legal advice

what is the name of your state? georgia- i paid off some furniture and now they are telling me i owe $170 more in late fees. this is the first i have heard about any late fees. i have been late almost every month. i looked on my contract and it does have that they can charge a $10 late fee but not once during all these months i have paid them did they mention that they had added on the late fee. they always accepted my payment and never told me in writting or verbally that i had not paid the right amount. do i owe this? can they legally pursue this?

WERE you late? You left that part out

[djohnson]

Editing must have changed the content. You were late and the contract says they can charge you for it. You agreed to the contract. You were late. You owe the charges.

Yes.. you were late so pay the money. Why on Earth would you want to sue them for something you did wrong?
As far as them not reporting it to you and making you pay it, they were being nice. A lot of places just won't accept a payment until you've paid off any late charges and fees.

i don't want to sue them. i wish they had not accepted my payment without the late fee because it would have been easier to pay $10 then than pay all the late fees at one time when i thought i had paid them off. you have answered one of my questions, that in your opinion i owe them the $170, but my other question was can they pursue this legally?

[Ladynred]

Yes, they can. If you don't pay it they can sue you. For $170 I doubt they would since it'll probably cost them more than that to do so.

I'm surprised they never put the late fees on your statements.

[djohnson]

Unless ofcourse a part of your contract you signed for the payments includes something about you also being responsible for legal fees. If that is the case they can sue and tack on their legal costs to that amount. At the least they will turn it over to a collection agency and it will go on your credit. I am also surprised it didn't show on your statement. Did you get a monthly statement showing your balance?

no i did not get a monthly statement. when i first got behind they sent me a reminder and it had on it that if i didn't pay they could charge me with a late fee but i never received anything stating they did. they mostly called me on the telephone, at home, at work wanting to know when i could make my payment and even then they said nothing about late fees. i would have paid them each time i made my payment. after i paid what i thought was my final payment i received a statement from them showing the late fee totalling $170.

Jerks.
Review the contract you signed. If it says anything about notification of application of late fees, you may have something to work with.. Otherwise, it would be much easier for you to pay the balance due and put this behind you (especially for such a tiny amount.)