Bankruptcy

An Update on Erica Stevens

By Debb Thorne

Back on February 24, I posted the story of Erica Stevens (again, not her real name). Erica is one of the respondents of the Consumer Bankruptcy Project 2007. I described how her bank had held a check from the bankruptcy study for five days, without telling Erica, thus causing a couple of her checks to bounce---to the tune of $33 per check. In our outrage over the way Erica was treated, a couple of us who blog here on Credit Slips volunteered to contact her bank on her behalf (with no charge to Erica whatsoever). The objective was simply to attempt to get the charges reversed. When our interviewer, Denise McDaniel, called Erica with the offer, her reaction surprised us.

Erica refused our assistance---out of fear that the bank would retaliate against her. She told Denise that when she and her husband filed for bankruptcy, their attorney insisted that a couple of loans from this particular bank be included in the petition. (Which, of course, they had to be.) She said that she believes that the bank has been particularly harsh with them and has singled them out since they filed.  Thus, she does not want to risk angering them with our calls. She can't afford to make them mad.

And Erica recognizes that it might be in their best interest to change banks, but since her husband's paycheck is automatically deposited into this bank, she's afraid that things would get messed up in the transition and they would be hit with additional charges and fees. Which is something that this couple truly cannot afford.

In February, when I first posted Erica's story, there were several readers of the blog who responded. Their comments strongly suggest that this type of financial mistreatment is quite common. Indeed, I would encourage you to take the time to read what they had to say. And if you are an academic looking for a new research project, well, this would make a great topic!

In sociology, we often weigh the power of individual agency against the power of social structure. In this case, it would be the power of Erica against the banking industry. Clearly, the playing field is not level. Once again, I assert that for real change to occur, government leaders need to take a stand against the banking industry, hold them accountable for their abuse of consumers, and give some power back to the people.

Full post as published by Credit Slips on March 05, 2008 (boomark / email).