On December 16, 2015, the CFPB announced a consent decree with EZCORP, an Austin, Texas-based payday lender. The consent decree included $7.5 million in redress to consumers, $3 million in fines, and the effective extinguishment of 130,000 payday loans. In July of this year, EZCORP announced that they were exiting the consumer lending marketplace.
The consent decree alleged a number of UDAAP violations against EZCORP, including:
- Made in person “at home” debt collection attempts which “caused or had the potential to cause” unlawful third party disclosure, and often did so at inconvenient times.
- Made in person “at work” debt collection attempts which caused – or had the potential to cause – harm to the consumer’s reputation and/or work status.
- Called consumers at work when the consumer had notified EZCORP to stop contacting them at work or it was against the employer’s policy to contact them at work. They also called references and landlords seeking to locate the consumer, disclosing – or risked disclosing – the call was an attempt to collect a debt.
- Threatened legal action against the consumer for non-payment, though they had neither the intent nor history of legal collection.
- Advertised to consumers that they extended loans without pulling credit reports, yet they often pulled credit reports without consumer consent.
- Frequently required as a condition of getting the loan that the consumer make payments via electronic withdrawals. Under EFTA Reg E, requiring the consumer to make payments via electronic transfer cannot be a condition for offering a loan.
- If the consumer’s electronic payment request was returned as NSF, EZCORP would break the payment up into three parts (50% of the payment due, 30% of the payment due, and 20% or the payment due) and then send all three electronic payment requests simultaneously. Consumers would sometimes have all three returned and incur NSF fees at the bank and from EZCORP.
- Informed consumers that they could stop the auto-payments at any time but then failed to honor those requests and often indicated the only way to get current was to use electronic payment.
- Informed consumers they could not pay off the debt early.
- Informed consumers about the dates and times that an auto-payment would be processed and regularly did not follow those disclosures to clients.
- When consumers requested that EZCORP stop making collection calls either verbally or in writing, the collection calls continued.
Penalties for these infractions included:
- $7.5 million fine
- $3 million pool to provide redress to consumers for NSF fees for electronic payments practices
- Barred from at-home and at-office collection efforts
- 130,000 accounts – what appears to be the entire EZCORP consumer lending portfolio – is no longer collectable. No collection activity. No payments accepted. EZCORP must “amend, delete, or suppress any negative information relating to such debts.”
By opposingusury
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Also posted in bill collector, debt collection, debt collector, EZCORP, fair debt collection practices act, harassment, improper collection practices, invasion of privacy, privacy, Uncategorized, usury
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Tagged cfpb, consent decree, ezcorp, harassment, improper debt collection practices, payday loans, threats
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Mike DeWine, the attorney general of Ohio, has accused Rotech Holdings, Ltd., doing business as the RH Group of violating debt collection laws.
The New York based company stands accused of:
- Using abuse and profane language on the phone
- Threatening people with jail time
- Harassing co-workers and family members
The Lista brothers, Sean and Glenn, who operate the company are named in DeWine’s lawsuit, which seeks an injunction to stop violations, damages for consumers, and civil penalties.
By opposingusury
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Also posted in debt collection, fair debt collection practices act, harassment, rotech holdings, Uncategorized
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Tagged abuse, collection agency, glenn lista, harassment, mike dewine, new york, ohio, rotech holdings, sean lista, threats
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You can find the contact details of the founder of GC Services here. Call him if you can’t get them to stop harassing you.
By opposingusury
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Also posted in bill collector, debt collection, debt validation, equifax, experian, gc services, junk mail, privacy, skip tracing, transunion, usury
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Tagged bill collector, collection agency, complaint, debt collector, gc services, harassment
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Did you get annoying calls from India, claiming to be a government agency collecting a debt? Well, the FTC shut them down!
By opposingusury
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Also posted in bill collector, debt collection, debt validation, fair debt collection practices act, federal trade commission, kirit patel
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Tagged debt collection, fraud, ftc, harassment, impersonation, kirit patel, phone harassment, scam
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This article has a very clever idea!
By opposingusury
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Also posted in bill collector, debt collection, experian, intelius, invasion of privacy, privacy, skip tracing, zabasearch
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Tagged bill collector, change of address, collection agency, credit reporting, debt collector, equifax, experian, identity theft, intelius, transunion, zabasearch
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Go here to learn about the bad things that happen when Experian and GC Services get together…
Read details here. Good work, Maryland!
By opposingusury
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Also posted in bill collector, debt collection, fair debt collection practices act, lvnv, resurgent capital
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Tagged bill collector, collection agency, consumer rights, debt collection, fair debt collection practices act, fdcpa, harassing phone calls, lvnv, maryland, resurgent capital
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Watch out for collection agency, Client Services. It seems they purchased a debt from FIA Card Services, who had offered it by mistake. FIA Card services withdrew the debt, but Client Services kept trying to collect on it!
By opposingusury
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Also posted in bailout, bank of america, client services, debt collection, debt validation, fair debt collection practices act, fia card services
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Tagged bill collector, client services, collection agency, debt collection, debt validation, fia card services, harassment, improper calls to cell phone
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Go here for the details-confirmation and how to do it.
You need to do this NOW as Intelius is a preferred tool of collection agencies and other invaders of your privacy.
By opposingusury
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Also posted in bill collector, intelius, invasion of privacy, skip tracing
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Tagged bill collector, collection agency, debt collection, intelius, invasion of privacy, naveen jain, opt out, private detective, private investigator, public record, public record database, public records, skip tracer, skip tracing
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Intelius and Zabasearch are among the leading “skip tracing” databases used by collection agencies.
Here’s some good news-for the cost of a fax (and there are free ways to send them!) you can remove yourself from these databases.
Updated information on how to do it is available here.
By opposingusury
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Also posted in bailout, bank of america, bill collector, debt collection, intelius, skip tracing, zabasearch
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Tagged bill collection, collection agency, database, debt collection, intelius, skip tracing, zabasearch
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