interest on past due debt

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Question

Country: United States of America State: Oregon I have a debt assigned to a collection agency. The Agency entered a judgment against me for the amount of the collection account plus "18 percent annual interest". I recently discovered that the agency has been charging me 18% annual interest compounded daily. ORS 18.042(2)(f) says: (2) As a condition of creating a judgment lien, the judgment document for a judgment in a civil action that includes a money award must include all of the following: (f)Information about interest that accrues on the judgment after entry in the register, including the rate or rates of interest, the balance or balances upon which interest accrues, the date or dates from which interest at each rate on each balance runs, and whether interest is simple or compounded and, if compounded, at what intervals. The way that I read the statute, the Agency has not been applying interest in the manner stipulated in the judgment. Is this type of behavior fraudulent? Is there some kind of legal recourse that I can take?

Answer

They can only charge you 18% if the court order includes such language--most judgments do not have that high of a rate--so check it closely--