by Paul MankinDoes Ace Cash Express Call Your Job?
Does Ace Cash Express call your job attempting to collect on a past due pay day loan? If it does, it may be violating the law and you could have a claim against them. So what is the law and how do you make the calls to your place of employment stop?
Can Ace Cash Express Call Your Job?
If your employer does not allow you to get personal calls at work and Ace Cash Express knows it, it may be violating state consumer protection laws similar to the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by calling your job. The federal Act expressly prohibits debt collectors from calling consumers at their place of employment if their employer does not allow such calls. The Act however does not apply to original creditors such as Ace Cash Express. Many states though, have laws that mirror the FDCPA, such as California’s Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (RFDCPA). The RFDCPA prohibits creditors from calling California residents at work in order to collect on a debt, if the creditor is aware that the employer does not allow employees to get personal calls. The Act also prohibits a creditor from discussing a consumer’s debt with a third party, such as your boss or other co-workers who may answer calls from Ace Cash Express.
How Can I Make Ace Cash Express Stop Calling My Job?
The first thing you should do if Ace Cash Express is calling your job is tell them that you are not allowed to receive personal calls at work and ask them to stop calling you there. If the phone calls continue after this, you should write Ace Cash Express a letter asking them to stop contacting you. Be sure to keep a copy of the letter for yourself so that you have proof that you sent the request and know on what date you sent it. If Ace Cash Express calls your job after you have informed them that your employer does not allow you to take personal calls at work and have mailed them a letter requesting that they stop contacting you, you may need to consult with a consumer protection attorney. An experienced consumer protection attorney can help you determine if any laws have been violated, if you have a claim against Ace Cash Express, and can help you file the claim. This will stop the calls to your job and Ace Cash Express may even be ordered to pay you for its violation of consumer protection law.
If you are getting harassing calls from Ace Cash Express collections please contact our office for a free, no obligation consultation at 1-800-219-3577.
by Paul MankinI Am Getting Collection Calls From Companies I Do Not Owe!
Are you getting collection calls from a company you do not owe? How to make them stop can be quite simple or very difficult; it depends on who is calling, a creditor or a debt collector, and why they are calling.
Creditor vs. Debt Collector – Who is Calling Me?
A creditor is someone that a consumer owes an original debt to for goods or services they purchased directly from that person or company. Creditors may include:
- Credit card companies
- Healthcare providers
- Plumbers, accountants, and other professionals or tradesmen
- Landlords or rental companies
- Banks, mortgage companies, and financial institutions that provide consumer loans
- Governmental entities to whom you owe money for fines, fees, or taxes
Basically, a creditor is someone who provided you with goods or services before receiving payment in exchange for the promise what you would later pay for the goods or services, or a governmental entity to which you owe a fine, agency fee, courts costs, or some type of tax.
A debt collector is someone that a creditor hires to collect a debt for them. A debt collector is defined by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) as:
“Any person who regularly collects, or attempts to collect, consumer debts for another person or institution or uses some name other than its own when collecting its own consumer debts.”
Determining who is calling you is the first step in making the calls stop. If a creditor is calling you and you have paid the bill in full, you should attempt to resolve the matter by asking them to look up your account and go over any payments or charges with you. If they are calling the wrong person, let them know that you are not the person they are attempting to contact and provide them with your full name and address. If they do not agree that they have the wrong person or telephone number, or on the amount you owe or do not owe, ask for their mailing address and send them a letter outlining why you believe their information is wrong and asking them to stop collection attempts. You should also mail a copy of your letter to the Federal Trade Commission at 6th and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20850. But what if the calls are coming from a debt collector?
Debt Collectors – Why Are They Calling Me?
Debt collection agencies do one thing – they take money to collect on debts. Debt collectors usually work on a contingency; which means that they receive a percentage of the amount they are able to collect from the debtor. This gives them incentive to aggressively pursue a consumer to collect on the debt, because if they do not collect, they do not get paid.
How Can a Debt Collector Attempt to Collect Money I Do Not Owe Them?
Creditors oftentimes enter into contracts with debt collectors to provide them with debt collection services. They collect on debts owed to the creditor in exchange for a flat or hourly fee, or a percentage of what they are able to collect. This enables the debt collector to act on behalf of the original creditor and make any legal attempts necessary to collect on the debt. So while you may have never agreed to pay the debt collector or have any kind of contract with them, they are allowed to collect on the debt you owe the creditor because they were hired by the creditor to collect it.
What Are Debt Collectors Allowed to Do When Collecting a Debt?
Debt Collectors are covered by the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), which prohibits them from using unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices when attempting to collect a debt. Some of these prohibited practices are specifically mentioned in the Act, such as:
- Calling a consumer before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m.
- Using obscene or abusive language
- Threatening to take actions it is not legally allowed to take or does not intend to take
- Telling consumers they will be arrested if they do not pay the debt
- Discussing a debt with third parties
- Allowing a consumers phone to ring repeatedly
- Contacting a consumer at work when it knows the employer does not allow personal calls
- Committing or threatening to commit violence against a consumer in an attempt to collect a debt
- Falsely implying they are employed by or affiliated with a government agency
- Reporting or threatening to report false credit information
Other unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices are prohibited by the Act, even if not specifically mentioned in the law.
