Collection Calls From Citibank May be Violating Your Rights
If you have a Citbank credit card or a Citicard or another credit card and have missed a payment, you may have experienced a creditor's collection tactics. In my experience, some creditor's representatives will call you relentlessly to the point that their tactics can be considered harassment. In addition, some creditors and debt collectors often uses automated dialers (or robodialers) and leave pre-recorded messages. If this is happening to you, you need to call a consumer protection attorney as soon as possible. By calling you repeatedly, their actions may be considered harassment and you may be entitled to damages.
In some situations, TCPA violations can entitle you to $500 per violation. Yes, that is sometimes $500 PER CALL. With 4-5 calls daily, you can see where a TCPA claim against Citibank or another creditor could potentially be a big deal. They often make the gamble their gains through illegal collection efforts on the majority of people will outweigh the very losses they incur by the very few people who know their rights.
But before being entitled to damages under the TCPA, you have to follow the proper notice procedures. In essence, you have to follow the rules to revoke consent for the creditor to stop calling you. In addition, it's prudent to inform them to direct all communications to your lawyer and give them your lawyer's contact information.
If you follow the right steps when you're being harassed, you could end up having your credit card debt erased or even receive money on top of that. At the very least, we can get the harassing calls to stop. Here is what you should do if Citibank or another credit card company is calling you repeatedly:
- Call Davis Law Firm and let me send the credit card company a notice of representation and a letter revoking consent to call you. I will do this at no cost to you.
- Verbally tell the representative that they may no longer call you and that you want them to put that in their call notes.
- Keep a detailed log of the calls. The log should include time and date of the call, number called, what they said, what you said, and whether the call was through an automated dialing system or left an automated message. It should be similar to the example below:
Sample Call Log
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Entity
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Number
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Call
Date
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Call
Time
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Account No.
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Automated Dialer or Pre-recorded Voicemail?
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Notes
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ABC Credit Card Co.
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Ex: 888-555-5555
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14-Nov
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1:23 PM
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12345
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Yes.
There was a 5 second delay before he picked up, which indicated it was an automated dialer.
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Someone called and I answered. I spoke with Bob. He said I owed them money. I said to quit calling me and that I had a lawyer. I gave him my lawyer's name, phone (904-400-1429) and fax (904-638-8800). He called me a deadbeat. I hung up.
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If you're receiving unwanted calls from Citibank, Citicards, or any other creditor, give Davis Law Firm a call to help you today. We often take these cases on a contingent fee basis, meaning you don't pay us anything unless we recover money for you.