Clout Credit Card - Clout Financial Services Targets young Individuals Madison Wisconsin
I first received a clout credit card in 2004 after I graduated from highschool at the age of 18yrs old. My credit limit was $600 and at the time I had a job to maintain the card,but shortly after, I lost my job and I fell behind in payments. After not paying, clout raised my credit limt to about $800 without no notice or my consent. The debt was sent to a credit agency and I did make the initials payments until the card was paid in full. Now after about 3 years I receive a call from Eastern Asset Management LLC about a debt of $816.55. Now, what do I suppose to do when I don't have no proof that this debt was paid about three years ago? And they are threatening taking wages and being sued??
Victoria
Jacksonville, Florida
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Bob
Jefferson,Wisconsin,
USA
Deception
#3General Comment
Wed, May 17, 2017
I have also had dealings with this company. I took out a clout student visa in 2001. After falling behind, they raised my limit and kept charging me. After paying them back almost 1200 dollars (The total amount I owed them) I started receiving calls from eastern assets management. The calls stopped years ago. Now, about a decade later, I'm getting calls. They contacted my uncle, whom I almost never speak to. They called my boss at work, asking if they could drop off some papers. They claim to have mailed me papers requesting action on my part. I'm curious why they didn't call me. Or my parents if they couldn't get ahold of me. The individual who called my uncle claimed to be from my local sheriff's department. Curious, since the "infraction" would have occurred years ago, while I lived in a different county, almost 2 hours away. When I contacted the clerk of courts, not only did they tell me the case number was in an unusual format, but they also said they had no record of any pending legal action against me in this case. When I called a representative from the company that's allegedly been trying to contact me, they explained that in the fine print in the clout contact, there is a clause waiving the statute of limitations on issues like this. I'm no expert, but I'm fairly certain that is completely illegal. The number they contacted my boss (not me mind you, but my boss) was (855)210-8651. Keep your heads up folks. I smell fraud.
Zrscruggs
Rockwood,Tennessee,
U.S.A.
Clout Financial Dissolution
#3Consumer Suggestion
Fri, August 08, 2008
Standard Disclaimer ** I am not a Lawyer, all advice given here should in no way be taken as a substitute for professional Legal Advice**
I recently had an issue with Clout Financial as well. Seems they were taken over by three different companies since 2004. First they were sold to WebBank, then to MBNA, then finally MBNA was bought out by Bank of America.
Now what does all this have to do with your situation?
It's a simple process of debt validation.
With the company having been sold and transferred this many times, it's not unlikely that former paper trails seem to somehow disappear, this is including your payment history. What doesn't disappear, though, are the large portfolios of junk debt that these unscrupulous buyers seem to get access to for pennies on the dollar.
I would suggest that before anything gets out of control and turns into a legal battle (and this may well help you keep it out of court and keep you in sound mind) is that you file a letter with the collectors asking for full debt validation.
A good site (free) that I recommend for finding a form letter for this is found
Here: http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/debt_validation.shtml
And you can find a good form letter to get you started
Here: http://www.creditinfocenter.com/forms/sampleletter9.shtml
Once you send this letter what happens is that 1) they can't call you anymore and are only allowed to contact you via postal mail through UPS, USPS, or FedEx. 2) The burden of proof falls on them to produce the documents that you owe them this debt. Note**they must be able to show that you own THEM this debt, not Bank of America, or MBNA, or WebBank, but them. Again I recommended looking over creditinfocenter.com for more specific information.
3) They are not allowed to continue collections on this account until after they validate that this debt is in fact yours and they are authorized to collect on it.
All of this is your right as outlined in the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act.
Moreover, you may want to check with your Credit Bureaus and see that this is not negatively appearing on your credit history. You are allowed one free report a year, and free subsequent reports for any declination of credit from all three major Credit Bureaus, as outlined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Now, you may wish to hire an attorney if these findings are not to you liking. See, if they have reported incorrectly to any of the credit bureaus, then they are in violation of the FCRA, and subject to fines of up to, I believe, $1000.00. Same goes for any violation of the FDCPA.
I would suggest that you be proactive with this and send these letters as soon as possible, certified mail with return receipt.
I have done this myself over an alleged account with Clout Financial/WebBank/MBNA/Bank of America that was sold to Progressive Management Systems, a most shady debt collector with an impressive non-FDCPA compliant track record.
My letter was sent on the 16th of July 2004 to these people, and I received a reply on July 22 stating:
In response to your inquiry, pleas be advised that we are in the process of obtaining the documentation which you have requested. This process has taken LONGER THAN EXPECTED (emphasis mine) Be assured that the information will be forwarded to you immediately upon receipt.
If there are any further questions please contact my office.
I don't expect them to come up with anything near satisfactory to satisfy my request for validation.
But I'll be sure to keep you updated should any reply be sent.
Good Luck and Godspeed.
ZS