Dan Frosch

You're having to pay interest.

And if you keep letting that go, if you carry that persistent balance, then that interest rate is going to drive your minimum payment up.

And in some cases, it's going to drive it up to a point where you're not going to be able to make it.

What you saw during the pandemic is low interest rates.

A lot of folks who maybe would not have qualified for credit cards receiving credit cards.

And so then the pandemic ends and you have inflation, but you still have these credit cards.

These nonprofits go to the banks and the credit card companies and say, hey, we want to get you your money back.

But realistically, you're never going to be able to get this amount of money back with this interest rate from this individual.

Let's set a lower interest rate.

Let's get them on a plan.

And let's maybe get rid of their late fees or whatever agreement they work out.

And let's try to get you, the credit card company, paid back in five years.

It may take some time, but it is effective.

And so that's what happened in Melissa's case.

Yeah, that's something I wonder about as well, right?

Consumer spending is still strong, but that's really being carried, as I understand it, by sort of folks with financial means.

But clearly, clearly, if...

there is a growing number of people who are carrying higher delinquency rates on their credit cards and they're carrying larger balances they are going to be more hesitant to use those credit cards or they're going to be completely unable to because those credit cards will have been shut off so i think it remains to be seen what this confluence of problems

around credit cards is going to have in terms of a greater impact on the economy.

But when you have more people in debt and more people delinquent and more people carrying balances they're not paying off, no, it's not good for the economy.