Too much interest charged on debt?

Was it for a payday loan? What was the original loan amount and how much have you repaid in interests?

This was not a payday loan. It was an old debt, and the CA got a judgement against me.

I have 2 letters from the CA, one to my employer, and one to me. I also have a copy of the court order.

The judgement was for $1,221.48, and the wage garnishment began on 3/1/10.

On 7/2/10, (I had been paying for 4 months already) the CA faxed my employer a letter and it states that as of that date, I owed $1539.90, with a continuing interest of 0.0175% or $0.2142 per day.

Then it seems that my employer called the CA to confirm the figures, and the CA instructed my employer to add another $1399.83 on top of everything else. These notes were hand written on the fax.

Everytime I called my employer, I got a different number, it was really crazy. I think at one time I was told that I still owed more than $4,000.00!

Finally I contacted the CA and had them send me a letter, and suddenly, instead of owing over $3,000.00, I only owed $500.00!

I then had to fax this stuff to my employer to get them to fix everything.

It looks like tomorrow's paycheck will have the last payment taken out.

I really think that they screwed me on the interest and I want to know if I can go after them for it.

The letter I got from the CA, dated 10/27/10 shows the principal at $1,221.48, interest already paid of $576.48, and fees at $522.12.

Maine law is very clear that no more than 15% interest can be charged in this situation.

Thanks

Have you filed a complaint against this CA with your states' AG and the FTC? What is their feedback?

No, I have not done anything.

I am really new to all of this, I am really getting worried that companies are going after me now for debt that I never owned.

I just now printed out my credit reports.

I recently got a letter from a CA claiming I owe some $11,000 debt. I never heard of the company they cited, there was no account number in the letter, and that company does not even appear in any of my 3 credit reports.

I did send them a request for validation, so we shall see.

Thanks so much for your assistance, I really appreciate it.

Now I am going to ask you if this is a good idea (sounds like a good idea to me), and how do I initiate these complaints? or is there just something you can point me to?

I just sent the Maine AG's office a message via their web site.

You are going on the right way. You need to file the complaints against these CAs along with all the documents with your states' AG, FTC and the BBB. Although, you might not hear from all of them but it is required to let the authorities know about these illegal practices.

Thanks,

I just got done filing a complaint online with the FTC.

I feel a little better now!

One more question,

If a debt that shows on my credit report is listed as "Charge-Off", is the debt still valid for collection?

Just found this:
debt > State Statutes > Maine
Debt and Bankruptcy Laws -- Maine
MAXIMUM WAGE GARNISHMENT ALLOWED: 25% of disposable income or up to 40 times the federal minimum wage, whichever is less
MAXIMUM INTEREST RATE: Legal: 8% Judgment: 15% (if less than $30,000; T-Bill rate if over $30,000)
STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS ON ENFORCEMENT:
Open Account (credit cards): 6 years
Written Contract: 6 years (plus 20 with attestment)
Domestic Judgment: 20 years
Foreign Judgment: 20 years
And this:
Inerest before judgment equals 8% for cases in which damages claimed or awarded do not exceed the $30,000 District Court jurisdictional limit.
Looks like they can't charge anymore than 8% before a judgement is made.

"One more question,

If a debt that shows on my credit report is listed as "Charge-Off", is the debt still valid for collection?"

A 'charge off' in the credit report means that the account has been sent or sold to the collection agencies. So, the debt will still be collected.

An interest question.

A fax from the CA states "continuing interest of 0.0175% or $0.2142 per day (on $1539.90) "

is this 17.5% interest?

It looks to me as if they are compounding the interest daily.

They charged me $576.48 in interest on a judgement of $1221.48, over a period of about 13 months, 09/24/09 to 10/25/10.

How much interest did they charge me annually?

I got an answer of 46.6% on another forum

Let me check. I will get back to you within a short time.

Thanks,

The whole compound interest calculations, is just Greek to me!