What if the Debt Collector Got Inaccurate Information from the Creditor?
There are times when a debt collector receives inaccurate or false information from a creditor, such as the legal name, phone number, or address of the debtor, the amount of the debt, or the status of the debt (whether it has been paid in full or in part). This is generally not done on purpose but can become annoying and abusive to a consumer if they are being harassed to pay a debt and they are not the person who owes it or it has already been paid. If this happens to you, ask the debt collector for their mailing address and mail a letter requesting verification of the debt and cessation of the collection attempts. You should also mail a copy of your letter to the Federal Trade Commission at 6th and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20850.
I Have Done All This and The Collection Calls Won’t Stop!
If you have written letters, requested information, and told the collectors you do not owe them money and stop calling until you were blue in the face and the calls continue, you may want to consider hiring a consumer lawyer. An experience consumer attorney can not only make the calls stop, but they might even be able to get the collector to pay you!
If you are getting collection calls from companies that you do not owe, contact our office at 1-800-219-3577, for a free, no obligation consultation.
by Paul MankinAce Cash Express Settles Class Action Lawsuit Accusing it of Being a Loan-Sharking Operation.
On September 6, 2001 a class action lawsuit was filed against Ace Cash Express in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The Complaint alleged that Ace Cash Express exploited low income consumers by charging outrageous and illegal interest rates on payday loans and used unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices to make and collect on those loans. The complaint called Ace Cash Express an illegal enterprise which amounted to a “massive loan-sharking operation.
The Plaintiff’s claimed that the company’s loan and collection practices violated several federal laws, including the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), and the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA), as well as anti-usury and consumer protection laws in more than 30 states where it does business.
According to the Complaint, Ace Cash Express, in violation of the TILA, falsely claims that its payday loans are made by Goleta National Bank, which allows it to evade state caps on interest rates and charge a rate that is over 440% per year. The deceptive claim allows it to do this, because nationally chartered banks, such as Goleta National Bank, are not subject to state interest rate laws. The cash advance company then markets its loan services to economically disadvantaged consumers it knows will not be able to repay the loans. The Complaint alleges that the company does this in order to force those consumers to continuously extend or renew the loans, causing them to incur additional interest charges, oftentimes resulting in the consumer paying interest that is several times the amount of the original loan. This type of predatory lending, says the Plaintiff, nets Ace Cash Express and its collaborators tens of millions of dollars a year in “ill-gotten” profits, and violates state laws against unjust enrichment.
The company’s disregard for the law does not stop there, however. The Complaint further alleges that borrowers who are unable to pay their loan by the due date, and choose not to reinstate or extend the loan, and are then subject to abusive collection practices, such as being told they will be arrested and have criminal charges filed against them if they do not pay, having their personal information disclosed to third parties, and being contacted at their place of employment. These collection tactics are all specifically prohibited by the FDCPA. Ace Cash Express was also alleged to have violated the EFTA, by requiring consumers to authorize automatic debits of their checking account as a condition of obtaining a payday loan, and the FDCPA, by then repeatedly attempting to debit the accounts, causing consumers to incur unwarranted bank fees.
In October of 2002, the parties reached a Settlement Agreement and on December 11, 2003 the Court approved the Agreement. Ace Cash Express agreed to establish an $11 million settlement fund, make at least $2.5 million in cash payments to members of the class action suit who had repaid their loans, and forgive $52 million of class members’ debt who had not repaid their loans. It also agreed to refrain from associating with other banks in order to skirt state interest rate caps, stop some of its abusive collection practices, such as repeatedly attempting to debit borrower’s bank accounts, and provide consumers with specific disclosures about its debiting practices and bank fees they might incur as a result of any debits.
It appears as if the Settlement did not deterred Ace Cash Express from using predatory lending or deceptive and abusive collection practices, however. In July of 2014 the company was ordered by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal agency in charge of overseeing companies in the financial industry, to pay $10 million for abusive practices it called “predatory behavior that forced consumers into a cycle of debt”. The CFPB found that Ace Cash Express attempted to create a false sense of urgency in loan repayment by repeatedly calling defaulted borrowers, discussing their debt with third parties, and threatening arrest and criminal charges if they did not pay. The agency said that the company did this to convince borrowers who were unable to repay their payday loan to temporarily pay it off and then quickly take out a new loan, which caused the borrowers to incur new fees and more debt they would likely be unable to repay. Sound a bit familiar?
Sadly, a look at the almost 700 complaints filed against Ace Cash Express with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and CFPB since the class action settlement and CFPB order to pay $10 million seems to indicate that the payday loan company still has no intention of ceasing its unlawful lending and collection practices.
If Ace Cash Express has harassed, abused or misled you in an attempt to collect on a debt, contact our office at 1-800-219-3577, for a free, no obligation consultation.