Complaint Review: Fifth Third Bank - Cincinnati Ohio

Here's how, on the back/bottom of all telephones is a switch to disable the ringer, flip the switch and your phone never rings, ( I assume you've got an answering machine for the real callers) that's step one. Now they can't harrass you with the endless ringing of the telephone. Second, whenever you do answer and it's one of your harrassers, stop talking immediately and press and hold down the "1" button, this sends a piercing squeal back through the line to their headphones. Don't "Play a tune" by pressing the various buttons, just hold it down. Third, hold down that "1" button until you hear the phone click and the robotic telephone voice says "If you'd like to make a call" this tells you they hung up in frustration. Repeat as required, the calls will stop very shortly.

Since my complaint stems from being treated inhumane by a company, being the benefactor of your compassion is great. I do appreciate all of the imput from everyone. Looks like this time I cannot do anything but duck the calls.

I sure appreciate being advised as to the relevance of the FDCPA in, as it has been called, first party collection efforts. I'm not surprised it may not apply, but couldn't quite figure out if it did or not. As for being a law student, or lawyer, well, at this point, I can only wish either were likely! The only way I can think that I came up with "fatally flawed" is that I read a lot, and also I did work for a publisher of law-related newsletters designed for non-lawyers for 12 years. Unfortunately, probably my best source for the phrase is in having MADE more than one or two fatally flawed decisions. 20/20 hindisight, what a gift! David, I hope that if I wasn't able to provide anything real helpful, at least some compassion may be of value? I wish it was more, yes, I do! Thanks to the posters for the enlightenment, I really do appreciate it!

You must be a lawyer (or law student), Juliet. I don't think I've ever heard a non-lawyer use the phrase "fatally flawed." Am I right? The FDCPA generally only applies to third party creditors (i.e. collection agencies and debt buyers). First party creditors (the people with whom you originally contracted) are exempt from most, if not all of its provisions. So I don't think the FDCPA would apply to bar the bank from calling multiple times in the same day, and I'm pretty sure that cease and decist letters are ineffective in first party collections cases. But such multiple calls may be prohibited by the lesser known Telephone Communications Privacy Act. I haven't researched the TCPA well enough to say whether it would apply here. But I know of at least one pending lawsuit wherein the plaintiff is claiming that the harrassment of a first party creditor violated the TCPA. Look into the Act if you get some free time. Maybe you can come to a conclusion as to whether it would apply in this situation. As for the rest of your advice, I thought it was pretty solid, especially in regards to negotiating a different payment date. That is probably the reporter's best option. But, as you said, it can often be quite hard to find someone willing to help you in a situation like this. You have to be persistent, but being pleasant and appreciative are your best weapons when you're trying to get a banker to help you out. Best of luck!

Thank-you Juliet for your thoughts. You are correct in assuming that my caller ID identifies Fifth Third Bank when they call. Most times I simply lack the patience to allow them to call every 30 minutes all day long. The reason I know they originate in Manila is they told me! I noticed they all had an accent but not Indian as many out-sourced calls do. So I asked and was told Manila. I'm sure Fifth Third has out-sourced their collection/harassment calls and pay next to nothing for the labor. One more way to screw their customers. And lastly, I have completed the Cease and Desist form and will mail it Monday. It will be interesting to see if that works. I will post my results when I know something for certain. Thank-you again for your suggestions.

David, The obvious solution here would be to change your phone# to an unlisted one! There is no legal requirement for you to give them a valid phone#. As far as the payment due date goes, was your situation the same when you first bought the car? if so, why would you sign a contract with a due date you knew wouldn't work? From personal experience, I can say that if you are living that close to your paycheck, you really can't afford that car anyway. It sounds as if you are over your head financially. I have a good union job, and still buy used cars for cash. I refuse to get strapped to another car payment, unless it is on something used for business purposes. Now as far as Juliet's advice goes, ignore it. The FDCPA does not apply to original creditors. It only applies to third party debt collectors. Therefore, they can legally call you every 10 minutes if they want to. Just change your phone number to an unlisted one. That will surely stop the calls. And try to get your finances set up so you are ahead one paycheck, even if you have to take a cash advance from a credit card to do it. This, too will stop the calls.

David, The obvious solution here would be to change your phone# to an unlisted one! There is no legal requirement for you to give them a valid phone#. As far as the payment due date goes, was your situation the same when you first bought the car? if so, why would you sign a contract with a due date you knew wouldn't work? From personal experience, I can say that if you are living that close to your paycheck, you really can't afford that car anyway. It sounds as if you are over your head financially. I have a good union job, and still buy used cars for cash. I refuse to get strapped to another car payment, unless it is on something used for business purposes. Now as far as Juliet's advice goes, ignore it. The FDCPA does not apply to original creditors. It only applies to third party debt collectors. Therefore, they can legally call you every 10 minutes if they want to. Just change your phone number to an unlisted one. That will surely stop the calls. And try to get your finances set up so you are ahead one paycheck, even if you have to take a cash advance from a credit card to do it. This, too will stop the calls.

