You arrive at the airport ready for a flight, but are abruptly pulled aside and detained.

A routine traffic stop by the police leaves you stranded by the side of the road without your driver’s license.

You whip out your credit card to pay for a restaurant bill, and the maître d’ quietly rejects and confiscates your card.

If you are very lucky, a repo man shows up at your house and impassively delivers an injunction: your bank account has a lean on it.

Your life insurance has been cashed out and decimated.

What’s going on in Israel, where every month, thousands of surprised citizens face these predicaments?

A Knesset law passed in mid-2010 has enabled banks and large companies to access previously classified private information relating to debtors’ lives and to enact draconian measures, often unannounced.

More from GlobalPost: Israel to shift tax burden to rich and corporations

The law appears to contravene important provisions of the nation’s Basic Law, the body of jurisprudence that stands in the place of a written constitution, such as that of freedom of movement. It has yet to be challenged in court.

But it is one of the realities of Israeli life that provoked the feelings of alienation that spurred the social protests of the past six months. The companies and cartels may be pulling in large profits, but their clients often feel duped.

“I’m just waiting for someone with the means to file a massive class-action suit for damages,” says Jerusalem attorney Abraham Zada Harpaz, who specializes in these cases. “In the past two years you see people simply reduced to rags, down to their last slice of bread, because of this law.”

Banks, companies and debtor’s agencies now have direct computer linkages to records kept by the national Enforcement and Collection Authority. A company claiming even a paltry debt, years old, can easily revoke a person’s permission to exit the country or cancel their driver’s license.

Such is the case of “Ilanit,” a woman whose story was highlighted in a Yedioth Acharonoth exposé of these practices. From 2001 to 2005, Ilanit was a client of the cable company YES. After cancelling the service, she signed up for a rival company, HOT. On Dec. 1 of this year, she received a notification informing her that her travel privileges had been suspended due to a debt to YES.

Upon inquiring, she was told that YES claimed she owed them a converter, now six years old, and that her father, Eli, had been served with a notification of the debt. “I gave them back their converter when I left them, and my dad’s name is not even Eli,” she told Yeditoh Acharonoth, an Israeli daily newspaper.

More from GlobalPost: Israeli protests, even in their end, pose challenge to government

(The law demands timely, signed notification of such claims to the debtor, not to a family member.)

My discovery of the new measures came last March, as I attempted to cross the border into Jordan. Separated from a group of friends, I was pulled into a small office and informed that I was not allowed to leave the country. Why? The officers said I had an outstanding debt in the Rehovoth office of the Collection Authority.

I tried to recall the last time I had been to Rehovoth, possibly 10 years ago. The border police officer could not tell me the amount of the debt, to whom it was owed or why. There was no way to pay the debt and cross the Israeli-Jordanian border. I was, in fact, detained.

Subsequent inquiries revealed that Cellcom, a cellular phone company I cut ties with 12 years ago, after their failure to repair a malfunctioning phone still under warranty, claimed a debt of 8,500 shekels ($2,250). Like most other people embroiled in this web, I have no criminal record.

“They play fast and loose with these notifications,” Harpaz said. “That’s the worst part. And they let the debt accumulate on purpose. It’s part of the way they operate. Let’s say someone starts out with a loan from a bank, or a small debt. You can start out owing someone 2,000 shekels (about $530.) No one informs you of the debt. The bank or the company takes it to court and gets a summary judgment in your absence. Then you’re immediately slapped with legal fees, interest-rate adjustments and dollar linkage. Before you know it — literally, before you know it — you owe 10,000 shekels ($2,645).

More from GlobalPost: Stalwarts of Arab Spring give advice to Occupy Wall Street

“They put a lean on your bank account; they cash out your insurance policies, incurring penalties, and leave you with 20 percent of what you had. They have your passport linked to a no-travel list. And the kick is, you don’t know the first thing about it. And there is no way you can negotiate with them.”

The new practices have become so commonplace that now neighbors involved in banal disputes find themselves competing over who will get to a judge first, in order to claim a debt, and paralyze the life of the other.

Cellphone companies, who operate in an essentially unregulated market in Israel, are notorious.

Andreas Guggenheim, 38, a Chilean who has lived in Israel for the past 8 years with his husband, Felipe Alee, has found himself embroiled in one such muddle. The couple started out with a “family plan” at Orange. About seven months ago, wanting a change, Guggenheim shut down his line and cancelled the service. Alee kept his number, but upgraded to an iPhone. The new contract was passed to Alee’s name.

