Plaintiff: American Express Phoned 130 Times for Debt Collection
American Express National Bank unlawfully tried collecting a debt from William Burdette by placing a high volume of calls to his cellphone using an artificial or prerecorded voice, his Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint alleged Sunday (docket 3:24-cv-01010) in U.S.…
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District Court for Southern California in San Diego. Burdette also alleges American Express violated his privacy and caused him damages in violation of California’s Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Protections Act. The California legislature’s “explicit purpose” of enacting that statute “was to prohibit debt collectors from engaging in unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the collection of consumer debts and to require debtors to act fairly in entering into and honoring such debts,” the complaint said. The San Diego County resident opened an American Express credit card account in December 2016 and maintained it in good standing until May 2023, when he fell into financial hardship and was unable to keep up with monthly payments, the complaint said. Once the account went into default, American Express used a prerecorded voice to phone Burdette's cellphone multiple times requesting payment, “often as many as twice per day, sometimes every day,” it said. Burdette alleges the company has phoned at least 130 times since July 2023, “based on his recollection of the frequency of calls, as well as the records of calls that he has in his possession,” the complaint said. He alleges negligent breaches of the TCPA, and seeks treble damages for knowing and willful violations of the statute.