I much prefer the way it is now with the utilities instead of the repo man taking my sim's stuff. In Sims 3 when I knew the repo man was coming I took all my sim's belongings and placed it all in their household inventory. The repo man would show up, and then complain that my sim didn't own anything for him to take.
I would do that until I got Supernatural, and then I would use that stone to either poof the bills away or turn them into gold bars. lol I had to make sure my sim had a death flower in their personal inventory because there were several times it would turn my sim into gold statues.