Last September, right around the Jewish New Year, Guggenheim noticed that odd amounts of money ranging from 400 to 700 shekels were regularly being withdrawn from his bank account. Suspecting Alee, he asked, “Honey, have you taken any money out?”

No. It was Orange, the company he had severed his contract with, still charging him.

“It’s a mess. All they can tell me is that we once had an account with two active numbers and now we don’t. They say, ‘We know you haven’t used the phone. And yes, we are charging you.’ To me it looks like when Felipe activated his iPhone they just decided to charge me too. No one at the company can explain what they are doing.”

Guggenheim has refused to pay. Orange now claims his debts have accrued to 3,500 shekels ($925). The company lawyers are after him, and “I’m just trying to shut everything down before they try to take my bank account or do something else. At this point, I don’t know anyone who hasn’t run into this kind of problem. It’s out of control.”

Numerous attempts by GlobalPost to receive a response from Orange and from Cellcom went unanswered.

Israel’s collections agencies are overwhelmed and verging on losing control of the situation. In recent months, the Enforcement and Collection Authority has begun forcing companies to offer their debtors deals whereby some of the hundreds of thousands of open files can be resolved. Last month, it was Motorolla. This month, it is Cellcom. Cellcom alone claims more than 27,000 debtors owing debts originating previous to 2009.

Some of the “debts” are comically spurious in nature. One of Harpaz’s favorites involves a cellphone company salesman offering a client “free internet” over the phone. Next thing? “The poor guy gets a 3,000 shekel bill at the end of the month, and it is up to him to try to prove that some salesman duped him. Sometimes it’s a student, who can never really pay this off. And then you know what happens. They go to court, they up the charges, and it’ll never end.”

“On the up side,” Harpaz says, “people who really owe money, who took out loans and failed to pay them back, are being forced to come to terms with things.”

This post originally appeared at GlobalPost.

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The global debt crisis, of course, is nothing new.

Since the dawn of time, men have been lending other men money (or other things of value) and not getting them back.

But it’s only recently that the solution to this state of affairs has gotten so complicated that even PhD economists can’t figure it out.

In most situations in which people or companies can’t pay their debts, a simple thing happens.

It’s called “bankruptcy.”

The borrower says, “I can’t pay you back” and then the borrower surrenders his or her claim on any assets that he or she still possesses.

The lender, meanwhile, sifts through those assets and recoups what he or she can.

And in this normal, natural state of affairs, both parties get hurt by the experience, and they go home to nurse their wounds, having learned a harsh lesson that hopefully will help them avoid making similar mistakes in the future.

And that’s as it should be.

Because they’re both responsible for the mistake.

The borrower borrowed too much. And the lender loaned too much.

And they both paid the price for their optimism and/or greed.

Now, note what does NOT happen in this normal, natural “debtor can’t pay lender” state of affairs:

The world doesn’t freeze up with paroxysms of angst, denial, finger-pointing, can-kicking, moral hazard, and endless bailouts–in which no one is ever forced to acknowledge his or her mistake and learn his or her lesson.

In the US housing market, as in the European sovereign debt market, borrowers borrowed too much and lenders loaned too much.

Both sides had good intentions, but the good intentions didn’t work out.

And now we’re in the age-old situation in which borrowers can’t pay.

And, as always, both sides bear responsibility for this situation.

No matter how popular it is to bash Wall Street, no one forced American consumers and European countries to borrow money. And no matter how popular it is to rail about deadbeats and the loss of personal responsibility, no one forced Wall Street to make all those dumb-ass loans.

In a simple, fair, and just world, both sides would now pay the price.

And the world would move on, quickly, and put this whole mess behind it.

But instead, we just get denial, empty promises, can-kicking, finger-pointing, and endless bailouts.

The reason we’re not getting the simple solution this time, of course, is that so many people borrowed so much and so many people loaned so much that, collectively, they have a lot of power to influence the solution.

And, of course, like anyone else who has made a colossal, painful mistake, they’re slow to acknowledge that they made a mistake, and they’re doing everything they can to never have to acknowledge that.

But that shouldn’t change anything.

The simple, fair, and best solution to the global debt crisis is the same as it ever was:

1. Acknowledge the problem
2. Restructure the debts
3. Move on

Yes, step 2 will involve “losses” — big ones.

Yes, these losses are so huge that they will filter through the financial system and economy and eventually hit just about everyone.

