Complaint Review: GE Capital Cons Card - Lousville Kentucky

Jim, I find it very strange that the credit company would discuss this account with your wife. When I tried to pay a telephone bill that was in my son's name, the telephone company would NOT take my call without verification of HIS social security number. They would not even tell the the exact amount of money he owed on the account. It is a shared telephone account that we both pay. It's strange that a bill WAS discussed with your wife WITHOUT your knowledge or approval. The defense that not paying the bill would affect the spouse's livelihood is not creditible. How would you like it if the credit card company discussed what the charge was for ... especially if it was meant to be a birthday or anniversary present for the spouse. I believe the FIOA would be interested in learning about this ripoffreport. It reminds me that just a few years ago, I learned that credit card companies SELL your private information to people or companies that will PAY a sufficient price for the information. Your name and address and other PERSONAL information should not be SOLD without your personally signed and notarized approval! I hope you WILL check with your attorney and if he cannot help you, file a consumer complaint regarding the company and its practices. Then, contact the American Civil Liberties Union about the release of your personal information to people that YOU did not authorize release. Marriage is NOT an automatic inclusion on all information ... especially if the account is in your name exclusive of her name. The most the worker should have said was that she wanted the spouse to call her ASAP and leave the number with the spouse OR whoever answered the telephone. I find it very strange that social security numbers, birthdates and other personal information cannot be released to children or spouses, but debts can be released to anyone answering the telephone. It's no surprise to me that the 'employee' says he/she will reply to your complaint ONE TIME ONLY! Jim, you need to keep others informed about your findings ... especially since the employee states he/she WILL not respond further!

Not going to get into a long drawn out argument or respond to this again, BUT . . . . 1.) Privacy Act does not apply here. 2.) FDCPA (Fair Debt Collections Practices Act) does kind of sort of. FDCPA applies only to third party collections; IE your primary lender contracts ABC collection company to collect on DELINQUENT accounts. ABC is required to comply to FDCPA. GE CCCC is not required to adhere to FDCPA if it is collecting on loans they originated or legally purchased, however it DOES adhere to FDCPA as a borometer or standard by which to conduct business. Collections reps are regularly trained and re-tested on FDCPA knowledge. 3. FDCPA states that no collections calls may be made before 8am. Anytime after 8:00:01am is just peachy though. Set your clocks to the US Naval Observatory's Atomic Clock which IS the official time. I'll even make it easy for you. http://www.time.gov/ 4. Texas is a community property state. This is probably my most important point. Being married in a community property state you and your spouse share EVERYTHING, including credit. FDCPA states that in a community property state account information may be released to the card holder's spouse. This is due to the fact that account delinquency and credit reporting can affect the spouse wether or not they are on the account. If the collector is told they are speaking to a card member's spouse it is assumed they are being told the truth. Why would an upstanding card holder or card holder spouse lie about their marital status? As far as verification goes one could do a very quick SSN search on the internet to verify name, address and so forth of the spouse if the spouse wanted to make a big deal about it. 5. Calls MAY be monitored or recorded for quality purposes. This is the basic disclaimer on every inbound and outbound call. It doesn't mean that EVERY call IS monitored and/or recorded. Bottom line, pay your bills on time so collectors don't have to talk you your wife at 8:01 am.