Jake Halpern has an interesting article in the N .Y. Times Sunday Review discussing the life of a debt collector, based on research for a book he is writing. It is an interesting look at the life of a debt collector. I was surprosed by who the debt colectors were, and how much they earned. I found this paragraph interesting:
The big banks and other creditors are unloading their unpaid accounts, from their most destitute customers, and selling them on the cheap to debt buyers who, in turn, push their collector to recoup every last cent. At the corporate level, this can be very profitable. Encore Capital Group, a behemoth in the industry, has seen its revenues soar to $773 million in 2013 from $316 million in 2009. In general,collectors themselves see little of this. Make no mistake about it: This is a battle for scraps. It is middle-class and poor people, being pitted against even poorer people, to the benefit of much richer people.