(But that, too, is as it should be: By repeatedly electing politicians who promised us again and again that we could have it all, we facilitated the problem.)

Yes, the losses are so huge that we will likely require a lender-of-last-resort to recapitalize bankrupt financial institutions after the “bankruptcy” and keep them operating (because, given the interconnectedness of the global financial system, it really would be a mess if the entire thing suddenly entered bankruptcy court at the same time).

But the need for a lender of last resort shouldn’t scare anyone. In bankruptcies, there have always been lenders of last resort: They’re called “debtors-in-possession.” These folks provide the capital that the company needs to keep operating–in exchange for amazing protection and terms.

As long as the lender behaves responsibly, it will get the same terms that any debtor-in-possession would get: Its money will be “senior” to all other claims on the financial institution’s assets. So the only way the lender will lose money is if the institution has been so astonishingly irresponsible that it has blown through all of equity and debt capital it had before it was restructured.

(And to be clear: I’m not talking about the lender of last resort giving “bailouts.” I’m talking about it stepping in as the financial institution goes bust. The lender of last resort will take over the entity’s operations temporarily–very temporarily–and then sell off the operating businesses and/or write down the debts, recapitalize the bank, and refloat it with new management. The original shareholders will lose everything. The original bondholders will lose something. The taxpayers will, in all likelihood, gain something–the way most debtors in possession do.)

Yes, the financial institutions’ equity investors will get wiped out.

Yes, the financial institutions’ lenders will get dinged.

But again, that’s as it should be.

They were the ones, after all, who trusted the financial institution not to make dumb-ass loans.

By making those loans, the lenders took risks–with the aim of reaping nice rewards.

This time, the risks didn’t pan out. So they should pay the price.

That’s capitalism.

And as hedge-fund manager Kyle Bass recently remarked, capitalism without bankruptcy is like Catholicism without hell.

The solution to our global debt problems is simple. It’s time we started talking about it.

SEE ALSO: Here’s What’s Wrong With The Economy (And How To Fix It)

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You won’t likely shed any tears over this: Being a debt collector is harder than ever.

While most Americans want to get out of debt using a debt management plan or debt consolidation, many can’t afford the payments right now. This complicates the debt collection process.

Debt collectors aren’t dealing with deadbeats ducking obligations–they’re trying to get blood from a stone at a time of record debt.

Debt Collection Agencies in Hard Times

Originally reported by the Associated Press, debt collectors have more work than ever. They also have fewer opportunities to actually collect.

Some firms are satisfied with a debt management plan including payments as low as $5 or $10 per month. While this might allow the collection agency to report payments, it does little to help Americans get out of debt.

Further, Americans are less capable than ever of getting out of debt. With unemployment high and salaries low, the old “I don’t have the money” line isn’t an excuse–it’s a hard reality for millions of Americans.

Debt consolidation and a debt management plan won’t do any good if the debtor simply doesn’t have any spare cash. For the growing debt collection industry, this is a case of “water, water everywhere / but not a drop to drink.”

More Complaints About the Debt Collection Process

In addition to a harder collection environment, the debt collection process itself is under attack. The Federal Trade Commission gets more complaints about debt collectors than any other industry.
In tough economic times, debt collectors, who work on commission, are forced to engage in more and more desperate means to collect outstanding debt.

Changes in the Debt Collection Process

According to the AP article, some decades ago debt collectors averaged 30 percent recovery on outstanding debt. Now the number hovers closer to 20.

Perhaps most striking is the change in types of debt collected. In times past, debt collectors called either from the original debtor or from a single third-party collection agency. Now there’s a booming industry dedicated to acquiring debt third- or fourth-hand for pennies on the dollar, often after the customer’s legal obligation to repay the debt has long since lapsed.

Common Consumer Complaints Against Debt Collectors

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act outlines rights for consumers trying to get out of debt. The law forbids a number of unfair and harassing practices by aggressive debt collectors, but three are particularly heinous:

• Not information a debtor of his rights in writing.
• Calling repeatedly.
• Providing false information regarding the debt.

Debtors can turn the tables on creditors, collecting $1,000 for every infraction of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Still, with debt collection a lucrative business, many third-party collection agencies can afford to play fast and loose with the law. Especially when times are hard and so is collection, the market might actually incentivize some of the worst practices of debt collection.

How to Handle Debt Collector Calls

Anyone being harassed by abusive debt collectors should begin all conversations with “This call is being recorded,” record the call, take notes and report the infractions to the Federal Trade Commission. Every time debt collectors violate collection law, you owe them $1,000 less.

