FDCPA Class Action Filed Against Nationwide Credit

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A class action out of New York claims Nationwide Credit violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) when it unlawfully pressured the plaintiff to pay an already charged-off debt by intimating in a collection letter that the debt amount was subject to made-up fees or late charges. According to the complaint, the plaintiff owed a credit card debt of just under $7,000 to American Express. In a collection letter, the defendant allegedly said the plaintiff’s debt—which was charged-off, i.e. declared by the creditor that the debt was unlikely to be collected—was subject to “timing and system limitations.” This language, the suit argues, is an attempt to subtly pressure the unsophisticated consumer into paying the account to avoid these non-existent fees that are subject to “timing and system limitations.”

From the suit: “[The defendant] violated [the FDCPA] by falsely suggesting that immediate payment of the balance would benefit [the plaintiff] financially by stating that the account balance stated above was ‘subject to timing and system limitations.’ As the account balance [the defendant] seeks to collect never varies from the date of issuance of its collection, and [the defendant] never makes an adjustment after it receives payment in the amount of the initial letter, the statement in its letter is false, deceptive and misleading.”