In 1997, my mother was notified by a department store that charges were being made to her Visa card with the shipping address being different from the billing address. Although the card company said they took care of it, a collection agency started calling her to collect on the fraudulent charges. She notified the card company of the collection agency calling but the local customer service reps can't assist her because they can't pull up the account because it's so outdated. They gave her a fax number to fax the complaint to but said there was not a phone number she could call. She did not get a response from the card company and the collection agency is still threatening her. What can she do?

Whenever unauthorized charges are made to any credit card, the owner of the card is only legally liable, at the most, for the first $50.00 of the charge. So, your mother should not be held liable for any charges past that point. Since she disputed the charges (as she should have) and notified the Visa company of the fraud, the Visa company would then, in turn, have notified the department store, and the charges would have been taken off of her card. The fact that the either the department store or the Visa company itself would take your mother to collections over a virtually non-existent debt is unwarranted.

It does seem rather odd that the Visa company considers an account from 1997 as being "outdated" and that they do not have a phone number where your mother could reach the right people. Your mother might just try enlisting the help of your state Attorney General's office to see what her options are in your particular state concerning uncooperative credit card companies.

As for the collection agency threatening your mother, this is not allowed. There are definite rules and regulations regarding the handling of collection accounts by creditors and by the collection agencies themselves. The Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCP) speaks to many different aspects of collections, deceptive practices being one of these. Harassment of any kind is not legal under the FDCP.

If your mother chooses to contact the Attorney General's office about the department and/or credit card company, she may also need to report the collection agency to the Attorney General as well and to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Many states have their own debt collection laws in addition to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and your Attorney General's office can help you understand your specific rights.

For more information about the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and to file a consumer complaint against the collection agency, you may visit the FTC's web page at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/fdc.htm.

And for more information on credit in general, you may wish to visit the Credit Basics area of our web site at http://www.creditmatters.com/channels/credit_basics.asp.