Debt buyer Midland Funding LLC agreed to pay Minnesota $500,000 to settle a lawsuit filed last year by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson. The lawsuit accused the company of robo-signing affidavits in collection lawsuits and sometimes targeting the wrong people for payment of debts it bought from banks and credit card companies. Midland Funding, a…
Consumer attorney Craig Thor Kimmel discusses how to fight back against collection agencies and help stop collection calls in this interview with Ebru Today:
The same problems that plagued the foreclosure process — and prompted a multibillion-dollar settlement with big banks — are now emerging in the debt collection practices of credit card companies. As they work through a glut of bad loans, companies like American Express, Citigroup and Discover Financial are going to court to recoup their money….
Consumers across the country say they are being harassed into paying bills they don’t owe to a company that no longer exists. And it’s not the first time. Hollywood Video and its parent company, Movie Gallery, went out of business in 2010 and declared bankruptcy. About 3 million U.S. residents owed money to the firm…
One of the nation’s largest debt collectors, Allied Interstate, was charged by the Federal Trade Commission for making repeated collection calls to collect from the wrong person, to collect the wrong amount or both. Allied has agreed to pay $1.75 million in the settlement, which is the second largest civil penalty obtained by the FTC…
A disturbing piece of collection harassment news has come to our attention via American Banker: Bank of America has apparently sold a debt collector the rights to sue consumers over credit card debt that it has internally confirmed to possibly be repaid or inaccurate. The company sold off credit card receivables to a Denver, Colorado-based…
West Virginia consumer Diana Mey is trying to collect money from a collection agency after winning the largest judgment ever against an abusive debt collection company — more than $10 million. “I’m a mom, and I’m a housewife, and I’m an accidental activist,” Mey said. From her small-town home in Wheeling, Mey took on a…
When the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was enacted in 1978, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter did not exist. No one could have anticipated how much of an impact social media would have on our lives but the debt collection industry is taking full advantage of our lives on public display. MSN recently…
Anne Sessions of Lane County, Oregon is suing Wells Fargo after one of its debt collectors reported to police that that the 85-year-old was threatening suicide, a claim she maintains was false, The Oregonian reports. After hitting financial trouble, Sessions says she arranged a payment plan for her credit card debt with Wells Fargo last…
Debt collectors have been known to use various techniques to secure payment, some of which violated the Fair Debt Collection practices act (FDPCA). This can include pestering debtors, their friends, relatives and co-workers with calls at inappropriate times and places. In other cases, debt collections for debts of the dead, can rise from the grave…
