The Rittenhouse Review

A Philadelphia Journal of Politics, Finance, Ethics, and Culture


Wednesday, May 01, 2002  

HOW DOES A PERSON GET $600,000 IN DEBT?
Having 70 Credit Cards Helps

We can't help but wonder how a person, a married couple actually, can rack up $585,000 of debt. Particularly difficult to understand is how this same couple managed to juggle 70 credit cards on which their balances, prior to declaring bankruptcy, reached $200,000.

That's the financial situation faced by Jorge and Joanne Lopes, a New Jersey couple who won $58.9 million in the April 16 Big Game lottery. Opting for a one-time, lump-sum payment, the Lopeses will take in $43 million after taxes, enough to repay their debt 73 times over.

The report about the couple's Chapter 13 proceeding, carried in today's Philadelphia Inquirer, did not provide details of the $385,000 of non-credit-card debt.

The credit-card lenders will recoup their balances, but a rational argument could be made that any bank willing to extend credit to this exceedingly over-extended couple should have been forced to eat the loss a long time ago.

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