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Just received an email from my company telling me they received a garnishment from Sonic and will be honoring it and taking $647.90 out of my pay Friday (basically my whole check). They faxed me the papers and it is a Declaration of Wage Assignment paper that I've never seen before and it has my digital signature and a scribbled witness signature. I've been with T&C since December and Sonic has been accepting payments and I hadn't heard a peep from them until now. I told my company this was not a legal garnishment and they said unless they get something from the company by tomorrow morning, they will honor it. I called T&C and they are working on it. Do I have any legal recourse? I'm pretty upset because I thought this was taken care of. My company is a huge corporation. I can't believe they're honoring this.

P.S. I even sent Sonic a letter revoking the wage assignment with a copy to my employer.

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 3:54 pm Subject:

Scooter,

I'm sorry to hear this happened to you. Will your payroll department accept the letter that you sent to Sonic revoking the wage garnishment? It's just a thought to get things turned around quickly. It was a smart move to contact T &C. Maybe contact your bank as well to see if they can block Sonic's ID code. We all know they will try to continue to hit the account no matter what. I would also file a complaint with the consumer protection office in your state as well as Pennsylvania. I hope someone can offer more suggestions on this matter. Keep us updated.

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 4:25 pm Subject:

Wage assignment with digital signature is not a valid one; bring it under attention of your payroll department. Inform them that you cancelled the wage assignment agreement; attach copy of the revocation letter that you sent to Sonic. Also aware your payroll department that you are on your way to consolidate the loan, still Sonic is trying to withhold your paycheck. Lastly, no one can take the full amount of your paycheck, there are certain rules also.

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 4:28 pm Subject:

Scooter,
I am so sorry to hear this. But from what I've been reading here at the forums, wage assignments have to be signed IN PERSON. A digital signature is not good enough.

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 4:39 pm Subject:

I told the payroll dept I would seek legal recourse if they honored this wage assignment. They told me they would forward it to the legal department of the company before doing the payroll.

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 5:34 pm Subject:

Scooter,
According to the payroll dept at my work you can't be garnished more than 25% of your wages. Maybe this varies state to state, but here in Michigan the payroll person has 28 days before they begin garnishment. The garnishment is then broken into payments over a 90 day period. If they take the max 25% and there is still a balance, the creditor must apply for another garnishment, or work out arrangements with you for the balance. Also, before your wages are even deducted you should receive a letter, an actual copy of the court order, explaining what is going on. You do have the right to petition this before the court to try to have it reduced. Also, you can talk to Sonic and try to get them to drop the garnishment, although that would probably be a waste of time. Good luck with this.

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 5:43 pm Subject:

Scooter,
I just re-read your post. i guess I thought it was a legal garnishment..There's a big difference between a wage assignment and a garnishment. Paydayok, who seems to be an affiliate of sonic, has sent a wage assignment to my company. the letter clearly states that you have 20 days to dispute this. They can't take your money this way, they must have a writ of garnishment. I think once the letter gets forwarded to the legal dept you'll be ok, but make sure you send a letter to both sonic and your company revoking this. Hopefully T&C can talk some sense into Sonic. Just remember, no matter what, they can not take that much out of your check. The only loopholes that I know of are IRS debts and child support. I hope this helps.

dd

ARe you sure that paydayok is an affiliate of sonic - because I am paying paydayok bi-weekly - but I have not heard from sonic - I would think that paydayok would have given my information to Sonic if that was the case

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 1:05 pm Subject:

Does anyone read the agreemtns before they sign them? Or do you just sign them by just scrolling through all the information?

Anytime yo work with a consolidatation company of ANY type it is important to make sure that you get an ACCEPTED proposal from each company. IF you don't then you are as good as sunk in trying to pay this back in small amounts at a time. If thats the case you need to work somehting out with them ASAP or they will continue to try to make your life difficult.

jc1 · Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 3:23 am Subject: Cash Transfer Centers a.k.a "Sonic"

I received one of those wage garnishments too, from my company's legal department. I've sent them 3 emails telling them that this type of thing is illegal, but they insist that they must honor it unless they receive a letter of release from the company. This damn company debited all that I owed them and then some from my checking account, then kept on trying to debit it until my credit union closed the account. Imagine that--I've been a loyal customer for 16 years and my credit union zaps me! Also, the financial dilemma I'm in is a result of extreme illness in the family and the payday loan was a matter of last resort. I have found that this company is also known as "Northway Credit" and is domiciled in Canada. At this point, I'm not sure where to turn to get them to stop taking part of my pay unless I change employers.

