Credit Card Companies Increasing Efforts to Collect on Credit Card Debt
The San Francisco Chronicle noted that credit card companies are sometimes taking the collection of credit card debt that is in arrears into their own hands. No longer waiting for consumers to bring the account up to date on their own because of the threat of a damaged credit report or litigation, the credit card company is debiting the money from the individual’s bank account through something known as the right of offset.
There are three times more complaints of credit card companies taking money through the right of offset in the first half of 2008 than there were in the first half of 2007.
Although federal regulations prohibit unilateral withdraws from consumers accounts, making the right of offset most popular in the case of unincorporated businesses, the San Francisco Chronicle article noted that some banks will enable themselves to engage in the right of offset against consumers by disclosure in the terms and conditions of the credit card policy.
