John Oliver is THE MAN!   Sunday night on “Last Week Tonight” paid off 9,000 peoples medical debt.

It all started as he was explaining how easy it is for shady debt companies to buy your debt, which includes all your personal information, and then come after you for it.  Sometimes it’s legitimate debt still owed but sometimes it’s debt you’ve already paid off or took care of through bankruptcy.  It’s called “zombie debt” which is old debt or debt that’s so old you can no longer be sued for, as John Oliver pointed out.

Once these companies have your debt, they then either hire a debt collection company or try themselves to collect this debt. The scary part, is how easy it is to become a debt-buyer.  John proved this point by having his show spend $50 to incorporate a debt-buying company online in Mississippi.  He spent just under $60,000 to buy $15 million in medical debt.  Imagine, for a $60,000 investment, through time you could have $15 million plus interest. Oh and not only do they get the debt, but they get your name, address and social security numbers, which they can then sell to other companies that want that info to solicit you for credit cards and such.

Well John isn’t a shady debt company and after he proved his point, he forgave the medical debt of the 9,000 people he bought. Which is awesome and so much better than when Oprah gave away a car to her audience, which they then had to pay taxes on.

Sadly not everyone is as lucky as the 9,000 people John Oliver helped out.  But as a consumer you do have rights.  Find out more by reading this information

Watch the entire segment and learn more now!! (ps. there is some NSFW language in the video)

 

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