Cross Country Bank online payment bait and switch ripoff then charge late and overlimit fees Boca Raton Florida

Workers discuss questionable tactics allegedly used by ACS By Jessica Shifflett/Register-Herald Reporter, Beckley WV -----

Former Applied Card Systems employees in Beckley said Wednesday that unauthorized payments were taken from customers' accounts at the request of "senior management" through a system dubbed "assumptive pay-by-phone" in late 2001 and early 2002.

The practice was later discontinued, they said. "Senior management says they didn't direct it, but yes, they did," said Melissa Stanley, a senior manager who was among those who lost their jobs Wednesday.

Stanley was promoted to senior management April 1. She said she was a supervisor when her superiors began pressuring her to direct collectors to make unauthorized payments by phone from cardholders' checking accounts. Stanley added that in normal procedures, customers verify their banks and account numbers and authorize the check number.

Then the payments are set up by phone. "That would be the correct way to do it. Then you would go over it again for a second verification," she said. However, Stanley said senior management last year told supervisors and associates that if customers accepted transaction numbers from ACS collectors, they had in effect agreed to have the payment deducted from their checking accounts. "You tell the customer, I'm going to set up a payment and you don't have any choice, here's your transaction number," Stanley charged. "They write it down; you're like, thank you, bye." Applied Card Systems processes credit card accounts.

A Delaware-based affiliate, Cross Country Bank, provides high-interest credit cards to consumers with bad credit histories. "Due to regulatory concerns about the high risks associated with this market sector, the company has lost a significant number of account relationships over the last year," Applied Card president Tim Lehmann said in announcing the company was closing its Beckley site.

Applied Card and Cross Country Bank were recently sued by attorneys general in New Hampshire, Minnesota and New York. The lawsuits allege the bank charged high fees that used up much of the cards' available credit lines. The lawsuits also allege Applied Card employees used harassing tactics to collect on overdue accounts. Judy Wriston was also a supervisor at the Beckley center during the period of assumptive pay, she said. "The head manager instructed me to do assumptive pay and instructed my team to do it." Wriston and Stanley said they both told those working under them not to follow the assumptive pay order. Associate Lisa Lilly, 29, of Cool Ridge, said that at one time an announcement was made over the intercom by Beckley ACS manager Sam Hall that money orders would no longer be accepted as payment. Instead, she said, Hall instructed them to "get a customer on the phone, you allow them to know who you are, where you're calling from, the amount that's due and the day that you're dating that check for. "We weren't even told to verify the account information," Lilly said, adding that with the computer system, collectors could choose any check number in the 9000s from an unsuspecting cardholder's account for an assumptive pay.

Lilly said she never did an assumptive pay. Stanley added some collectors ordered to make assumptive pays by management were later fired for doing so.

Lilly said ACS also practiced questionable fees application, including the $35 monthly minimum fee each cardholder must pay. "I've ran across a number of accounts where cardholders had paid their account off and wanted it closed, and it was documented in the documentation on the account, and the very next month they were charged their minimum $35 payment," she reported.

When the fee wasn't paid, Lilly said, a late fee was applied. "If it put them over the credit limit, they were charged an over-the-limit fee," she said. "And this went on for months." Lilly added cardholders often had no idea the fees were being applied due to change of address. "I can just imagine the charged-off accounts that have gone against people's credits that they didn't know about," she said. Many workers refused to comply with policies they felt were dishonest, but didn't make waves with management because ACS was a top employer in the area, she said. "With the people I worked with, and the people in this area, we have dignity, and I guess we sort of fell behind with them because we couldn't keep up with exactly what they wanted us to do," Lilly said, explaining why she believed the Beckley site closed. "We weren't dishonest."

Those who didn't meet monthly goals over a period of time were fired without prior notification, Lilly said. "It was very humiliating for a lot of people," she said. "They waited until the end of the day and a security guard would take you to human resources, and while you were in human resources, the security guard would remove all your personal items and put them in a plastic bag."

Rashmi Ranjan, executive director for the Delaware Community Reinvestment Action Coalition - a non-profit organization that offers financial help and advice to low-income consumers - said she warns creditors about Cross Country Bank and ACS. "We warn our clients, if you have creditors such as Cross Country Bank, then get out from under their clutches as soon as you can because their practices are very, very bad," she said. Cross Country Bank was started in Delaware by Applied Card chairman Rocco Abessinio. Ranjan said Cross Country Bank is a "predatory" institution. "When you are credit impaired, you're like a wounded animal in a jungle," she said. "And all the hyenas and vultures know and they are circling around you ... Cross Country falls into that bracket."

Ranjan alleged the bank had on previous occasions deliberately posted customer payments after the due date so that late fees would be applied, then applied over-limit fees as applicable. "So every month I'm paying late fees and over-the-limit fees and not a penny is going for reduction of my principal," she said. Ranjan said she believes the Beckley site closed because the practices of the institutions have led to financial and legal problems. "I'm guessing that the company is being investigated and there will probably be a negotiated settlement," she said. "So closing of that shop is really just a financial decision." - E-mail: jshifflett@register-herald.com

Well we paid CCB off, actually we over paid them by $9.44 on Nov 25th 2002. Dec 2nd we called asking for our refund of the over-payment. They said it would be mailed in 7-10 days. Today is Dec 23rd and still no refund, they said it was delayed by the holidays, and the check writer just got the order to write the check today.

I checked the online account and they have charged a $1.14 finance charge. How do you charge a finance charge on a paid in full account (actually overpaid)? Said the Fincance charge was charged after the Dec 19th bill printing. (don't forget we paid the off on Nov 25th). They said that the payoff quoted wasn't right. The rep said the quote didn't include the "per-diem" charge. But in the next sentance told us the rep (in November) actually quoted us a payoff that was higher than the actual payoff. (Yes i'm confused too) They are refusing to refund the full $9.44. In the payoff we also included a letter telling CCB to CLOSE the account and that we wouldn't honor any further charges or fees. They told us our letter wasn't valid, and their signing of the registered mail receipt didn't bind them, but any further legal terms they wanted to place on us were binding even after the account was closed.

I want my full refund! Not the $8.30 they want to send me. I know $9.44 isn't much, but it is the principle behind it that is really upseting me now.

Tomorrow I'll be sending a payoff to CCB. Hopefully I'll get lucky and they will actually close the account and I'll be dome with them. My hopes aren't too high, but again, I just might get lucky.