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Social Media Debt Collection

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Mark Cappel
UpdatedSep 16, 2024
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    2 min read
Key Takeaways:
  • Lenders plan to use social media to set interest rates.
  • An online payday lender will use social media to verify new customers.
  • Fair Isaac plans to add social media to its FICO score.
  • Start your FREE debt assessment

10 Uses of Information Shared on Social Media That May Dismay its Users

People use social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, to keep up with the activities of their friends and family, and to tell friends and family what they are up to. Some columnists claim Facebook is the cause of the decline in class reunion attendance, because why travel to catch up with people if you already know what they are doing?

The information Facebook users share may result in unintended consequences, however. Here are 10 uses of social media that Bills.com found that may give social media users pause about what they post about themselves:

  1. CGI Group plans to release a service where a collection agent enters all known information into CGI’s product, which creates a dossier on the debtor from information found on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Monster.com
  2. Billfloat an online payday lender, says it plans to use social media information to verify the identity of its applicants.
  3. LexisNexis "Accurint for Law Enforcement" gives government agents information about what people do on social networks. This information has been used against users battling for child custody or defending themselves in criminal cases.
  4. Google parses Gmail users’ messages to serve advertisements based on the message's subject matter.
  5. Internal Revenue Service searches social media sites for evidence of taxpayers' income and location.
  6. INS reviews photos on social media sites to determine family relationships and evidence of fake marriages.
  7. HR people routinely review applicants’ online profiles when making a decision to hire a job candidate. A recent survey found that 70% of recruiters admitted to using social media for this purpose.
  8. MovenBank, a proposed online bank, plans to use information it finds on social media sites to determine credit worthiness and the rates it offers for loans and savings accounts.
  9. Fair Isaac Corp. plans to add a social media factor to its oft-used FICO credit score.
  10. Weemba and SoMoLend, two lending start-ups, plan to use a scoring system for lenders to rank borrowers in much the way customers rank sellers on eBay.

If You Have Debt

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Get rid of your debt faster with debt relief

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Choose your debt amount

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$1,000$100,000

Or speak to a debt consultant  844-731-0836

Debt statistics

Debt is used to buy a home, pay for bills, buy a car, or pay for a college education. According to the NY Federal Reserve total household debt as of Q1 2024 was $17.69 trillion. Auto loan debt was $1.62 trillion and credit card was $1.12 trillion.

According to data gathered by Urban.org from a sample of credit reports, about 26% of people in the US have some kind of debt in collections. The median debt in collections is $1,739. Student loans and auto loans are common types of debt. Of people holding student debt, approximately 10% had student loans in collections. The national Auto/Retail debt delinquency rate was 4%.

Collection and delinquency rates vary by state. For example, in Alabama, 15% have student loan debt. Of those holding student loan debt, 9% are in default. Auto/retail loan delinquency rate is 7%.

To maintain an excellent credit score it is vital to make timely payments. However, there are many circumstances that lead to late payments or debt in collections. The good news is that there are a lot of ways to deal with debt including debt consolidation and debt relief solutions.

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