Credit One Bank has agreed to pay more than $10 million to resolve a civil consumer protection lawsuit brought by a coalition of California district attorneys who alleged the bank and its collection vendors made repeated, intrusive, and harassing phone calls to consumers in connection with overdue credit card accounts. The judgment was entered on February 19, 2026, in Riverside County Superior Court and was announced publicly by district attorneys from Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, and Santa Clara counties.
Under the stipulated judgment, the Nevada-based bank will pay $9 million in civil penalties and $1.2 million to cover investigative costs incurred by the California Debt Collection Task Force. Credit One did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement. In addition to the monetary penalties, the court ordered the bank and its agents to implement and maintain policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with state and federal laws governing consumer debt collection calls.
According to the civil complaint, Credit One had policies that allowed its vendors to place up to eight calls per day to consumers with overdue accounts, with an additional two calls per day under certain circumstances. Prosecutors also alleged that calls could be made on consecutive days, that some consumers continued to receive calls after asking that communications stop, and that calls were sometimes placed to wrong numbers. California law, including the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, prohibits making calls with unreasonable frequency when such conduct constitutes harassment.
The case was investigated and prosecuted by the California Debt Collection Task Force, a multi-county enforcement group that has brought several high-profile debt collection cases over the past decade. This settlement marks the fourth court approved judgment announced by the task force, following prior actions against Allied Interstate in 2018, Synchrony Bank in 2021, and Capital One Bank in 2022. In prior matters, the task force emphasized limits on call frequency, honoring cease communication requests, and addressing wrong number contacts as core compliance expectations.
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