Occupy Movement Forgiving Debt

Occupy Wall Street Launches ‘Rolling Jubilee’ To Buy Up And Forgive Debt

OWS is going to start buying distressed debt (medical bills, student loans, etc.) in order to forgive it. As a test run, we spent $500, which bought $14,000 of distressed debt. We then ERASED THAT DEBT. (If you’re a debt broker, once you own someone’s debt you can do whatever you want with it — traditionally, you hound debtors to their grave trying to collect. We’re playing a different game. A MORE AWESOME GAME.)

This is a simple, powerful way to help folks in need — to free them from heavy debt loads so they can focus on being productive, happy and healthy.

I didn't know where else to put this post so I put it here. I hope it's the right place.

We cannot buy specific individuals’ debt – instead, we help liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal.

Sounds like a load of BS to me. If they cannot target specific individuals and their debt, how do you prove anything was actually done? I smell a scam.

reply to post by DarthMuerte


I'm currious...

How does this work? Lets say I have some debt, and my friend has some debt. Could we "buy" it from eachother and then forgive eachother? What about the people we originally owed the debt to?

I just don't see how this works.

I like the idea and frankly, it crossed my mind awhile back during a period I had an small inheritance to work with. It's easy enough and the debt collectors do buy what they chase people to the ends of the Earth over...for pennies on the original dollars owed. It's quite a scam by the time it's been totally written off by the original creditor and simply been passed to the bottom feeders to see if they can get anything.

It's really poetic justice that Occupy take the place of the black hearted collectors, as they seem to be in many cases these days. I doubt this lasts for long if they attempt a long term thing. The system will figure a way to short circuit this because it's not how 'they' meant for debt to work. It'll deeply "offend" the sensibilities of some blue blood old bureaucrats and they'll scream for a new law or regulation over this, II'll just bet.

Good luck to Occupy in the mean time though. Each debt SHOULD be coming with names and all the detailed info with it to let the person know, if they choose, that the debt is gone forever. It would be a touching Xmas gift to their fellow man. Sometimes Occupy can be a real class act.

reply to post by MystikMushroom


When you're in debt to someone, say a bank or a hospital or what have you, and you fail to pay that debt in a timely manner the entity you owe that debt to (bank, hospital, whatever) sells that debt to someone else. As if it were a commodity. The 'debt' is sold because the bank/hospital/whatever realizes it will make more money selling your debt than it will trying to go after you for that debt through phonecalls, letters or lawyers.

This is why debt is a big business in America.

Once that debt is sold to a debt collector you no longer owe anything to the bank/hospital/whatever but to the debt collector. The debt collector likely bought your $10,000 debt for $500 and is willing to 'generously' lower the amount you owe to $5,000. Thereby making a 1000% profit. Debt collectors employ people with the specific purpose to hound you, to threaten you and to call you again and again and again to order for you to 'resolve' your debt. Debt collectors can also sell the debt they've bought to other debt collectors for some profit, say...$1000 for the $500 they spent.

Eventually, so long as no action is made on your part to resolve the debt, it will be 'erased' after seven years. Which is why your debt can be sold cheaply between entities for so cheap. However, your name isn't associated with the debt when it's sold, only account numbers and amounts. Once the debt has been bought then your contact information is sold with it.

Between an over-spending ex-wife and a period of unemployment I've become all too familiar with debt, so if you have any questions please feel free to ask.

reply to post by MystikMushroom
If anyone finds a way to do that let me know. I would definitely participate.

reply to post by links234


Do you think you could give someone say, $500 to go to a debt collection company and buy your debt? Obviously you can't buy your own debt from a debt collector -- or can you?!

"Hey Mr. Debt Guy, MM has this debt, I'll give you $500 straight up cash right now for it."

It can't really be that easy?

Yes, well, and maybe....

You could spend your money and buy someone's debt for pennies on the dollar but that
won't save their credit rating. all you would do is stop the harassing phone calls.

Why not buy them a new phone instead?

If you are talking about secured debt, there are very few phone calls before they just come and
take the security

I had a credit card debt and the bank was swapped...the didn't send me a bill for ONE month
and I missed the payment. My rate jumped 20%, they demanded a late fee and doubled my
payment. I told them I would pay their late fee, but after seven years of on time payments
they would have to put my account back in order as it was.

They said no.

I said I'm not paying a dime until you do.

They said no.

I said thanks for the new guitar and camcorder (I had recently purchased on their card)
and I haven't spoken one word since....I did have to change my phone number

I came across this and found it awfully interesting. It seems to shed some light on how it works and it's as ugly as I was figuring if not worse.

Confessions of a Debt Collector

This is a reporter that went investigating by working at a debt collector for a few months and watching it all to write the story. Certainly an ugly industry. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a creditor chasing a legitimate debt. The system can't work on any level if all debt defaults and no one pays anything they get something in advance for on credit. However, it's just somehow evil when the suffering or even just deadbeat status of some becomes BIG business in itself for others. Talk about predatory at the most basic level.

reply to post by MystikMushroom


It's almost that easy. You have to become a licensed, bonded debt collector and go to another debt collector and offer to buy some of their accounts. Debts are sold in groups so there's no guarantee that you'll buy the one account that you want.

If you remember the housing crisis in 2008, big banks sold and resold groups of mortgages again and again between each other to the point that homeowners had no idea who actually owned their home. When it came time to evict after the collapse it became as simple as saying, 'Prove you own my home.' If the bank can't provide the title then they have no reason to collect on a debt that, legally, isn't theirs to collect on.

So yes, it's almost as easy as you describe but there are many, many other things that would make it not worth your while to do for just a single, specific account.

reply to post by MystikMushroom



I think this means they would buy debt as a whole. Meaning they would buy bulk accounts from creditors instead of negotiating individual accounts. This would only work for bad debt. The auditing could exist by reporting the individual accounts that were paid. It's a great idea. Actually it's an ingenius idea. Do you realize banks and credit card companies( covered by insurance) sell debt at a penny on the dollar usually after the first year of default? However the companies that buy this debt make millions. So you could buy your friend's bad credit card debt of 15,000 for say 1,200 and cancel the debt. However you would need a state license for transactions. They should not have made this information public. I am sure the guys who are making big money from this will find a way to block them or some law will be created making it illegal. It would be interesting to see how the banks will react since they would make money either way. Elizabeth Warren gained her fame/hate from challenging credit card companies who collected insurance for bad debt, sold the debt and continued to report the debt as unpaid. She also wanted to pass laws that would prevent these debt buyers from collecting more than they spent on the debt. If you didn't know, buying debt is big business.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

It's really poetic justice that Occupy take the place of the black hearted collectors, as they seem to be in many cases these days. I doubt this lasts for long if they attempt a long term thing. The system will figure a way to short circuit this because it's not how 'they' meant for debt to work. It'll deeply "offend" the sensibilities of some blue blood old bureaucrats and they'll scream for a new law or regulation over this, II'll just bet

You wraskly Wrabbit you. S&F's