Ok, so my bank account is now closed. Luckily my bank closed it with the negative balance and put a hard hold against it. I feel a little better after reading the laws in my county. I live in Tarrant County, Texas and this is a direct quote from the District Attorney's office. I highly recommend anyone worried about the company's rights vs. yours take the time to find your county's laws or the laws in the county of the company.
Many people think that every worthless check is automatically a criminal offense. This is not true. The person who is familiar with the distinctions will be better equipped to know when they should or should not accept a check. In addition, they will know whether to file a criminal complaint in the District Attorney's Office or a civil suit through their own attorney.
Under Texas Law, the District Attorney's Office cannot accept the following kinds of checks:
Post-dated, "Hold" or "Stop Payment" checks, (unless evidence exists to prove that the "Stop Payment" was used to prevent the check from being returned as a "NSF" check);
Checks presented in payment of debts, loans, charge accounts, or other deferred payment accounts;
My recommendation- don't stop the pmt on the chks- force the bank to freeze the account.
The light at the end of the tunnel is only a speck so far, but it's there. I am taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace course and learning a lot about how to manage my money better, even in the worst times. In fact I have been able to identify most of my money leaks. His course is great and so is the info on the website. Check it out if you get a chance.
My first step was to stop anything from getting through my bank. Once I did that, I felt instantly better. I know that I legally owe some of these companies, but there is one that I will not pay one more cent too. Geneva Roth Capital- they never paid down one cent of the loan and instead they have been debiting my account $120.00 every 2 wks, beginning 4/18/08. That equals $1,440 paid on a $400 loan. I'm going to cry all over again. For anyone that does not know, Geneva Roth Capital is a parent company for many different loan groups. You will have taken a loan through some internet group, in my case Loan Point USA, and they will bill you through GRC. When you ask your bank who is taking your money, they will tell you GRC, but if you call GRC, they've never heard of you and have no idea what loan company it could be and "sorry there is nothing they can do to stop the payments." What a very helpful company!
I really hope my taking the time to post on this site helps someone else as much as all the posts are helping me. I have found the letter to send to each company to stop them from debiting and claim fraud. I will be sending that next.
Remember my county does not consider it chk fraud unless the chk is for goods or services. Loans do not count. Close your account & make the bank put a hard hold. Tell the bnk manager that you are working to claim fraud against these companies for illegal practices and probably involving the state attorney general. No bank will refuse to hard hold the account after that. The word fraud scares them.
Then make arrangements to pay the legal ones only (storefronts and any whose contract states the organization is a CSO) those are the ones I know are legal for sure.
Even they decide to take legal action, it would be months. In the mean time pay what you can until at least the principal is paid back. They may say they want big pmts, but they will take anything.
Thanks to everyone that has replied, please keep giving advice, I need it.
God Bless you all!
-Jamie in Texas
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