The city is filled with deadbeats — but we’re not as bad as the rest of the country, says a new study.
About 28 percent of residents in the New York metropolitan area, which includes parts of New Jersey, are being stalked by collection agents.
But that’s less than the 35 percent reported nationally, according to an Urban Institute study released Tuesday.
“Roughly, every third person [nationally] you pass on the street is going to have debt in collections,” said Caroline Ratcliffe, a senior fellow at the DC-based think tank. “It can tip employers’ hiring decisions, or whether or not you get that apartment.”
Most of the deadbeats have fallen behind on credit-card payments or medical bills. Others do not keep up with car payments, mortgages or student loans.
But even minor bills — for unpaid cellphone contracts, gym memberships and traffic tickets — can land consumers in hot water, causing damage to their credit rating that can last for years.
Deadbeats’ bank accounts can be frozen, and they can’t open new ones with their own Social Security numbers because collection agencies will go after those accounts as well. Their wages can also be garnished until the debts are paid off.
The state with the highest number of people being hounded for past-due bills is Nevada, with 46.9 percent of those with debt facing collection calls.
North Dakota residents were the most prompt at paying up, with just 19.2 percent of consumer debt in collection.
New York’s 28.3 percent statewide figure was slightly lower than New Jersey’s 29.2 percent, but higher than Connecticut’s 26.2 percent.
The number of Americans in collections has remained about the same for a decade, even as the country has cut its credit-card debt since the official end of the Great Recession in the middle of 2009.
As a share of people’s income, credit-card debt has reached its lowest level in more than a decade, according to the American Bankers Association.
Yet roughly the same percentage of people are still getting reported for unpaid bills, with 36.5 percent in collection status in 2004, a Federal Reserve analysis showed.
Additional reporting by Aaron Short and AP