Hi. I'm a reporter for Smart Money magazine and I've been lurking around Credit Boards for awhile doing research on debt for an article I'm writing. The story is focusing on America's consumer debt crisis and how millions of Americans are burdened with at times unmanageable debt.
For the article, I'm hoping to get in touch with a few brave individuals willing to share their stories so that others can be a bit more informed about what it means to take on debt in a credit-crazed society. Ideally these would be people who have incurred big amounts of credit card debt, mortgages that have reset and make it impossible to keep up, student loans that loom impossibly over their heads, medical debts that couldn't be avoided, etc. I'm looking for people who have thought about filing for bankruptcy, have filed for bankruptcy or, as I hear sometimes happens, have filed for bankruptcy twice.
What I hope to do is to tell the readers of the magazine about this problem and to do so in human terms they can understand -- explain how a simple college credit card or an auto loan can be the domino setting off problems that can last far beyond the day that the last penny of principal is paid off, in the form of bad credit scores, high priced loans and even in other ways (some employers are looking up FICO scores lately!).
The story is tentatively entitled "Living with Debt" and that's the theme I'm working with: how many Americans now face a life filled with indebtedness.
If anyone reading and posting on Credit Boards would be willing to tell me their stories, I'd be extremely appreciative. Please write me back or call me, or tell friends and contacts and see if they'd be willing to chat. I think this story needs telling.
Thanks!
Ken Bensinger
Smart Money
(212)373-9374
kbensinger@hearst.com