The Millennial Generation

June 29th, 2011 | Posted in Credit Card Debt

The millennial generation is composed of people under the age of 25. They are currently experiencing an unthinkable level of high unemployment. In May of 2010, unemployment for 21-25 year olds was 15.8%. Today, unemployment for those who are college graduates is three times higher than the typical average.

To complicate their situation, 26.9% of the millennials are uninsured. The second most likely age group to be uninsured is made up of 26-34 year olds. Of this age group, 25.9% are uninsured. Combined these two age groups symbolize the highest percentage of uninsured in the U.S. The millennials are experiencing a dramatic rise in student loan debt. For the first time in recent history, outstanding consumer loan debt hit $829 billion, exceeding credit card debt ($826 billion). Student loan debt is also growing faster than credit card debt within the past three months.

The millennials debt rate is rising in general as compared to past generations. Families with heads of households under the age of 35 have the highest leveraged ratio of debt compared to all age groups.

Americans in their early 20s have a notoriously short attention span, and this certainly applies to millennials. Their favored methods of communication include text messaging, social media, and mobile phones. They detest email communications unless the emails are pushed to their smart phones and even if they are pushed to their smart phones, the millennials will typically not respond to emails. They want immediate access to information and immediate responses to their communications.

The millennnials are community-influenced. This means they seek information from their peers before making final decisions. And they search for their information mostly exclusively online. They aren’t likely to first seek information from a single source or a traditional authority figure such as a parent, a doctor, or a family friend. Instead they will seek information from social media sources that represent the collective wisdom of most.

This demographic is also highly transient and hard to find. They’re more likely to be located by way of their phone than at a permanent residence. Not surprisingly, the millennials are perfectly comfortable being tracked and targeted. But as a consequence, they are extremely protective of their mobile phone number and will go to extraordinary lengths to maintain their mobile phone number over time despite expense or inconvenience.

The constraints presented by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) regarding the use of auto dialers are ancient. The millennials are perfectly capable of informing the debt collector whether it is convenient for them to receive calls or text messages on their wireless phones as already permitted by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). In short, the consumer should control the decision as to who and how they can be reached on their wireless phone/computer rather than the government and the law needs to catch up with technology.

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