Michigan Consumer Credit Law Blog

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States. It has been made far easier by our digital age.

This morning, I saw an article about identity theft using Facebook. In that article, the author discussed how Facebook uses a Like Button on its interface. People can click the Like Button to signify that they agree with or like something someone else has said. Identity thieves have noted that lack of a Dislike button. They have now set up Dislike buttons so that when you click on it, it gives the identity thief the ability to rifle through your personal information on your computer. It allows the bad guys to steal your identity. Be careful when clicking on any third party application.

For more information about identity theft, how to combat it and what to do if you are a victim of it, visit Michigan Consumer Credit Lawyers or contact Attorney Gary Nitzkin at (888) 293-2882

Sixty Four year old Sandra Cortez walked into a car dealership to buy a new car. Imagine her humiliation when the dealership would not grant her a loan because she was listed as a known drug dealer by Trans Union. TU had obtained its information off the U.S. Treasury Department's watch list of drug dealers and terrorists. Ms. Cortez sued Trans Union. See Cortez v Trans Union (3rd Cir 2009).

The court held that Trans Union was liable to Ms. Cortez for violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Trans Union failed to prepare a report on Ms. Cortez using procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy as it is required to do under the FCRA. Whats wild about this case is even after the jury awarded Ms. Cortez $50,000 in damages plus $750,000 in punitive damages the jury wrote a note on the verdict form to Trans Union that said:

"

The Trans Union business process needs to be completely revamped with much more focus on customer service and the consumer."

I have been telling you for years, since I first took the deposition of Experian, that the credit reporting agencies are designed to handle numbers and volumes of cases; not people's disputes. Simply stated, if you have a consumer dispute with a credit reporting agency, there is an excellent chance that it will do little, if anything about it unless you file a lawsuit. Just ask Ms. Cortez.

If there is something on your credit report, that does not belong there, you must posit a dispute to the credit reporting agency. Do it immediately. For more information about your rights including several short "how to" videos, visit Michigan Consumer Credit Lawyers. You may also call or email Attorney Gary Nitzkin at (888) 293-2882.

With the economy struggling and many people finding it difficult to meet their bills, debt collection agencies are feeling the pressure to track down consumers. In a creative attempt to find consumers, some debt collectors have gone online, friending consumers on Facebook, LinkedIn, and similar social networking sites.

While pretending to be your online “friend” to collect a debt may feel like a sneaky debt-collector trick, it’s legal as long as the debt collectors follow the rules laid out in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), according to the Federal Trade Commission. For instance, debt collectors must identify themselves as debt collectors when they friend you – they can’t pretend to be a long-lost college buddy and then hit you up for cash.

Continue reading "To Get Paid, Some Debt Collection Agencies Hop On Facebook" »

Many people visit websites like the government-sponsored AnnualCreditReport.com to get a free look at their own credit reports. Now, getting a copy of your credit report, including your credit score, is easier than ever.

The U.S. Congress recently passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Commonly known as “Dodd-Frank,” this law creates a number of reforms and new ways to protect consumers from unfair credit practices. For instance, under Dodd-Frank, lenders who turn down customers for loans must give the customer a copy of the credit report the lender used to decide against granting the loan (See section 1033 of Dodd-Frank). This is also true of employers who decide on the basis of your credit score not to hire you, or insurers who decide because of your credit score that they will not provide insurance for you.

Continue reading "Financial Reforms Make Getting Your Credit Report Easier Than Ever" »

One of the other goals of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is to promote fairness in debt collecting. To accomplish this goal, the FDCPA provides consumers with a means to dispute and obtain debt validation information for the purposes of assuring accuracy of the debt. Additionally, the act has also created specific guidelines for bill collectors including:

o definition of a consumer’s rights where debt collection is concerned
o how they conduct the collection of debt
o prescribing penalties as well as remedies for any violations of the FDCPA

In many circumstances, the FDCPA is used in conjunction with the Fair Credit Reporting Act as well.

Continue reading "What constitutes debt collection harassment under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act?" »

If you’ve gotten yourself into a distressful financial situation where you are unable to make your bill payments on time, you are probably being bombarded by companies that are engaged in practices that would be defined as collection agency harassment. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) strictly prohibits debt collection harassment when you are dealing with collection agencies.

Fortunately, the FDCPA has not only established guidelines that prohibit harassing behavior by any collection agency, but also defines the consumer’s rights where collection practices are concerned. The following 4 steps are suggestions you should consider in order to stop collection agency harassment so that you no longer receive collection letters, debt collection calls, or are a victim of any other unfair debt collection practices:

Continue reading "How to stop collection agency harassment" »

What is identity theft?

Identity theft has been defined as a form of fraudulent activity “in which someone pretends to be someone else” or assumes “that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name” (see Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_theft). Adverse consequences result for the individual who is a victim of identity theft, especially if they are held accountable for the actions of the perpetrator committing identity theft.

Continue reading "The primary identity theft threats" »

I commonly come across people with poor credit scores. I think about ways that they can improve their credit score themselves. With the state of the U.S. economy, a lot of individuals have experienced financial distress and damaged their credit histories. People have lost their jobs and many more have had their homes foreclosed which has created a multitude of credit problems for today’s consumer.

In addition to this, the current economic crunch has made it increasingly difficult for individuals with bad credit scores to be approved for financing and loans. Fortunately, with a little discipline and due diligence, you can easily repair your credit report score on your own.

