By SDCN Staff
San Diego, CA–Credit One Bank will pay $10.2 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by a statewide team of district attorneys alleging the bank made unreasonably frequent or harassing phone calls to debtors in California, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan announced.
The civil consumer protection complaint alleges that Credit One and its agents engaged in unlawful debt collection activities. The complaint alleges that the collection calls were often made in excessive amounts and unreasonable volume, and sometimes continued after consumers indicated they no longer wished to receive calls or when calls were made to wrong numbers. Credit One denied those allegations.
“The District Attorney’s Consumer Protection Unit investigated the public’s complaints that Credit One made excessive, harassing debt collection calls and was in active litigation in order to hold them accountable for their harassing conduct as alleged in the complaint,” DA Summer Stephan said. “This settlement underscores the importance of the work we do to make sure companies are abiding by the state and federal debt collection laws that protect California consumers.”
The investigation and prosecution of the case were handled by the California Debt Collection Task Force, a statewide law enforcement team composed of the District Attorneys of San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Santa Clara counties.
The judgment was entered on February 19 in Riverside Superior Court and signed by Judge Harold Hopp. It requires Credit One, a Nevada-based bank, to comply with state and federal law relating to consumer debt collection calls and maintain certain business practices designed to ensure compliance with the law. In addition, under the terms of the judgment, which was entered without an admission of wrongdoing, Credit One was ordered to pay a total of $10.2 million, including $9 million in civil penalties and $1.2 million in investigative costs.
The case was handled for the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office by Colleen E. Huschke, Deputy District Attorney in the Consumer Protection Unit, and Thomas A. Papageorge, head of the DA’s Consumer Protection Unit.
