Category Archives: News

Company Credit Card Liability

With companies going under on a daily basis these days, a good question was presented: Can you be liable for charges that you put on the company credit card if the company goes under but doesn’t file for bankruptcy?

The answer is maybe. It all depends on the terms of the credit card agreement. Some agreement state that the credit card company must go after the company first before they look to you. Others give the company the right to go after the person using the card. Especially if the card was used to purchase something that you keep for yourself as opposed to being in the possession of the company.

Keep in mind that if you use the company card to purchase something for the company and pursuant to the company’s instruction and the credit card company goes after you, you can always sue your employer.

But that might not be the best thing if your company is going under anyways.

Capital One

West Virginia Attorney General has announced that they will sue Captial One and a debt collection agency for “unconscionable conduct in connection with their credit card lending and collection practices”.

What did Capital One do? Capital One tricked consumers into payment plans by sending them solicitations disguised as offers of new credit. The arrangement allowed Cap One to re-age the debt so that it did not fall under the statute of limitations.

Basically what the debtors did was reaffirmed their debt with Capital One by requesting for what they did thought was new credit and this allow the statute of limitation to get extended, giving Capital One the ability to go after these debtors, after the statute had run out.

New Jersey Collection Capital

The State of New Jersey has become the capital for collection agency. More collection agency are currently working out of New Jersey then any other state in the United States. This is a by product of the state giving incentive to small business to come to state and starting new business.

This may be a great story but at the same time, many of these collection agency are being run by ex felons who are fighting the law with their collection efforts. It was recently reported that one of the biggest collection agency in New Jersey was able to generate huge revenue because they were pretending to be attorneys and threatening to take bogus legal action against debtors for their money.

The State attorney general has been reviewing the matter and investigating many agency.

So be careful if you start to see new files referred from New Jersey.

Debtor Anonymous

Debtor Anonymous, a support group for those addicted to overspending, model after the Alcoholics Anonymous program, has its own 12 step program to recovery from chronic debt.  There is no fee to join the program.

The voluntarily organization is composed of 513 US and overseas group.

The first step is to track all your spending for 90 days.  At the end of the 90 days, a new member is paired with two veterans who help devise a spending plan.  The new member learns how to set aside funds for predictable expenses, like rent and car payments.

The program also helps those who are compulsive shopping.  Basically those that cure their bad days with a shopping spree.  They are though to call their designated mentors on bad days to avoid the shopping outlet.

Learning to live without relying on unsecured debt, such as credit cards, is a tenet of Debtor Anonymous (DA).  DA can be a lifesaver, if done right, say consumer finance experts.