Credit Self Defense

Bear Stearns to Pay $28 Million To Settle Unlawful Debt Collection Practices

2008-09-10T00:35:00.001-04:00

Bear Stearns Companies, LLC and its subsidiary, EMC Mortgage Corporation, have agreed to pay $28 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they engaged in unlawful practices in servicing consumers' home mortgage loans.The companies allegedly misrepresented the amounts borrowers owed, charged unauthorized fees, such as late fees, property inspection fees, and loan modification fees,

Doctors Sending Patients To Collection Agencies For Bills They Don't Owe

2008-09-08T01:27:00.003-04:00

As health-care costs continue to soar, millions of confused consumers are paying medical bills they don't actually owe. Typically this occurs when an insurance plan covers less than what a doctor, hospital, or lab service wants to be paid. The health-care provider demands the balance from the patient. Uncertain and fearing the calls of a debt collector, the patient pays up. Most consumers don't

CashCall.com Moves Cash From You To Them

2008-09-05T01:35:00.003-04:00

Have you seen those commercials for Cash Call – you know, the ones with Gary Coleman hawking cash loans (“What’chu talkin’ about, Cash Call!”) under the guise that you can get an immediate infusion of money with a seemingly easy application process?As you might expect, Cash Call is not what it says it is. Here’s how it works: Let’s say you live in California and are looking to borrow $2600. Cash

Portfolio Recovery Associates Profiting From Poverty

2008-09-03T00:19:00.002-04:00

Carrie Blanton parks her two-year-old sedan with its nose against a scraggly backyard tree and waits while her first-floor neighbor pulls her rusty Chevy behind it. Carrie is desperate. She needs the car to get her sick baby to the doctors. She must avoid the clutches of the repo man as long as she can. Her car securely blocked, Carrie reaches back to get the car seat holding three-month-old

Heartland Health Sickens Patients With Collections Harassment

2008-09-01T23:58:00.002-04:00

When lack of insurance or low income prevents payment of medical bills, patients can find themselves tied up in a lawsuit. In Missouri, those on the receiving end of that litigation complain of the treatment they’ve received from Northwest Financial Services, a collection agency for Heartland Health. The issue has led to a federal lawsuit claiming that Heartland is in violation of Fair Debt

Merchants' Credit Guide Busted In New Mexico

2008-08-29T01:50:00.003-04:00

The New Mexico attorney general's office has reached a settlement with an Illinois debt collection company. The state sued Merchants' Credit Guide Company in August 2007, alleging the company tried to collect debts that were legally unenforceable because the statute of limitations had run out.This is not the first time Merchants' Credit Guide has made news by scamming people.The lawsuit

Citibank to Pay $18 Million Over Theft From Customers

2008-08-27T00:58:00.002-04:00

Citibank Inc. will pay refunds and damages totaling $18 million to settle charges that the financial services company emptied the dormant accounts of credit card customers, California's attorney general announced Tuesday.A three-year investigation concluded that Citibank used an "account sweeping" program between 1992 and 2003 that quietly shifted accrued money in the accounts of 53,000

Renegade Collection Agencies Rounded Up By West Virginia's AG

2008-08-26T01:02:00.001-04:00

West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw's scrutiny of the sometimes unscrupulous debt collection industry demonstrates that the complaints of a few abused persons may lead to consumer justice for the many.For example: The complaint of a Westover woman who was coerced to pay $700 on a disputed debt after a collector hounded her at work prompted an investigation of Bureau of Asset Management

Arizona Secretary of State Sued Over 400 Percent Interest Rate Scheme

2008-08-24T10:11:00.003-04:00

An Arizona committee working to stop out-of-state payday lenders from tricking voters into permanently legalizing 400 percent interest rates filed a lawsuit this morning naming Secretary of State Janice Brewer in Superior Court. Voters may unknowingly vote for 400 percent interest rates for payday loans if the Secretary of State does not clarify the descriptive language of Proposition 200 on this

Jim Cramer Says SEC Not Protecting Small Investors

2008-08-22T00:01:00.000-04:00

As investors dumped shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for the third straight day, CNBC's Jim Cramer urged that trading in both stocks be stopped altogether because they were being manipulated by people with insider information."This is an outrage," Cramer said shortly after the market closed. "It's very clear that someone knows what's happening."More...

