By Joe Morris, Charleston Gazette
The credit card processing company Applied Card Systems Inc. has settled a long-running legal dispute with Attorney General Darrell McGraw?s office, but the future of its Huntington call center remains in doubt.
McGraw filed suit early last year accusing Applied Card and parent company Cross Country Bank of illegal debt-collection and marketing tactics. The Delaware-based bank, which provides high-interest charge cards to people with bad credit, had threatened to move out of Huntington, taking 600 jobs with it, because it considered McGraw’s settlement terms too severe.
Under the terms reached on Tuesday, Applied Card and Cross Country will pay the state $1.5 million, to be used to fund consumer education programs. It also agreed to refrain from a range of abusive and deceptive practices, including debiting customer accounts without authorization and badgering customers with phone calls and to monitor employee communications with customers.
For this complete story, please visit http://wvgazette.com/section/News/2005062124.
