Hatch took action against unlawful bill collection practices. In 2003 he filed a lawsuit against Cross Country Bank for selling subprime credit cards with low balance limits to poor people and then harassing them with debt-collection calls. The suit alleged that the bank called some consumers as many as 60 times a week, including on holidays, using profanities and racist epithets. The bank fought the lawsuit to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, but Hatch prevailed, resulting in a precedent-setting ruling that arbitration clauses in consumer contracts do not apply to a lawsuit by the attorney general. In 2004, Hatch sued AT&T for attempting to collect bills from people who did not owe the money. Later that year, he sued two more debt collection agencies, including one that threatened to sue people for debts that were too old to be collected and another that made relentless telephone calls.