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James Lewis of Denver writes:

While working a real-estate deal last month I found out exactly what one parking ticket means. It can mean $5,000.00 or more. See, to collect unpaid revenues from non-moving violations Denver sells the debt to collection agencies, which can then list these unpaid violations as defaulted or excessively delinquent on a credit report, effectively lowering a credit score by up to 100 points. That’s enough to easily lower good credit to fair and fair credit to poor. My best estimate is that the city of Denver gets $10 to $20 for each ticket collected. That seems like great news for the city, but it’s also a perfect example of false economy. Poor credit and higher interest rates lead to lower buying power which leads to significantly lower purchase prices on large items such as houses and vehicles. With Denver’s generous tax rates the tax on a price delta of just a few hundred dollars offsets that collection.
I’m not suggesting that not paying parking tickets is not wrong. Tickets are an effective method for enforcing much needed parking regulations, and I pay a few every year. But Denver is taking punitive measures that are disproportionately extreme and in the end, benefit nobody but credit and lending institutions. A city that leads the country in foreclosures, can’t keep polls open during elections, and can’t get its streets plowed for two months doesn’t seem to need another reason for residents to disparage their home town.

This letter has not been edited.

READER COMMENTS

Easy way to solve this "problem", James. How about paying your parking tickets, so they don't end up going to collections?

Gee, the shock of it all! :)

Aaron

Paying parking tickets on time does not guarantee that Denver will not still report to credit agencies. The system in Denver is so convoluted that anyone who gets a parking ticket is likely to be reported as delinquent and wind up in collections regardless of whether they have paid on time or not. It is nearly impossible then to get the city to remove this from the credit report.

Give me a break, Art. If, for some reason, there IS a bad mark on your credit from a paid parking ticket, mail the receipt for payment to the credit reporting bureau, and it will be fixed.

I'm sorry, but I think you guys are making mountains out of molehills here.

Aaron

James,

Boohoo.

If you had just spent the 30 seconds it takes to pay the tickets you admitedly deserved, you would have saved yourself a lot of time.

News flash: you break the law and there are consequences.

It's funny how you guys jumped on James for lamenting on the damage that his admitted "criminal" act caused him but when the immigrant issue comes up there are defenders of these law breakers.

News flash: you break the law and there are consequences.

This statement should apply to everyone.

I think you all miss James' point, its not that he feels he shouldn't pay his ticket and he's not complaining per se about the collection agency...what he is arguing is that Denver as a city and bureaucracy is shooting themselves in the foot when it destroys it's citizens credit score for a 10$ parking ticket...resulting in (theoretically) foreclosures, less buying power, less home sales, etc...all of which adversely affect the City and Bureaucracy of Denver

Roy,

Aren't you expecting too much? Common sense, and sticking to the point from the "law is law is law is law is . . ." crowd? You're kidding, of course.

What James didn't even mention was the "law" (Ordinance) requiring sidewalks to be cleared after a snowfall, most of which sidewalks were then re-buried under a huge pile of frozen slush when such efforts as were made to clear the streets were made. But the elderly, and handicapped, were still threatened with - and some actually given - citations for not clearing away the City's mess!

Of course, J; "break the law and there are consequences." Might as well screw 'em all for everything the City can get.

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