News

Bar owners bitten by CCC sue leasing companies

January 1, 2002

PHILADELPHIA -- A lawyer for a group of Pennsylvania bar owners has filed a class-action complaint against the leasing companies that financed ATMs through Credit Card Center  before it filed for bankruptcy protection June 6, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer report.

The suit, which was filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, contends that because Credit Card Center was an agent for the leasing companies named in the suit, they must pay what the company promised.

Companies named in the suit are: Advanta Leasing Corp., a unit of Advanta Corp., which is based in Spring House; Information Leasing Corp., of Cincinnati; QL Capital Inc., of Concord, Calif.; United Star Leasing, of Syracuse, N.Y.; Progress Leasing, an affiliate of Progress Bank, which is based in Blue Bell; Frontier Leasing, of Urbandale, Iowa; and Newcourt Financial USA, of Chicago.

The suit was brought by two bars, Dilly's of Chambersburg, and the Stardust Lounge in Waynesboro. The suit was encouraged by the 700-member Pennsylvania Tavern Owners Association. "We want to get our members out of the leases because they're being gouged," Richard Alloway, the group's executive director, told the Inquirer.

Advanta spokeswoman Catherine Reid would not comment on the case, but she said her company had sued CCC this spring in a dispute over business practices.

Michael High, Progress' chief financial officer, said his company may be a victim of Credit Card Center's marketing techniques. Progress acquired about 35 ATM leases in a 1998 acquisition -- and has since discovered that CCC took some of the machines and sold them to a third party without Progress' permission, High said.