NCO Collection Agency

NCO Financial Corp. (aka NCO Group, NCO Portfolio Management, NCO Financial) is a collection agency and a company that purchases consumer accounts that have gone into default. They purchase this debt from a variety of companies, such from credit cards, hospitals, student loans, mobile phones, etc. If you see the following address appear on your credit report or on any other documentation, it is NOC: 507 Prudential Road, Horsham, PA 19044.

If NCO is acting as a collection agency on behalf of another company, they must comply with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. If they are trying to collect on a debt that they allegedly purchased, the FDCPA still applies, as the Federal Trade Commission still views it as collecting someone else's debt. Furthermore, several states, such as Pennsylvania, have consumer protection statutes that govern how original creditors collect consumer debts. For a discussion of the FDCPA and other consumer protection statutes, see our previous post entitled “Consumer debts – Myths and Facts.”

If NCO is attempting to collect a debt that they claim to have purchased (or was assigned to them), there are several things that you should know. In order for NCO to collect these types of debts, the original creditor (such as the credit card company) must assign or sell the debt to NCO. If NCO can’t prove that the debt was sold or assigned to them, then legally, they can’t collect it. If you are contacted by NCO and they claim that your debt was sold or assigned to them, make them prove it. In a number of cases that we were involved in, NCO was unable to provide any documentation that showed they purchased or were assigned the debt.

In addition to providing proof that the debt was assigned / sold to NCO, NCO also must prove that you owe the money. Make NCO provide you with proof that you owe the debt to the original creditor (such as as the credit card company). Refuse to accept any NCO-generated statement of account – demand that they provide you with invoices, bills, etc. from the original creditor (such as the credit card company).

NCO is very quick to give the accounts they allegedly purchased or were assigned to a law firm for legal action. NCO’s (and their lawyer's) business model is based on them depending on you not respond to the law suit. That way, NCO and their attorney does not have to prove that you owe the money they are claiming you owe.

When a defendant does not respond to a law suit, the plaintiff can have a default judgment entered against you. That then allows the plaintiff to attempt to collect on the judgment. Disrupt NCO’s and their attorney’s business model, by responding to the law suit and make them prove what they say.

In the past six-months, Wisniewski & Mensing, LLP has successfully represented two clients against NCO. One of the cases was won at trial, the other was won on a summary judgment motion. In each case, we prevailed by showing that NCO was unable to prove that our clients owed the money NCO claimed, resulting in over $13,000 in alleged debt being wiped away in one case and over $6,000 in alleged debt being wiped out in the other.