Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California
My question relates to what I consider abuse of robo calling on the part of Wells Fargo to collect on barely late credit card payments. I have a credit card with Wells Fargo. If when the payment date comes, and no payment is made, within just a couple days, I begin to get robo calls. These calls are made between 5-12 times a day, between the hours of 8 a.m and 9 p.m. If the phone is not answered, it leaves a blank voice mail. Which means in just one day, my voice mail can be completely full with blank messages. When I ask them to stop the calls, they tell me they will only stop when a full payment is made. Given the excessive number of calls made every day, the short amount of time the payment is late, and the fact that it explicitly leaves a voice mail that says nothing, it seems the system is expressly designed to harass the customer into making a payment. Is there some legal recourse I can take to make the calls stop? Is this a candidate for a class action lawsuit, similar to the one filed against sallie mae? Thank you for your advice.
2 Answers from Attorneys
You need to find an attorney who specializes in Fair Debt Collection Practices Act matters, and discuss it with them. The line between legal, permissible collection activity and abuse is fine. If the payment is late, no question they have the right to call you. Are that many calls a day excessive - maybe - but if you are not answering the phone, then leaving blank messages may not be abusive. It is a very, very specialized area of law, and I can tell you that I have not in two years seen someone who specializes in this area law post on these forums. Call your local county bar association for a referral to somene to truly knows this area of law. Good luck - I do a lot of bankruptcy work and get calls from client's creditors all day long. I know how obnoxious they can be.
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I am not a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act specialist, but I can tell you that the Sallie Mae lawsuit was specifically about violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, not the FDCPA. Sallie Mae was alleged to have robo-called cell phones without consent. From your question it sounds like you are talking about your land-line. So your situation would not qualify.
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