Debt relief for the consumers as Cross Country Bank must pay $9 Million
Debt relief is late but very welcomed as the Cross Country Bank, one of the nation's biggest sub prime credit card lenders, is ordered to pay $9 millions for its engagement in fraudulent and illegal business practices, according to Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
Cross Country Bank advertised credit cards with credit limits up to $2,500 to the consumers with bad credit. The real limits were much smaller, around $400 for almost everyone who took the bait. What was worse is that the bank imposed every imaginable fee and billed them on those cards. Fees included were application fee, annual fee and monthly maintenance fee. As a result many with limited resources were unable to pay unexpected fees and got trapped into situation with very limited credit left, escalating late and over-the-limit penalties that lead to ever mounting debt and even worse credit.
It gets even better, after Cross Country Bank helped the cardholders into delinquency, it would use affiliated debt collection agency, Applied Credit Services, to go after them. Applied Credit Services used every illegal and abusive technique in a book including:
- misrepresenting the caller's identity
- making frequent and disruptive phone calls
- calling cardholders at their work place
- using rude and obscene language
- threatening the consumers
It does remind the Ameriquest and Ameridebt stories.
Fri Jan 27, 2006 09:01AM | Copyright: www.bad-credit-advisor.com | More in Personal Finance |
Recent Entries
- Capital One Secured Credit Card to Improve Credit Score - Review
- How to get approved for mortgage - loan approval help
- Spouse average FICO credit score is higher?
- Why average credit score?
- Getting mortgage after bankruptcy - go FHA
- Debt settlement and how it affects credit score
- Debt settlement with Citibank
- Can I settle with credit card company with no late payments?
- Credit card limit lowered, credit score goes down
- Gold price will rise in 2011
