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Credit card debt – account closed – collection action – credit listing
Mrs D had both a transaction account and a credit card account. About five years ago she fell into arrears in the payment of her credit card debt. After the bank contacted her about this, she arranged to make regular automatic repayments to a collection agency nominated by the bank to collect the debt on its behalf. About a month later, Mrs D closed her transaction account, and noted in her diary that the credit card debt had been repaid on the same day from the amount remaining in her transaction account.
A collection agency subsequently wrote to Mrs D, requesting the repayment of about $500. She was advised that, if this credit card debt was not repaid, the agency would take further action to collect it. She was also warned that she might be listed with a credit listing agency – something which could have a detrimental effect on any future attempts to obtain credit.
Mrs D then advised the bank that she disputed the claim that her credit card account was in debt. She also indicated that an overseas company with which she was attempting to negotiate a contract had declined to conclude the contract. In her view the company in question had acted in this way on the basis of information about her credit standing received from either the bank or the credit listing agency.
Soon after Mrs D requested me to consider her complaint, the bank indicated its preparedness to accept her diary note as evidence that her credit card debt had been paid. The bank accordingly wrote off the residual debt of about $400 by payment to the collection agency, which was instructed to delete her name from its list of debtors.
The only outstanding issue which I had to address was the question of whether the bank or the credit listing agency could, inadvertently or otherwise, have been partially or wholly responsible for the overseas company’s decision to abandon contractual negotiations with Mrs D.
Mrs D was unable to provide me with any evidence, written or otherwise, that any third party, including the overseas company, had been aware of her purported credit card debt. Furthermore, records obtained from the credit listing agency showed that, at the time of the negotiations with the overseas company, Mrs D was not listed as a debtor. Given the absence of any evidence of any inappropriate disclosure by the bank, I could only find that it was beyond reproach in this instance. Under the circumstances, I recommended that the complaint be withdrawn.