> Is this widely used by companies? Yes. It's a bit cumbersome, so there are companies specializing in doing this for small debts (say < $5000). > Are there a

> Is this widely used by companies? Yes. It's a bit cumbersome, so there are companies specializing in doing this for small debts (say < $5000). > Are there any drawbacks/cases of misuse? Hard to say. My impression is that having one trusted party to manage debt collection makes it easier to handle the edge cases in a more humane way, but I haven't really delved into this area. > Does the government keep a credit score too? No.