??FDCPA Violations??

[PayYouNever]

I owe a CA, and back in August of this year I was late on a payment plan, and while the CA's overzealous was threatening me with a law suit I opted to pay the current payment with my bank debit card and provided the CA with the number.

The CA decided to run my card twice -- which I didn't authorize -- and it resulted in a negative balance and a few NSF charges.

When I found out that I was double-billed and called to complain, I was again threatened/reminded with a law suit for non-payment and that they would apply the second unauthorized payment toward the next month's payment.

I wasn't fully aware of my Rights at the time, and recently learned that this practice is a potential FDCPA violation, specifically what's spelled out in Section 808 regarding Unfair Collection Practices.

Does anyone know if I have a case?

[Anonymous]

Get a new debit card!

[Anonymous]

It may have been an honest clerical error.

Just be glad they're not going to just send you a refund check that will take 4-6 weeks for you to get and in the meantime you'll be out the money... they're going to apply it to next month's bill, which is good.

I would never give a CA my real checking account.  I would make a specific checking account designated for paying delinquent balances.  That's probably the best route, don't you think?

[PayYouNever]

Well, I've set up the Debt Payment Only Account since then. But in reading the FDCPA, it looks like the CA was in violation. I'm wondering if anyone knows more about the case law to see if I can file suit in small claims court or something. Because the specific FDCPA subsection indicates that CAs can't take postdated monetary instruments.

[Anonymous]

I agree you I pay with a Post Office money order, so I can track it.............

[Anonymous]

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PayYouNever wrote:
Well, I've set up the Debt Payment Only Account since then. But in reading the FDCPA, it looks like the CA was in violation. I'm wondering if anyone knows more about the case law to see if I can file suit in small claims court or something. Because the specific FDCPA subsection indicates that CAs can't take postdated monetary instruments.

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You could definitely file.  You can almost file for anything nowadays.  But you might want to measure your claim against your time that may be wasted in the process of seeking a lawyer, going to court, etc.  It seems to me as if they've been reasonable in applying the payment to the next bill, if that's not satisfactory, maybe they can offer a goodwill credit or a grace period for the payment after the next one...I don't know.  But it may have honestly been an error.

[azsassycat]

I had a creditor who debited my account twice and refused to pull the payment from their end so I called my bank and disputed the payment as a duplicate payment with my bank.  It took about seven days for the bank to complete their investigation and they reversed the debit and refunded the two NSF charges that were assessed due to my account being in the negative because of the duplicated payment.

HTH - Cathleen

[Anonymous]

That's another great option too.  Banks offer protection against clerical errors.  If you haven't incurred any fees and you're not too inconvenienced by the duplicate payment.  Let it go...

[PayYouNever]

The thing is I did incur fees, was late on my rent for September and late on paying other creditors, so I don't want to let it go if I can get the $1000 fine...

I don't see it as a clerical error, because when I called about the overzealous b*tch on the phone harassed me for being late in the first place and was threatening a law suit if I didn't comply with the payment.

I'll take it under advise me to get the goodwill grace period on the current payment. Hopefully they'll respond to that... but it's a CA, so it's very unlikely.

[Anonymous]

I definitely think you've got a good case then, especially if it's messing up the rest of your life.  They should take responsibility for the double-draft and pay all fees associated with their mistake.  Let's just hope the late payment for other creditors isn't reported.  That would make everything much worse.  Get some sort of compensation out of them!

Message Edited by TheCynicalOne on 11-28-2007 01:05 PM