The following are claims that people commonly  have, but don't realize. If any of these things apply to you, please call or send us copies of your papers. You may be entitled to recover substantial amounts of money.

Collection Letters and Practices
Please send us copies of any collection letters. Many debt collectors and  collection lawyers routinely violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  This is a Federal law which gives you certain rights and prohibits certain methods of attempting to collect debts. This may entitle you to recover money (up to $1,000).

Typical violations include:
(i) Adding unauthorized collection charges;
(ii) Threatening to report a debtor to the Internal Revenue Service if payment is not forthcoming;
(iii) Threatening criminal prosecution (mainly on bad checks); (iv)  Getting the debtor's bank account number and debiting it through various devices;
(v) Initial demand letters which insist on payment within less than 30 days;
(vi) Sending large numbers of letters purporting to come from attorneys or collection agencies when that is not the case;
(vii) Names suggesting that the  debt collector is connected with the government or a credit bureau;
(viii) Buying up bad debts and offering misleading "credit rebuilding" plans, generally  involving issuing a credit card and putting the bad debt on it;
(ix) Buying up debts that have been discharged in bankruptcy or are past the statute of limitations and trying to collect them; (x) Collection notices on student loans  which misstate your legal rights;
(xi) Any collection letters sent to you after  you have filed a bankruptcy proceeding seeking to collect debts that arose prior  to the filing are illegal. (xi) Demands for attorney's fees prior to suit when contracts provide for fees only if suit is filed.

Another common violation is changing the default date used to compute the  seven year period a bad debt can remain on your credit report. A collection  agency or bad debt buyer is required to use the same date as the original  creditor. Often, they use a newer date, which allows the entry to remain on your  credit report longer.

We have recently seen many attempts to collect checks dishonored more than 3 years ago, which is the applicable statute of limitations. Collecting  time-barred debts is a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act violation.

Payday and Title Loans
We are interested in looking at any loan at more than 100% interest, such as "payday loan" and "title loan" transactions. We believe that at least half of  the loan documents used by payday lenders and title lenders violate the Truth in  Lending Act or other laws, entitling the borrower to twice the finance charges,  not less than $100 nor more than $1000 per loan.

Many collection letters sent in connection with "payday loans" are also  illegal.

Also, any threat to bring a criminal bad check charge on a payday loan check is illegal.

Mortgages
Mortgage companies have a statutory obligation to respond to complaints and  requests for explanations of accounts. Often, they don't. This failure may entitle you to $1,000.

In a sale of real estate, the seller's lender charges a fee for recording the  release of the mortgage, shown on the payoff statement. The title company also  charges a fee for recording the release of the mortgage, shown on the HUD-1. One of the fees is fictitious, probably that charged by the lender.

You pay off a mortgage and a charged a fee for a statement showing how much  you owe the mortgage company.

You have a mortgage at more than 10% interest.

You have a mortgage loan on a 2-4 unit building in which you reside.

Credit Cards
We are interested in cases in which a credit card issuer promised a low rate on balance transfers and then raised the rate. We are also, looking at companies that delay the application of payments causing consumers to incur different charges.

Insurance
We are looking for people that bought "industrial" life or accident  insurance. The life product is sometimes called "burial" insurance. These are small-balance policies for which the premiums are collected by door-to-door salesman, and are especially prevalent among minorities. We are interested in  challenging discrepancies between this product and more conventional products under the Civil Rights Acts.

We are looking for insureds of "substandard" carriers whose vehicles were  involved in accidents and were repaired by their own insurance companies in a  shoddy manner.

We are also looking for minority plaintiffs whose auto theft loss claims were  arbitrarily denied by substandard insurers.

We are interested in insurance premium finance contracts. Many do not conform  to Truth in Lending.

Autos
Minority purchasers who sign retail installment contracts at more than about 12% that were purchased by one of the major auto credit companies (GMAC, Ford  Motor Credit) may have discrimination claims.

You were given a choice between a rebate and below-cost financing and took the financing (not the rebate).

You bought a car, signed financing papers, and the dealer later told you to  come up with a larger down payment or sign a contract with different financing  terms. This is a very common practice. It is often illegal. It is known as the Yo-Yo sale.

You had a car repaired at a shop selected by a "substandard" insurance company and the repairs were shoddy.

You purchased a car after responding to an ad seeking people who wanted a car  and had bad credit or no credit.

You purchased insurance supplements as part of car rental transactions. These  do not include loss damage waiver.

You rented a car and were charged a higher price based on where you live.

You have a good driving record but pay a lot for car insurance because of  where you live.

You bought a car with significant prior accident damage, or that was a rental  car, and it was not disclosed to you. (We have seen many such cases; with increasing demand for used cars, dealers are tempted to do this.)

You had insurance premiums added to your balance because the bank claimed you  didn't have insurance.

You were charged for "VSI Insurance" or "Vendor's Single Interest" insurance on a car loan.

Medical Bills
You are being dunned for a balance allegedly remaining after an insurer or benefit plan paid the entire "reasonable and customary" charge (and the bill is  for more than a deductible or co-payment amount).

Other Loans and Installment Contracts
You were turned down for a loan or other credit without being issued a  written statement of the reasons. This is a violation of the Equal Credit  Opportunity Act.

We are interested in looking at recent small loan transactions in which (i) a  security interest was taken in personal property, (ii) the security interest is very vague (e.g., "household goods," "television" (without make or serial  number)), and (iii) either the customer was sold property insurance or there is a charge for filing fees or nonfiling insurance. These may involve Truth in  Lending or other violations.

A finance company solicited you to borrow more money, and then refinanced your loan instead of making a second loan. The refinancing may have been much more expensive than a second loan.

You were charged a "nonfiling fee" or for "nonfiling insurance" on a loan or installment contract.

Junk Faxes
We are interested in cases where you have received junk faxes from companies with which you did not have a previous relationship.

Other
Uncompensated overtime is a major source of complaints. Another is the failure to extend benefits to long-term "temporary" employees.

We are looking for unauthorized charges for insurance, service contracts on credit accounts.