EquiCredit are money stealers Jacksonville Florida
EquiCredit has created such a headache for me. When my account was only 6 months old, they failed to automatically withdraw my payment. They never told me about it and charged me a late fees. Two months later I had to call and ask why they hadn't taken out my payment. I asked for an extension since they were already late in taking my payment. I was told I had to write this "letter" explaining WHY I needed the extension. Well, I was denied an extension. My reason wasn't good enough. They also told me direct deposit wasn't counted as paying on time.
They covered up their error and finally gave me an extension.
An account rep told me they did not accept post dated checks, when at the time they did and it was on the coupon. This rep returned my check so she could report to the credit bureaus that I was 90 days past due.
I stopped my automatic withdrawal, and for two months they kept trying to withdraw from my account causing overdraft fees. I was told that if I sent my bank statements proving they caused my overdrafts they would refund my money. I am still waiting.
They claimed I owed for late fees when I included my late fee with my payment. One month they took out for the late fees THEY claimed I owed. Their consumer consultant refused to admit they were wrong. This caused me to be a month behind according to them.
You never get a supervisor to call you back and the "History" Department never seems to understand what it is you are questioning them about so it can be settled.
They call everyday (because that is what they have hired people to do) even on Sunday. I think the Attorney General in Florida needs to hear from everyone having problems with EquiCredit. They can also be reported to the Fair Credit Bureau for calling anyone on their job after they have been told not to.
One of their account rep told me very sarcastically that it was not going to happen that I get my account straightened, because they were not wrong!!
Agnes
Detroit, Michigan
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Jack
Fairbanks,Alaska,
long history of pretending to negotitate with mortgagors
#3Consumer Suggestion
Tue, May 14, 2002
Anyone who is fighting with Fairbanks should immediately hire a local attorney. This corrupt company has a long history of pretending to negotitate with mortgagors, at the same time they are quietly foreclosing.
If you have true tales to tell about Fairbanks, or their equicredit and nationscredit friends, you can file your own Rip-off report.
If there is a class action, you would be directed to the attorney by this site.
The rebuttals from Fairbanks' employees are starting to show up all over the internet. With the media closing in and the feds watching, you can expect the foreclosure rates to soar during the next three months. That is how criminal firms operate during their final days in business.
Good luck.
Chris
Jacksonville,Florida,
Message from EquiCredit (now Fairbanks) Employee
#3UPDATE Employee
Mon, May 13, 2002
This message is not only for this customer but for all of the customer that have left messages on this sight. I, as an employee for over 2 years in Customer Service Department, hear complaints all day long about issues that pertain to the happenings listed in this sight.
I am not going to sit here and say that these things to not go on, but it is only being looked at from one point ov view. The way I see it from our side is that first of all the loans that were with EquiCredit are sub-prime loans.
Not to put anyone down but these are the people that do not necessarily have the best credit. So there are a lot of customers that are not ones that make their payments every month. As an employee in Customer Service, I saw loans every day that were 4 and 5 months behind. Not to say that all of the customers were that far behind, or even behind at all.
There are also many customers that had to come to us to use us as a stepping stone to get back on the A-credit list. This brings us back to the previous comment.
Like I said there are many customer that are seriously delinquent, thus the collections practices need to adjust accordingly. Granted, I will admit that they are a little and sometimes extremely excessive, but the job of that department it to "collect" money for the company. Everyone has heard the horror stories but we do what we can to have those situations dealt with.
The next thing that I want to deal with is the missing payments and the holding of the payment to make sure that the late charges are added. I'm sure that this happend with all companies when payments are posted and not credited to the account histories.
Yes these things happen, but hopefully our Customer Service department should be able to advise you of which payment is missing and give you a fax # to send the proof (front and back of check).
Granted our turn-around-times are long but according to the Real Estate Servicing Protection Act (RESPA) we have up to 60 days. But anyways that is another issue that I do not want to get into. In reguards to the late charges and the holding of the payments. The only thing that we request is something proving that we recieved the payment on time. Neither Equicredit nor the customers have any control over the mail system. I also know that many of our customers use regular mail and there is no return receipt, so their is no way to prove the payment was recieved. When these payments are recieved the go straight to a PO Box.
From there the payments are run throught a machine that reads the check numbers and the amount and account number is typed into the machine. Account numbers are typed in wrong which would explain the missing payments that were still cashed out of your accounts.
My only suggestion to make sure that your payments are there on or before your due date. Granted all most loans have 10 or 15 grace days on them, but those grace day are intended for administration purposes, so that payments can be recieved and posted and late charges are not added. Based on the note that you signed, it states that you would have the payment there on or before the due date. This brings us back to collecions department. They cannot call you on the due date but the first day after is legal, due the prevously mentioned statement.
The last thing that I wanted to mention is in reguards to the Automatic Withdrawl(aka ACH). I don't think that it was on this message but it was an accout that was set up but we had missed a month of draft. This may be a common answer with our associates and I don't want to be mean when I say this but, It is not our job to make sure that you make your payments.
Granted we do have a collections department but that statement still holds true. Basically you entered an agreement with us to make your payments to us every month, we did not sign anying stating that we would monitor every account to make sure the payments are made. The accounts that are on ACH are drafted every month on the same day of the month.
The customer should be aware that they may have a couple hundred dollars extra in their accounts. This might be a clue that something is wrong with the account.
The last thing that I want to get across is not something that will defend our company but it is a samll warning to our customers. The new company that has taken over EquiCredit, known as Fairbanks Capital Corp., is a lot more harsh than EquiCredit ever was. Their collections and Foreclosure practices follow strict guidelines. With EQCC we did not foreclose until 120 days of delinquency, but with FCC they send out letters after 60 days and stick accounts into foreclose after 90 days. Another thing is the requests for payoffs, pay histories, and any documents. FCC charges for these ducuments. EQCC was one of few that did not charge for the requests. All of the fees are outlined on the back of the monthly statements as far as amounts and how to request each.
In conclusion to this lengthy rebuttal I just want to say that I appologize to all of the customers that had a bad experience with our company.
With EQCC we had over 500,000 customers and everyone won't love us and with FCC our portfolio will more than quadruple, so please bare with us. As far as the customers that planning on filing law suits, I am not going tell you not to file them but my advice is to check the RESPA guidelines, which we are governed by, before spending the money on filing the suit. For those that have a ligitimate claim I hope everything works out for the best.
Lastly, if you have made it this far in the comment, I thank you for reading this and hope that it may ease and complaints and may assist you with any dealings with our company. If you have a rebuttal to the comment that I have left please leave it on this sight as I will check it periodically to see what kinds of comments are left. Thanks.