Debt Collector Will Not Pay More Than $500 for a Loan, Regardless of Size

The bigger the debt, the less likely a debt collector is to get anything says Clark Terry, the chief executive of Utah Loan Servicing. Please consider Debts Rise, and Go Unpaid, as Bust Erodes Home Equity

During the great housing boom, homeowners nationwide borrowed a trillion dollars from banks, using the soaring value of their houses as security. Now the money has been spent and struggling borrowers are unable or unwilling to pay it back.

The delinquency rate on home equity loans is higher than all other types of consumer loans, including auto loans, boat loans, personal loans and even bank cards like Visa and MasterCard, according to the American Bankers Association.

Lenders say they are trying to recover some of that money but their success has been limited, in part because so many borrowers threaten bankruptcy and because the value of the homes, the collateral backing the loans, has often disappeared.

The result is one of the paradoxes of the recession: the more money you borrowed, the less likely you will have to pay up.

Utah Loan Servicing is a debt collector that buys home equity loans from lenders. Clark Terry, the chief executive, says he does not pay more than $500 for a loan, regardless of how big it is.

“Anything over $15,000 to $20,000 is not collectible,” Mr. Terry said. “Americans seem to believe that anything they can get away with is O.K.”

Desert Schools, the largest credit union in Arizona, increased its allowance for loan losses of all types by 926 percent in the last two years. It declined to comment.

The amount of bad home equity loan business during the boom is incalculable and in retrospect inexplicable, housing experts say. Most of the debt is still on the books of the lenders, which include Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase.

According to former regulator William Black, there are still "trillions of dollars of unrecognized losses" sitting on bank balance sheets.

Please see Former Bank Regulator William Black: U.S. Using "Rally Stupid Strategy" to Hide Bank Losses - Will Produce Japanese Style Lost Decade for details.

Forward earnings estimates by analysts are nonsense in the face of falling consumer demand and hidden bank losses.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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