Yeah, although my knowledge of bankruptcy law is minimal, I'm pretty sure the same thing happens in the US.
Say, if you pay for a holiday and then the company goes out of business before you take it, then you're not guaranteed to get that money back. Same as the preorder people in the article, you're considered an unsecured creditor and are the bottom of the refund pile just above shareholders. Of course, there may be certain tweaks to this law from state to state, but I don't care enough to find out how.
But yeah, basically, use credit cards more.
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Still the number one reason for the success of the Internet.
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