Total Card Facing FDCPA Suit After Allegedly Demanding Payment of Time-Barred Debt

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Total Card, Inc. has been named in a proposed class action alleging the defendant sent letters regarding time-barred debts that contained possible Fair Debt Collection Practices Act infractions. According to the complaint, the plaintiff received a collection letter from Total Card assuring him that paying his time-barred debt was “the right thing” to do and would save him money. The letter allegedly added that because of the age of the man’s debt, his creditor, United Consumer Financial Services, “will not sue” him. The case argues that this language was misleading because it didn’t clearly communicate that the debt’s expired statute of limitations barred both the plaintiff’s creditor and the debt collector from suing him. Instead, the letter seemed to imply that the man’s creditor was choosing not to sue him but that the option was still available, the lawsuit alleges.

Moreover, the case continues, the letter failed to inform the plaintiff that any partial payment would renew the debt’s statute of limitations and expose him to more aggressive collection methods.

The lawsuit takes further issue with the defendant’s insistence that paying the debt would save the plaintiff money, claiming “there were no actual savings to be had by payment of the debt, nor was there any benefit to the consumer to pay the debt.”