Card Briefs: More Suits Claim Illegal Dunning of Bankrupts

GE Capital Services Corp. and May Department Stores are the latest credit card issuers to be slapped with class actions having to do with bankruptcy collection practices.

The law firms of Grant & Roddy in Boston and Edelman & Combs in Chicago claim in their suits the issuers are unlawfully collecting debt from bankrupt customers of GE's Montgomery Ward & Co. credit card unit and May Stores' Filene's Basement private-label card.

Similar lawsuits have been filed against Sears, Roebuck and Co., which last month admitted collecting as much as $412 million from bankrupt debtors who had agreed to pay off their Sears Card accounts once they declared bankruptcy. The so-called repayment agreements were either not filed with or approved by the bankruptcy court.

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