is completely honest and responsible. The CC cos write the contract this way, and these people are following the contract. It is unsecured debt after all.

Though I understand what you are saying on an emotional level. But it is really the CC companies that we should be questioning. I'm sure it is a balancing act - they lose some money this way, but the people who run balances are paying fees. I don't think any CCs have gone out of business lately, they must know what they are doing.

Hmmmm, I wonder if a CC co could start a business with a secured CC? Say, tied to an account or something, and you need to hold a min balance in that account. They should be able to offer better rates. OTOH, they likely wouldn't be making money from late charges and interest on that group, so maybe it is a negative overall.

-ERD50

 

[M Paquette]

What happened to honesty & a willingness to be responsible for one's own debts? is there a link between this and the current financial mess which the U.S. is in?

Hmm. There's a story idea lurking in there.

Dead and in debt? No rest for the indebted! A collection agency gets rights to the... remains to reanimate and work off the debt. Now, spin it as a zombie yarn, or offend the transhumanists by treating an uploaded mind as property?