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 7:44 am Subject:

You need to put together a wage assignment revocation letter right away! Wage assignments are voluntary by YOU, and you can end it at any time. Send one to the creditor and one to your employer, they have to honor that.
However, garnishments are legal, unless you're in Texas..Do you have a copy of the paper that was served to your employer? If it's a judgement for garnishment, there's not a whole lot you can do, except try to file a dispute with the courthouse, or beg the creditor to drop the garnishment and let you make arrangements. If it's a legal garnishment, then your employer HAS to honor it, and would have some hefty fines if they didn't. Changing employers because of a garnishment wouldn't do much but buy you time, they would track you down by your social security number and start garnishing you at your new job..With a bunch of fees added on.
I'm very sorry about your family situation..I hope that this is a wage assignment and not a garnishment. Good luck.

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:59 am Subject:

I sent Polly's letter to Sonic after recieving this "wage garnishment" letter as well, and they completely backed off. Try it.

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 11:37 am Subject:

This is what I did:

Faxed the following letter to Sonic at 1-888-395-0192:

date

Sonic Payday
P.O. Box 1066
Coquitlam Station
Main, Coquitlam, BC
Canada V316Z4

my account number

To Whom It May Concern:

I hereby revoke your right to use the wage assignment. You no longer have my permission to use this wage assignment.

Sincerely,

signed

I actually faxed it twice to Sonic, once in January and this time in March. I also faxed a copy to my employer. Get a receipt or proof that this was faxed. I did this and they rescinded the wage assignment which my employer was going to pay, even after I told them it was not a legal wage assignment. The payroll dept supposedly took it to the legal dept and they would have honored it if I had not revoked the wage assignment. Thanks to this forum I knew what to do. Whew!

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 11:43 am Subject:

Good for you Scooter! Yes, a payrol department WILL honor it if you don't revoke it. What a lot of people don't know is that a wage assignment, unlike a garnishment, doesn't have a limit on how much can be deducted. A garnishment is only 25%, but a wage assignment is for the entire amount of the debt, unless the creditor breaks it up, which I've never seen happen. So if you owe a pdl $600 and they send a wage assignment and your check every payday is $650..Well, you're only getting $50. there are no laws governing this because it's a "voluntary deduction". So...If you have any other pdls, send revocation forms, even if you haven't heard from them in awhile!

Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:56 am Subject: re

I had a loan with Sonic. I eventually paid it so it never got to my employer. They threatened the same thing stating that they would contact my employer to see if they wanted to work with them on it. Whatever that means.

Thing is I never signed a wage assignment or anything resembling one. In my case they would have had to have forged an assignmemt if one was presented.

It amazes me how a payroll dept could actually feel bound to that agreement. Scooter - do you live in Utah, Nevada or NewMexico? In most other States Internet PDL's of these types are not even legal and Sonic is not even legally liscenced to issue loans. The nerve of these people to actually present something like that.

I wish there was a stronger way to get the word out on Internet PDL's and how damaging they can be.

Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 3:01 pm Subject:

Glynnie:

I live in Ohio. There is about one sentence hidden in the Sonic contract you digitally sign about voluntary wage assignment. Not a legal wage assignment by any means. The paper sent to my employer I had never seen before. They put my digital signature on it and scribbled a witness signature. A total forgery. What blows my mind is my employer was going to honor it! Anyone could have sent that letter.

I'm in the process of writing letters to my PDLs (4 in all) about their licensing (or lack thereof) in Ohio, their excessive charges and illegal rollovers which are not permitted in Ohio.

My avatar is my dog, Scooter! Very Happy

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