NCO Financial Collection Agency (NCO) is not known for its tender-heartedness. But, then again, I don’t know of any collection agencies that are! NCO, however, has been known have particularly bad habits when collecting debt.
Amongst the thousands of collection agencies in the United States, NCO sits at the top of the heap as one of the largest collection agencies in the United States. In addition to being known as one of the largest, NCO is known as one of the more aggressive collection agencies. One collection practice which NCO can and does resort to is the filing of legal suits in order to obtain judgments against debtors. These judgments can allow NCO to garnish wages and place liens on real property.
In 1926, Louis Barrist founded National Collection Office in the city of Philadelphia, which later became NCO. NCO was collecting more than 800,000 debts by 1992 and had a presence in all 50 states. Another significant fact is that NCO began to be traded on the NASDAQ (NCOG) by the end of 1996.
Today, NCO employs over 30,000 debt collectors in 140 locations and does business in 10 countries. It is now headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania and, in 2007, it reported revenues of $1.2B. The last year that NCO was traded on the NASDAQ was 2006, as it was purchased by private equity and its management team. With its purchase of Outsourcing Solutions, Inc., it is now thought to be the biggest debt collection agency in the world.
One interesting fact related to NCO is that in May 2004, it was required to pay $1.5M to the Federal Trade Commission for penalties related to violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). This was the largest fine ever levied against a collection agency in the United States. In addition to this, NCO was forced to pay $300,000 to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for violating the state’s consumer protection laws.
Chances are, if NCO has acquired your debt, you are receiving harassing phone calls and threatening letters. This is not an altogether pleasant proposition! It is best not to bury your head in the sand and attempt to ignore it in the hope that it will just go away. It won’t!
If you are wondering what to do about this situation, there are actually a few things you can consider. To begin with, collection agencies just want to be paid. They don’t typically want to file a law suit against you as it costs money, time and resources to do so. Knowing this, you could just contact them and see if they would be willing to work out a payment plan with you. If you don’t relish the thought of making monthly payments and you have a little money set aside or have an item you can sell to come up with a little cash, you could offer a lump sum payment if they agree to reduce the total amount you owe. Whatever your decision is, you should always be sure to obtain the agreement in writing and that both parties sign the document.
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