Van Ru Credit Corp., Colony Brands, Silver Star Brands Named in Wisconsin Debt Collection Suit

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Van Ru Credit Corporation and retailers Colony Brands Inc. and Silver Star Brands Inc. have been named as defendants in a Wisconsin woman’s debt collection lawsuit. At issue in the suit are collection letters the defendants sent regarding three separate credit card accounts – two of which were owned by defendant Colony and the other by Silver Star.

On November 27, 2017, the plaintiff allegedly received a collection letter from Colony regarding her “Seventh Avenue” store-branded credit card. The letter noted a “new balance” and a “minimum payment due” that both amounted to $74.59 while indicating that if the plaintiff remitted only the minimum payment, she would be paying an estimated total of $78.42 over four months, the suit says. On top of that, the “payment due date” listed in the letter was July 25, 2017, which had passed about four months earlier, according to the complaint. The lawsuit claims the letter was misleading and left the plaintiff confused as to how much she owed and when her payment was due.

On the same day in November, the suit continues, defendant Colony supposedly mailed an account statement to the plaintiff regarding her “Through the Country Door” credit card account. The statement, the case says, indicated a “new balance” of $319.62, with a “payment due date” of December 25, 2017, and a “minimum payment due” of $200.00. The letter assured the plaintiff that she could “avoid an embarrassing call from a collection agency” by paying “at once,” the suit notes.

On December 5, 2017, the case claims the plaintiff received a collection letter from Van Ru regarding her “Through the Country Door” credit card account that failed to mention Colony and indicated instead that her creditor was “Country Door.” The letter demanded a payment of $319.62, according to the complaint, instead of the lower minimum payment amount noted in the earlier account statement. The case argues that Van Ru’s letter was deceptive in that it demanded more than was owed before the payment due date specified in the plaintiff’s account statement.

Moreover, the lawsuit mentions an additional account statement mailed by Silver Star on December 4, 2017, regarding the plaintiff’s “Easy Comforts” credit card account and the corresponding debt collection letter mailed by Van Ru on December 12. Similar to the Country Door account, the defendants supposedly listed a minimum payment in the plaintiff’s account statement yet demanded the full debt amount specified in the collection letter, which was sent prior to the statement’s listed payment due date.

Finally, the lawsuit claims both Colony and Silver assured the plaintiff that her accounts would not be sent to a debt collector unless she failed to pay the minimum payment due, but instead passed the accounts on to Van Ru “within days after sending their statements.”