New York Attorney General Goes after Car Dealers for Selling Credit Repair Products

According to autonews.com, the New York attorney general has cracked down on auto dealers selling credit repair products, reaching a $14 million consent agreement At least some of the products were associated with a company called Credit Forget It.  According to federal law, and state laws in almost all of the states, a credit repair organization cannot charge an upfront fee for its services. When an auto dealer sells a credit repair product, even from a third party, that makes the dealer a credit repair agency.

These credit repair products are sold at huge mark-ups and have almost no value.  If you bought some kind of credit repair service or identity theft monitoring problem when you purchased your car or truck, and if you live in Indiana, please contact me through my website at hoferlawindy.com.  If you are from another state, I can refer you to a fellow NACA consumer lawyer.  

CFPB goes after Citibank for Deceptive Charges on Credit Card Statements

The CFPB is forcing Citibank to pay $700,000,000 for adding bogus charges to customers' credit card bills.  Think about that number:  $700 million dollars that they stole from their own customers.  I bet there is not a single criminal in federal prison today that stole $700 million from anyone,  yet the banksters at Citibank are still not going to jail.

These charges appear to be related to "affinity marketing" scams.   Chase added on reoccurring charges for "AccountCare" and "PrivacyGuard" (With all those billions, you'd think they'd have a keyboard with a space bar.)  The thing is, this is not a new problem. Banks have been doing this, getting in trouble for it, and doing it again and again.  Here's a link to a post I wrote in my Union blog in 2007 about Chase getting in trouble for products it sold with the evil company TLG GreatFun.   The scam wasn't new then.  It appears that at least some of the programs that Citibank was selling came from Affinion, the parent company of  Trilegiant (which did business as TLG GreatFun).  Affinion is the 321st largest private company in the United States according to Forbes magazine, with revenues of $1.2 billion.  Earlier this month, the CFPB entered into a multimillion dollar consent agreement with Affinion and another affinity marketing company.


If you have charges on your credit card that you don't understand, don't know what they are for, and don't remember agreeing to, it it is likely that you never really agreed to the charges at all, at least not in a conscious way.  If you have mystery charges on your account, (usually $9.99 to 19.99), contact my office (www.hoferlawindy.com).

The CFPB's action once again proves that there is a new sheriff in town.  Affinion and its conspirators got away with this scam for years because the Federal Trade Commission took no significant action against Affinion, and the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulated the banks, turned a blind eye to almost everything.  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is now the regulator, and that agency is doing a vastly better job at going after bad behavior.  Most of the time, the CFPB's enforcement actions come after receiving a number of consumer complaints. So if you see bogus charges on your credit card statements, file a complaint with the CFPB at this web address: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/

Here are just some of the tradenames that have been associated with Trilegiant/Affinion.  If you see any of these on your bill - or even anything that kind-of sounds like one of these, you will need to go back to your previous statements and find out when the charges started.  In many cases, if you cause a stink you will get reimbursed completely.

AOL AutoVantage
AOL Credit Alert
AOL Netmarket
AOL Travelers
Advantage
AutoVantage
Buyers Advantage
Citishopper
Clever
Clubhouse
CompleteHome
Credentials Services
Dental Plus Group Plan
Digital ProtectionPlus
Dinner On Us Club
Family FunSaver Club
Great Fun
Great Options
Health Saver
Homeowners Savings Network
Hot-Line
Identity Secure
Just For Me
Macy's Hot-Line
National Card Registry
Netmarket
OurCompleteHome.com
Pet
Privileges
PrivacyGuard
Sears Discount Travel Club
Shoppers
Advantage
Small
Business Central
Today's Homeowner Values
Travel ER
Travelers
Advantage

HG Auto Sales, Shelby Street, Indianapolis

We are investigating a complaint involving HG Auto Sales, 3127 Shelby Street, Indianapolis IN 46227.  If you have any dealings with this company and would like to talk about it, even if you have no intention on bringing a legal claim, please call us at 317-662-4529, or fill out a contact form at our website, www.hoferlawindy.com.

What does a "Consumer Lawyer" do? Here's what I'm working on this summer

When I tell people that I'm a consumer lawyer, they always ask: "what does a consumer lawyer do?"  I don't know why, but after many years in the trade, I still have a problem answering the question in a way that is meaningful.  That being said, here are some of the things I've been working on this summer:

- Pension assignments to Voyager Financial Group
- Uncleared liens by (defunct) Avco Financial Services
- Lawsuits over student loans by National Collegiate Student Loan Trust and Educap
- Collection cases involving Cach LLC, Unifund, Midland Credit Management and more
- American Water Resources, Inc - water and sewer line protection plans
- Credit repair organization contracts
- Undisclosed rebuilt wrecks
- Cell phone harassment
- Mortgage foreclosure defense
- Credit report issues
- Lawsuits by Driver Solutions, LLC. and Medtech College

Summer?  What is this "summer" of which you speak?