David, The obvious solution here would be to change your phone# to an unlisted one! There is no legal requirement for you to give them a valid phone#. As far as the payment due date goes, was your situation the same when you first bought the car? if so, why would you sign a contract with a due date you knew wouldn't work? From personal experience, I can say that if you are living that close to your paycheck, you really can't afford that car anyway. It sounds as if you are over your head financially. I have a good union job, and still buy used cars for cash. I refuse to get strapped to another car payment, unless it is on something used for business purposes. Now as far as Juliet's advice goes, ignore it. The FDCPA does not apply to original creditors. It only applies to third party debt collectors. Therefore, they can legally call you every 10 minutes if they want to. Just change your phone number to an unlisted one. That will surely stop the calls. And try to get your finances set up so you are ahead one paycheck, even if you have to take a cash advance from a credit card to do it. This, too will stop the calls.

David, The obvious solution here would be to change your phone# to an unlisted one! There is no legal requirement for you to give them a valid phone#. As far as the payment due date goes, was your situation the same when you first bought the car? if so, why would you sign a contract with a due date you knew wouldn't work? From personal experience, I can say that if you are living that close to your paycheck, you really can't afford that car anyway. It sounds as if you are over your head financially. I have a good union job, and still buy used cars for cash. I refuse to get strapped to another car payment, unless it is on something used for business purposes. Now as far as Juliet's advice goes, ignore it. The FDCPA does not apply to original creditors. It only applies to third party debt collectors. Therefore, they can legally call you every 10 minutes if they want to. Just change your phone number to an unlisted one. That will surely stop the calls. And try to get your finances set up so you are ahead one paycheck, even if you have to take a cash advance from a credit card to do it. This, too will stop the calls.

I have a number of thoughts about this post. Two are constructive. Two are just rather emotionally based, but would help avoid the calls as well as aggravate the callers, in the event the reasonable ideas don't work! It doesn't sound like the bank is real interested in being cooperative, so trying to reach a reasonable compromise with them, as this suggestion offers, may not work. But just in case you haven't thought of trying this, you could ask if you could have due date changed to a date that will routinely fall after your paydays, and then, no more late payments. Make sure that you don't make the due date the exact day you receive your pay, be sure to allow at least a five day ?processing? period after the time you expect to be paid. I would hate to have you get the due date changed without thinking of this, and ending up still in the same situation. Then the bank's response would undoubtedly be that they TRIED to work with you, and you still didn't come through, blah blah blah. It sounds so easy, but I do realize there are plenty of businesses that don't really care about that! I don't think it's necessarily ?corporate policy? that prevents such a reasonable accommodation, I do believe it more often is a passive/aggressive executive at some level that may disallow such an arrangement. If such an individual is at a high level, then yeah, maybe it IS corporate policy, which makes it a delightful business to work for, as well as be a customer of. I sure may be wrong, but it seems to me that the bank would primarily be interested in receiving a consistent payment each month as opposed to the bank absolutely needing all customer payments be received by the 15th of the month, for example, or the whole infrastructure will collapse. If the bank, or any business, is operating on such a shoestring budget as that, not predicting a bright future for the entity! Regarding the bank stating "A supervisor, Joseph Brooksbank advised me the bank could call me every 10 minutes if they wanted since I owed them money!" - not sure if this next idea applies since they are calling about a late payment versus one that is past due, and not being paid, at all. But the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) does permit a person to send a cease and desist letter telling the debt collector to no longer telephone them, and the collector is legally bound to comply. Again, not sure if that applies to a current business you are making payments to, but it's worth looking into. Look up the FDCPA for when this is permitted, and if it is, the exact letter information that needs to be included, as well as the conditions of how it has to be sent and recorded by you. I believe it may have to be sent registered mail, and some other conditions. Now, for the less constructive thoughts! These are ideas as far as dealing with the calls either while you are trying to work with the bank about changing the payment date, or if the FDCPA won't permit a cease and desist letter under the circumstances, or if the calls are occurring while you are working on getting a letter sent. David writes: "The calls come from Manila, Phillipines!" I'm presuming you have caller i.d. and that's how you know where the calls are coming from. If so, don't answer! True, a ringing phone can be quite annoying, so if you do have caller i.d., and it's them, just pick up the receiver and immediately hang it up. Not a real fun way to spend your time, but at least you'd be spared speaking with rude people. If you found out the origin of the calls some other way, and can't tell where the call is coming from, as soon as you answer and it's the bank, hang up! Don't say ANYTHING, don't try to be polite, just hang up. As far as I've ever known, it's not against the law to hang up on anyone. If any of my suggestions are fatally flawed, please post your comments! As to David, wishing you luck with the reasonable ideas! And wishing you patience if you have to resort to the other ones lololol!