Here are a few steps to consider if you want to repair your credit report scores and restore your good name in the process:

Continue reading "Help yourself to improve your credit score" »

So you're getting sued for a credit card debt or some such consumer debt. The process server, a big ugly guy with an obnoxious grin that you want to beat into submission just served with you a summons and complaint. Should you worry? Maybe. Maybe not. Here are a few tips for handling the legal action and your controlling your sanity:

1. Don't ignore it. In Michigan you have 21 days from the date that you were served with the complaint to file an answer with the court. If you don't do that, you will be defaulted and a judgment will enter against you. The lawyer who filed the complaint is hoping, praying and do some other possibly unmentionable acts in the desire that you default. Why? Because if you follow these other tips, you can actually make his life more difficult than he is making yours.

Filing an answer is pretty easy. Copy the same caption information at the top as you see on the complaint. Then, you have to admit or deny each allegation in the complaint. If you are unsure of something, tell the court that you don't know whether that allegation is true or not.

2. You may or may not get a pretrial notice. If the court just schedule the case for a trial, call the judge's clerk and give her the case number. Tell her that you would like a pretrial date because you want discovery on this case. Discovery is where you get to ask the Plaintiff's attorney about what facts and documents and witnesses he or she has to support his or her case. this where things start to get dicey for the Plaintiff's attorney.

3. At the pretrial, tell the judge that you want discovery in this case. Then, when you get home, write a letter to the Plaintiff's attorney and ask for all documents that he or she has on the file. Ask for the names and addresses of the witnesses that the attorney will call at trial. If the attorney is representing a debt buyer, he will realize that his case is slowly going south. You see, debt buyers frequently get the names, addresses and social security numbers of people that owe money. They rarely, if ever, get the back up documentation. This puts you in the drivers' seat.

4. Make sure the Plaintiff's attorney gets you the documents and answers by the 28th day after you send your discovery request. If you don't get the documentation and answers to your discovery requests, call the opposing counsel and ask him nicely when he will provide these items to you. Be sure to make a record of this request so at trial, you can tell the judge that the Plaintiff's attorney was asked to provide these things and has failed to do so.

By following these tips, you can usually get a sizeable reduction in the debt and/or a comfortable payment plan.

Have questions? Call me, Attorney Gary Nitzkin at (248) 353-2882. I am always happy to talk.

Potential credit grantors get to take a sneak peek at your credit report if they have certain criteria and are ready to make you a "firm offer of credit" under the Fair Credit Reporting Act ("FCRA"). So when you get a "You've been pre-approved for a Visa credit card" letters in the mail, is it really a simply matter for you to sign your name and get your credit card in the mail the next week? No....it really isn't.

Judge Patrick Duggan in Wilson v First Bank of Delaware, Case No. 10-11345, (Eastern District of Michigan), was recently presented with this very issue. First Bank of Delaware (FBD), approached Trans Union with a list of criteria for people to whom it wanted to give a credit card. Mr. Wilson's credit report was given to Trans Union based on that criteria. Wilson received such a pre approval letter in the mail from FBD. However, FBD pulled Wilson's credit report again and changed its mind and declined to give Wilson a credit card. Wilson sued under the FCRA, claiming that FDB improperly pulled his credit report because it did not extend a firm offer of credit to him. The court sided with FBD.

The court looked at the FCRA and determined that FBD had complied with the statute by approaching Trans Union with a list of criteria so that it could extend firm offers of credit to people meeting that criteria. But, the FCRA does not hold a potential lender hostage by requiring them to actually commit to making a loan to these people. The potential lender can still review a person's credit report again and look at the credit application before making a decision. In this case, the subsequent Trans Union report on Wilson showed a charge off which make his credit report inconsistent with the criteria that FBD had been looking for in connection with its prospecting program.

Continue reading "So when is a Firm offer of Credit NOT so firm?" »

The ugly threats

This week is the second time that I received a telephone call from someone who had obtained a Payday loan, defaulted and the was illegally threatened by an anonymous collection agency. This agency threatened the people with immediate jail ("I am calling the police now on you for fraud.") They also all represent themselves as lawyers using the names "Kevin White", "Dennis Peterson", and "James Wilson" and left a telephone number of 914-930-3200. They are able to violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act with impunity and get away with it. Why? Because these guys are off shore in the Dominican Republic.

They are not debt collectors. They are thugs.

In the last year, I received two calls from people who have been bullied, threatened and intimidated by these telephone thugs. In both cases, these I spoke with these punks and they all speak with South American accents despite their nice all-American names. Moreover, I have checked the United States federal court's records and have seen numerous lawsuits filed against these companies and none of them have ever resulted in a judgment due to lack of service of process.

What you can do if you are contacted by these off shore sleazes.

Take heart. Because they are there and you are, presumably, here in the United States, they cannot do anything to you... at all. I have counseled my clients to stand up to these thugs and simply advise them to do whatever it is that they want because my clients know who and what they are. My clients know that these punks can't do anything from a thousand miles away. If you get a call from one of these guys, and the phone number that they left is 914-930-3200, just laugh at them and let them know that you that they are powerless to do anything to you.

Continue reading "Beware of scam "debt collectors" working for Payday Loan companies" »

Employers, with a prospective employee's consent only, sometimes pull a credit report on the prospective employee. This is a federally permissible purpose under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. However, given today's economy, many people, especially the unemployed, have had credit damage done to their credit reports. Fox Business reports that some states are stepping up to prohibit employers from pulling credit reports for employment purposes.

Continue reading "States want to limit pre employment credit checks" »