Ohio AG Files Civil Charges Against Company Promoting Accelerated Mortgage Payoff Program

In a June, 2008 press release, the Ohio Attorney General announced:

• A Greene County company offering mortgage payment plans is facing legal action for continuing to mislead consumers, despite a 2005 agreement to clean up its act. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office [...] charged Nationwide Biweekly Administration, Inc., (Nationwide Biweekly) with violating the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act and the Home Solicitation Sales Act. The lawsuit was filed in the Greene County Court of Common Pleas.

• According to the lawsuit, Nationwide Biweekly advertised weekly and biweekly mortgage payment plans that could build home equity “twice as fast” as monthly payment plans. Consumers paid the company a non-refundable fee of $75 or more to set up the service. Every one or two weeks, Nationwide Biweekly deducted money from consumers’ bank accounts, so consumers believed they were making weekly or biweekly payments to their mortgage companies. In reality, however, Nationwide Biweekly collected the payments and paid consumers’ mortgage companies only every month.

For the rest of the press release, and to view the lawsuit, see Mortgage Payment Company Sued for Misleading Consumers.