NCO Financial Systems

My son and I have the same name, except he has Jr. on the end of his. His money management is really bad and he has an account that has been sent to NCO Financial Systems, located in Philadelphia. Last Tuesday, January 18, 2005, a representative from NCO contacted my home about this account. My daughter took the call and gave them my cell phone number by mistake. They contacted me, first by immediately insinuating that I owed the bill and they wanted a full payment immediately. After finally telling them they had the wrong person, and giving them part of my social security number, this should have ended our conversation.. Instead, they suggested that my wife and I pay the entire bill and have our son pay us back. I responded no, that I was not responsible for his bills. They tried to get me to send them a check and even went so far as to offer to put this on my credit card. The representative them tried to get me to write down where to mail the check and what account number to put on the check. As I was driving a truck in heavy traffic, I explained that that was impossible at the time. Last Wednesday night, January 19, 2005, after my wife and I had talked about how to help my son, I called NCO to try to get the information that I couldn't write down the night before. For some strange reason, they would not give me the information, but, stated that if my wife contacted them they would provide her with the info. She contacted NCO at 1-800-485-2202 about how to make payments and where to mail the payments. NCO gave her all the info, without requiring any iota of confirming whom she was. NCO informed her that the entire balance was due and payable by the end of this month. They told her that it was to "not" be in money order form, it must be in check form. My wife told them that our son does not have a checking account. They told my wife that we should write them a check from our checking account and let him pay us back. The conversation ended with my wife and NCO at this point. I then contacted NCO once again. Immediately.they start on me about how we should pay this for our son, and let him repay us. They said they could do this by either our credit card or our checking account. I told them that this would not happen. I also informed them that when the payments began, they would be in money order form. They objected to this. I explained to them that if they rejected the money orders, then they would be liable for rejecting payments. The bill that was turned over to NCO was for the amount of $949.23. NCO has attached a 18% collection fee on top of this, which brings the total to $1120.09. As my son has a problem paying the original amount, what makes it even a better situation by attaching such an outrageous collection fee on top of this. After researching NCO, I have found out that they are in constant defense of lawsuits and have paid out millions of dollars in litigations. Still they practice their own form of thievery. Any advice or suggestions on this?

Collection agencies aren't allowed to divulge information about debts to third parties. They can get into serious trouble for doing it.

I used to work in the support department of Milliken and Michaels, a big commercial collections firm which, if I'm not mistaken, was bought out by NCO. I can tell you that the fact that a practice is illegal doesn't stop the neanderthals they have working for them (and I apologize to the extinct neanderthals) from indulging in illegal activity on a daily basis. You should contact your state attorney general's office and let them know what's going on.

According to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, it is illegal for any collection agency to attempt to collect from an individual who is not the account holder. If either you or your wife co-signed on whatever account he has that is in arrears, then I am afraid that you are out of luck. Outside of that situation, they are not allowed to attempt to collect from you. Also, unless you or your wife are listed as one of the holders of the account, then the company is not allowed to actually tell you anything about the account as far as balance, past due status, etc.

Do a Google search on the FDCPA. It may help you. I would also suggest to your son that he learn some financial responsibility. That would keep the bill collectors away permanently.

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