How do you Clear a Lien by a Dead Lender? - The Avco Financial Problem

It has recently come to my attention that a number of people have been facing the problem of clearing liens by dead lenders.  A lender should file a satisfaction of lien when they are paid off, but what do you do if they don't, and the company is no longer in business?

This happens in the case of car loans and home loans.  If it is a car loan, you may be able to get relief from your Department of Motor Vehicles.  For home loans, it's not that easy.

You have two main pathways. The first path is to identify a successor in interest to the lienholder, and get the successor to file a lien release. If that doesn't work, you may have to file a court case asking the court to declare the lien no longer in force.

Either way, it is a frustrating and time-consuming process, and you have my sympathy if you are put in this position.

The case that I'm looking at now involves Avco Financial. If I come across good information of a successor-in-interest, I will post it in an update.   It appears at first Google that Textron bought Avco, then sold Avco Financial Services to Associates First Capital Corp.  Associates first Capital Corp was then purchased by Citigroup (Citi Financial Services).

If you are in Indiana and you have a problem with a defunct lien holder, feel free to contact me through my website, www.hoferlawindy.com.  If you are not in Indiana, I suggest you contact a consumer lawyer in your area through the National Association of Consumer Advocates at www.NACA.net.


By the way, Avco Financial was related to Avco Embassy Pictures, the company that produced, The Graduate, This is Spinal Tap, Escape from New York, and many more.

JP Morgan Chase to Pay $125 Million to Settle Credit Card Robo Signing Claims

Reuters is reporting that J.P. Morgan Chase agreed to pay $125 million to settle claims by 47 states, the District of Columbia and the CFPB that include charges that it used robosigners to sign affidavits in support of credit card law suits, generally suits brought by third party debt buyers. In addition there were claims that Chase sold accounts that had been discharged in bankruptcy, settled or paid by the consumer, or where the consumer had died.  In addition to the $125 million split between the feds and the states, $50 million will be paid to customers in restitution.

The CFPB has been looking into the delinquent account selling practices of the other major banks as well.  This may be the tip of the iceberg.  If you get sued on any bank card, even if it is by a third party collection agency, make sure your lawyer knows about the Chase settlement. Even if the card issuer was not Chase, in opposition to summary judgment, the Chase settlement can be used as an example why the affidavits of the bank should not be taken at face value.

Were You Sued by PFS, Collectors for Medtech College? We are looking into various legal claims.

Medtech College (www.medtech.edu) is a multi-campus medical professions trade school with branches at:

Atlanta-Marietta, Georgia
Orlando, Florida
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Greenwood, Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
Lexington, Kentucky
Silver Springs, Maryland
Falls Church, Virginia
Washington, D.C.

What I have run across is a surprising number of collection suits against students pending in Lawrence Township Small Claims Court in Indianapolis, Indiana.  The suits are filed by PFS as their collection agent.  It is important to note that, of the cases I reviewed, most were TRANSFERRED INTO Lawrence Township from other places, primarily Warren Township.  Why is that important? The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act provides that a debt collector must sue you either in the judicial district where you live, or in the judicial district where you signed a written contract.  The Medtech campus in question is located in Lawrence Township, so people who were sued originally in other townships may have been sued in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act has a 1 year statute of limitations, So if they sued you in the wrong place more than one year ago, your claim under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act may be barred by the statute of limitations.  That being said, at least one court has ruled that the statute of limitations under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is subject to the "discovery rule".  What that means is that if you didn't have notice of the suit against you, you may still have your one year to sue from the date you find out about the suit against you.

Also, if you were never served with a summons and a complaint, regardless of where you live, you may have grounds to have the judgment set aside and rendered void, no matter where you live and no matter how old the judgment is.  This is a matter of federal law, and it applies regardless of which campus you attended.

If you have been sued by PFS or Medtech in Indiana, call my office at 317-662-4529 or through the website at www.hoferlawindy.org.  If you have been sued in relation to one of the non-Indiana campuses, contact the National Association of Consumer Advocates for referral to a consumer lawyer near you through the lawyer referral service at www.naca.net or www.consumeradvocates.org.

Finally, if you have been sued by Medtech or any other trade school, you should know that you may have defenses to a collection case based on any mis-statements or lies that were used to recruit you into the program or any other breach of contract by the school. If you took out federal student loans, you should bring the misrepresentations to the attention of the U.S. Department of Education.  For more information about filing a complaint concerning student loans, check out this FTC page:

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0160-student-loans

IF YOU HAVE BEEN GETTING COLLECTION CALLS FROM PFS (or any other debt collector, for that matter)  please note that if they are calling your cell phone, if you tell them they do not have permission to call your cell phone, and after giving them notice not to call your cell phone they keep calling the cellphone using an automated dialer or automated voice, you may be able to sue them and get damages of $500 to $1500 per call.  The key is to be able to prove you gave them notice, and to keep track of the calls after that notice.  Also, under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, if you give them notice in writing to cease collection communications, they can only contact you once to acknowledge that they are ceasing communications, and after that they must sue or cease collecting completely.

These numbers have been associated with PFS 877-836-1377, 317-822-7026.  There may be more.