A credit card company withdrew money from my sister's bank without written authorization...?

2 years a go my sister openened a credit card with a credit limit of $500. she could not pay it back because she was going through financial difficulties. She%26#039;s slowly recovering from her debt, and finally found a good job. She also moved out of my house and got an apartment. She told me that she was trying to save money to pay her credit card bill. I was shocked when she called me last night, to tell me that her bank, Wachovia bank, told her that her credit card company withdrew $1200. She said it was an ACH transaction. My sister never authorized this credit card company. She doesn%26#039;t even know how they knew that she was banking with Wachovia. I told her to go to the branch and speak with a manager, but all they told her was she needs to call her credit card company. So, today she calls the credit card company, and they asked for her full name, current address, and new phone number. My sister fefused to give her information. What should we do? Please help!

A credit card company withdrew money from my sister%26#039;s bank without written authorization...?

Her agreement with the credit company must have included authorization for the company to take the money. Or she has been sued, lost and the judge authorized the forfeiture of her assets.

Did she ever make a payment to the credit card company using that account (either online, or by check) or did she ever take a cash advance and deposit it into the Wachovia account?

She should call her state%26#039;s attorney general%26#039;s office and find out what her specific rights are.

A credit card company withdrew money from my sister%26#039;s bank without written authorization...?

I had that happen to me, I had to hire a lawyer, who not only

got all my money back, had them pay for all bounced check fees, (Your BANK should have sent you paperwork), sued

for defamation of character, the lawyer fees and court costs

and I ended with 2500.00.

A credit card company withdrew money from my sister%26#039;s bank without written authorization...?

Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions must be authorized by the payee. She needs to contact Wachovia to find out who authorized the withdrawal.

If the debt is 2 years old, she probably is no longer working with the original credit card company. The original credit card company would have written off the debt after it was

delinquent for about 180 days. After that it was prop ably sold to a Junk Debt Buyer (JDB). JDBs by old credit card debts sometimes as low as 2 or 3 cents on the dollar.

JDBs cannot seize any bank accounts before they first obtain a civil judgment against the debtor.

Check with the local courthouse in your sister%26#039;s jurisdiction to see if there are any judgments against her.

If not, the JDB has violated Federal Laws and they can be assessed stiff fines. There are plenty of consumer attorneys who will take a case like this on a contingency basis.

Good Luck

A credit card company withdrew money from my sister%26#039;s bank without written authorization...?

Gem ( the previous poster) is correct, odds are good her agreement with the credit card permitted it. Few people read and remember that part because they are sure it will never happen to them. Calling her credit card company is the correct advice, but they can%26#039;t help her if she won%26#039;t tell them who she is. She needs to call, identify herself %26amp; ask questions! It really should not come as a surprise that they want to collect their money, everything else you told us is irrelevant to the collection process and l suggest you skip the %26quot;sob%26quot; story while resolving it.

A credit card company withdrew money from my sister%26#039;s bank without written authorization...?

Yup, they can do that. Instead of trying to save up funds to pay off a bill, a person needs to make some payment on a regular basis to avoid this kind of action. too late here. If she had taken action to get a regular loan it would have most likely cost her much, much less but hindsight is 20/20.

Suggest she switch banks (try a credit union instead) and dispose of the credit card is she hasn%26#039;t already. this action is going to hurt her credit rating for quite a while so she needs to control her spending and rebuild her credit history.

A credit card company withdrew money from my sister%26#039;s bank without written authorization...?

Banks are like that.

If you really want to do something for a small fee, join Prepaid Legal for about $18 a month.

They will write a letter. That frequently works but it might not get back the money they already seized.

If you want to take more direct action, file a small claims case. If they don%26#039;t show up in court, they default.

I don%26#039;t know how much they got and how they think she stills owes, but they could seize her car out of her driveway.