Payday Lenders Buying Signatures To Overturn Ohio Interest Rate Cap

2008-08-21T01:19:00.002-04:00

Ohio, having dealt a blow to its payday loan industry by enacting a usury law, is fighting deceit in a fraud riddled petition drive by the loan sharks to reverse the law. HB 545 was signed in June by Governor Ted Strickland, and will go into effect in early September. Under the law, the interest rate for a payday loan will be capped at 28%, and an Ohioan would be limited to four loans per year.

German Owned Deutsche Bank Evicts U.S. Military Family When Soldier Is In Iraq

2008-08-20T00:02:00.000-04:00

Three days before Christmas in 2005, Army National Guard Sgt. James Hurley came home to Michigan after about a year in Iraq. But he wasn't able to return to the home he'd left behind.Hurley and his family had been living in a three-bedroom manufactured home on Michigan's Paw Paw River. But they fell behind on the mortgage, and their lender began foreclosure proceedings in 2004. While Hurley was

Jury Says California Owes Inventor $388 Million For AbusiveTax Collections

2008-08-18T04:03:00.000-04:00

California taxpayers could be on the hook for a staggering $388 million because of a state tax collection agency's vigorous pursuit of a former California taxpayer.In a case that one tax expert called "completely unprecedented," jurors in a Clark County, Nev., District Court trial awarded Las Vegas inventor Gilbert P. Hyatt $250 million in punitive damages Thursday for the "outrageous conduct" of

Man Sets Himself On Fire Over Rent-A-Center Collections

2008-08-15T02:17:00.003-04:00

A Newark, New Jersey man frustrated with the volume of late payment notices and collection calls he received from a local Rent-A-Center store, walked into the business Tuesday and set himself ablaze in front of several employees and customers. "He basically pulled out a bottle of lighter fluid, poured it all over his body, pulled out a cigarette lighter and lit himself on fire," Bloomfield, NJ

Collection Law Firm of Palmer Reifler & Associates Faces Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act Suit

2008-08-13T01:26:00.003-04:00

Veronica Kelly got one of those calls every parent dreads. Her 16-year-old daughter and a teenage friend were detained at JCPenney for allegedly stealing a pair of sunglasses last March. When Kelly arrived at the store, the security guard told her that her daughter's friend was the one with the sticky fingers. Charges were later dropped. Then the letters and phone calls started. Palmer Reifler

Collection Agency Cornerstone Credit Shut Down And Facing $400,000 In Fines

2008-08-12T00:13:00.000-04:00

Connecticut banking regulators have shut down Cornerstone Credit Corp. and may fine the collection agency, saying it is unlicensed and failed to forward some consumers' payments properly to creditors. Cornerstone faces a possible fine of as much as $400,000 in the ongoing investigation for violating consumer collection agency laws in Connecticut, the state Department of Banking said

Home Invasion By The Prince George's County Police Department Demands Criminal Prosecution

2008-08-09T10:46:00.010-04:00

To many people abused by law breaking collection agencies, there is little difference between the bill collectors who harass them and the original creditors who hired the thugs in the first place.What would happen if an original creditor went to the authorities claiming they had been abused by the collection agency they hired? Would anybody care or would it be

Collection Agency AFNI In The Doghouse

2008-07-17T00:40:00.000-04:00

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson has sued Illinois debt-collection agency AFNI (famous for sending demand letters to dogs) for attempting to collect invalid debts from Minnesotans. "This debt collector crossed the line by pursuing debt people said they didn't owe and failing to verify that they did owe it," Swanson said. The office received more than 50 complaints about AFNI Inc., a

AFNI Collections Accuses Dog Of Having Verizon Bill

2008-07-14T01:26:00.002-04:00

More than 70,000 consumers complained about third-party debt collectors in 2007, but one Sacramento couple said they have good reason to bark about the bill they received.Steve Fanelli received a bill from AFNI collections claiming an Andy Fanelli owes Verizon Online $142.34.And although Steve Fanelli does indeed live with an Andy Fanelli, there is a small, furry problem with the bill. Andy

Can You Pay Me Now? Verizon To Pay 21 Million For ETF Scam

2008-07-10T20:52:00.005-04:00

Verizon Wireless will pay $21 million to settle their California class-action lawsuit over early termination fees. Early Termination Fee (ETF) victims are usually charged $150 to $250 when they terminate their cellphone contract.The settlement came less than a month into trial proceedings for the suit, filed in 2006 in California by plaintiffs who claimed the fees were a violation of California's