This post originally appeared at GoBankingRates.

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With credit card debt at an all-time high across the country, the biggest worry on debtors’ minds is whether or not their creditors will garnish their wages.

Garnishment – the process of taking money out of a debtor’s paycheck via a court order– is often a last-ditch effort made by third-party collection agencies to get back some of the money they spent purchasing a consumer’s debt. 

Since it requires a trial in order to be levied on someone, garnishment isn’t that common – but when it does happen, the results can be both humiliating and financially ruinous for the consumer involved.

As a result, many people with serious credit card debt look to bankruptcy as a way out of their financial woes. If a court rules in their favor and declares a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, all of their debts will be forgiven and garnishment will be a non-issue.

However, these clean-slate rulings aren’t as common as they used to be, and sometimes debtors will still be subject to having their wages docked even after their bankruptcy hearing.

Therefore, if you’re thinking about declaring bankruptcy to ease your financial woes, here are a few things to consider before filling out the paperwork:

The Difference Between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

While a Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the ideal result of a hearing, more often than not your case will be declared a Chapter 13. The difference between the two is that while a Chapter 7 erases debts, Chapter 13 restructures all of your debts into a court-decided repayment package.

While Chapter 13 bankruptcy will protect some of your assets while you work to pay off your balance, your wages are still at risk of being garnished.

What Your Local Laws Say

The laws on bankruptcy and wage garnishment vary by state and sometimes even by county, so it’s important to consult a bankruptcy attorney in order to understand your options before taking any legal action.

In some states, wage garnishment is a mandatory procedure in the Chapter 13 repayment package. In others, it’s a punishment for failing to keep up with your bankruptcy payments. The only way to know for sure is to be proactive about your research and to seek counsel form a local expert.

Is Garnishment the Worst that Can Happen?

Due to the restructuring of federal bankruptcy laws in 2005, it’s become mandatory for people with credit card debt to attend a credit counseling meeting before filing for bankruptcy. Often, financial representatives of your creditors run these meetings and will attempt to work out a payment plan before the court is involved.

Sometimes these plans are a better course of action than declaring yourself broke, but other times these reps will attempt to use the threat of mandatory Chapter 13 wage garnishment to strong-arm you into a repayment plan that will only sink you further into debt. If this is the case, then you need to consider how much losing a portion of your paycheck will negatively impact your life compared to trying to meet the creditor’s repayment demands.

So, when you ask the question “will my wages be garnished even if I file for bankruptcy?” the answer is “maybe.” Since these laws vary so much, the best thing to do for yourself if you’ve got serious credit card debt is to contact a bankruptcy lawyer immediately. Listen to their advice, and remember that wage garnishment might not be the worst thing that can happen to you.

This post originally appeared at Credit Card Assist.

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Every man and his dog either seem to be in debt or owed money these days so is it any wonder that debt collection has evolved with the times to offer people comprehensive services with a few clicks of a mouse button. What comes to your mind when you think of debt collection agencies? Perhaps you imagine a cartoon stereotype gangster knocking on your door, instrument of destruction in hand ready to bully you into submission or remove your belongings without any prior warning.

Regardless of which side of the fence you happen to fall on, either the debt collector or the debtor it must be reassuring to know that this Hollywood type image is not actually the norm and that some debt collection agencies are in reality far more user friendly.

A relatively new way of collecting debts is to possibly use an online debt collection agency, which often offer to remove all the of the complications and hidden costs, instead doing all of the collecting for you and taking part of the eventual collection as their fee. Peace of mind can result from knowing its being taken care of for you and that you wont rack up huge legal bills and still not get your debt recovered.

As an individual or as a business these online debt collection agencies offer up new avenues for recouping owed money as they can take a step back with confidence knowing that their issues are being dealt with professionally and privately whilst still being kept informed of each step in proceedings. Offering full support and a wide range of services(e.g. debtor tracing, credit checking) within the debt collection field, with varying but clear and simple pricing structures, these debt collection agencies are specifically designed to provide stress free solutions to an ever growing problem.

Some debt collection agencies have already had great success in collecting debts within twenty four hours of the initial sign up and claim to have successful debt collection rates as high as 85 per cent.

It appears that as the world spins and spirals into debt, collecting of personal or business debts need no longer be as daunting as they once were thanks to the many online debt collection agencies that are springing up.

In these days of credit crunch and an epidemic of debt it is easy to see why more people are turning their attention to online debt collection agencies.

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