Virtually every day, over a 9 month period, Navy Federal Credit Union called consumer Carolee Dempsey approximately 6-12 times on her work phone, and another 6-12 times on her home phone regarding an overdrawn credit card account. NFCU conduct was particularly unjustified in light of the fact that Dempsey was making payments in order to get caught up.
Not only was the volume of calls (estimated in the thousands) abusive, but the content when she did pick up was outrageous. NFCU unlawfully threatened to terminate her child support payments and her son’s social security checks.
Cases such as those pose a practical difficulty, as the consumer protection attorney’s primary tool with regard to collection harassment, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), is not available. 15 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq. (See our recent Consumer Law Update on lack of liability for primary creditors under FDCPA).
Specifically, because Navy Federal Credit Union was an original creditor (i.e. it was the original lender of the funds in question, rather than a third party collecting on behalf of the creditor or a debt buyer that purchased the account after default), its conduct is not regulated by the FDCPA. Undeterred, Schlanger & Schlanger, LLP filed an action in federal court, Eastern District of New York, under the Fair Credit Billing Act, an underutilized subsection of the Truth in Lending Act addressing credit card payment disputes, and included state law claims for violations of N.Y. General Business Law § 349, which prohibits unfair and deceptive business practices, and for nuisance and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
NFCU quickly settled, paying Plaintiff $15,000.00. As part of the settlement, Navy Federal Credit Union also significantly reduced and restructured her credit card debt, removing all previous interest and charges, and reducing the interest rate to zero going forward and.
NFCU, while we were stationed overseas, called my mother over and over and over and over despite letters, phone calls and emails to NFCU. They had our phone number overseas. Despite registered mail, phone calls, emails…they continued to harass my mother. This was because they sent us paperwork for a Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure (NFCU’s appraisal was fraudulent) saying that we had to stop paying to put that through. We did, that’s when the phone calls started. Then they froze our account without notifying us. They wouldn’t even allow us to pay on a NFCU credit card-unbelievable. They stated several times it was fixed and that my credit card payment would be processed, information I had to pass along to my credit card company. It never was fixed. My credit card was charged off without me even knowing, they wouldn’t even allow us to get money for food in the beginning. Those are violations of Federal Consumer Protection Law. I sent certified or registered mail, NO RESPONSE other than yet another packet for Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure because our entire transaction was fraudulent. I contacted the Chairman, BGEN Michael C. Wholley at NASA via email. He responded initially until I asked if he would provide the information on who, at NFCU, is qualified to review Mortgage Documents. I told him about the credit card, he’s a lawyer, I’m positive he’s familiar with the consumer protection laws… NO RESPONSE.
Wow, this is the same thing im going through NFCU, not only repeatedly calling my parents house after they asked nfcu to stop, also repeated calls to my employer some calls seconds after the last call even after I asked nfcu to stop calling! I have no idea how or why they got my parents phone# I never lived at there current adress or shared there there # with nfcu. Someone needs to look into nfcu and there collection department and make them follow the law!