NCO Collection Agency - NCO Financial Systems ripoff, lied, threatened, harrassed, failed to comply with cease and desist letter Horsham Pennsylvania

Advise NCO that you do not deal with third party collectors and that they are NOT to ever contact you again.

This is your right under federal law. It is called a CEASE COMMUNICATION request as per your right under the provisions of the FDCPA.

Start sending payments directly to the person who is responsible for your student loan. Send anything, even if it is only $5. Be consistent.

As far as wage garnishment goes, that 15% is a MAXIMUM. You can appeal the garnishment if it happens, and the court will do a "means test".

This means that if you have nothing left after your reasonable & basic needs are met, they get nothing.

AND, SSI,SS,VA,Unemployment compensation are EXEMPT from garnishment except for State/Federal tax levy or child support.

Send that Cease comm letter right away by certified mail, return reciept requested.

Good luck

Okay, this is what I have learned in regards to my dealings with NCO. I called the federal government to inquire about my student loan and the agent at the federal student loan agency told me that my loan could never be rehabilitated. He also stated that my loan was not sold to NCO and that NCO could only take up to 15% of my wages if a garnishment was filed, not 25%. When NCO called we did not dispute the fact that we still owed some money on the account. We did not get rude or hang up. However, NCO did get rude, called me an idiot, told me I was avoiding paying because I was a weasel, not because of any financial hardship.

Truth is, I do have financial hardship. And yes I do have 4 children. Still I cooperated and offered up a payment and asked for fair and reasonable payments. All I was asking for was to be able to send them something, even if the amount was small, until my financial situation improved. What about when NCO called me again and violated the law after I sent the stop calling letter? What about when NCO told me 9 payments of 51 dollars would be plenty, and then called me after cashing my check and yelling at me on the phone and telling me that 51 dollars would no longer be enough and demanded that I send more?

Also, even though this is a loan from the government, since my loan has not been sold to NCO, NCO is still a 3rd party collection agency. I am calling the federal government again to ask them if I can set up payment plans with them instead of NCO. I am also filing a complaint with my attorney general today to alert them of NCO's violation of the FTC law. As for setting up an honest, goal driven relationship with a creditor, is that even possible? I thought that is what I had done since I was honest about my finances, agreed to a payment plan, and followed through with my payment.

Oh, wait, I see what the employee from NCO is saying. You want me to be honest but you can lie, be deceptive, call me names, break the law, and yell at me on the phone. All the time you are doing that I should just hand over money and accept that you are the almighty, just and true??? MAYBE when pigs fly.

I used to work for NCO's Department of Education division and offer you the following suggestions:

The plan she was trying to put you into is the Rehabilitation program, which requires you to make 9-15 monthly payments at at least 1.2% of your balance. After you do this, you will be removed from collections, your collection fee waived, removed from your credit report and refinanced with Sallie Mae. At that time, you can choose to continue your payments, or request a deferrment or forebearance. As long as your student loan is not in default, you are eligable for those two options.

As for AWG (Administrative Wage Garnishment,) The higher education act DOES permit individual collection agencies to garnish your wages without ever even contacting you, if they so choose. The CAN and WILL garnish up to 25% of your pay. Even if you pay $10 a month, you will USUALLY not be garnished. If you can only afford 10, send 10.

I've worked in the collection industry for many years, in fact, I still do. If you want my advice, whenever you get a call from a collector, be honest... Don't just say that you can't pay, but explain WHY. True, there are some nasty collectors out there (particularly at NCO,) but there are also those of us who DO want to help you, if at all possible.

If ever in doubt, always ask for a supervisor or manager. You may find that working with a supervisor or manager will help you, because usually you are speaking with someone a bit more knowlegdable about the debt.

My final word of warning:

Remember, YOU are the DEBTOR and the collector is NOT a customer service rep. We don't get paid to be nice to you, we get paid to collect the bill. If you decide to get snippy with us, or hang up on us, you'll bet your sweet a*s that you will be first on our list to call at 8:01am every day, including Saturdays and Sundays. We are legally allowed to call you from 8am to 9pm in your time zone on each day of the week.

Establish an HONEST, GOAL DRIVEN, and INSIGHTFUL relationship with your debt collector, and you'll be amazed at the things that can happen.

I've wiped away hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest and fees, just because the debtor was working with me and not giving me a hard time.

It's not all a bunch of mean people in a back room on phones. Debt collection is slowly becoming a very large field of business. Chances are, someone in your family or your neighbor is a debt collector. We are people too. In fact, the best collectors were/are the best debtors.

WE KNOW what you're going thru. Honestly.

And no, you're not the first disabled woman on ssi with 4 kids that we've talked to today... you're probably the 54th.... and out of those 54 people that were in the same situation that you were in, we garnished (yes we can garnish ssi for student loans) 20 of them, but we managed to get another 30 on payment plans.

It's your choice.. payment plan, or garnishment?

We'll help you... but only if you help yourself first.

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

Here's a few basic rules.

1). NEVER speak to ANY third party collector on the phone.

2). NEVER send ANY payment to a third party collector.

Always insist on everything in writing.

File a new FTC complaint on every violation, as FTC action is not taken on an individual basis, but rather by the number of complaints.

You can sue and get up to $1000 per FTC violation plus costs.

And, a question...How old was that student loan?

Chances are that they sold it to NCO, in which case you were off the hook to the federal government.

Have you ever heard of statute of limitations? If it was legally collectable, the feds would have already garnished your pay.

Unfortunately, by making a payment, you have validated the debt, and re-affirmed it. This means the statute of limitations has been restarted, as well as the 7 year negative reporting to the credit bureaus.

The best thing to do with scum like an NCO collector is keep a police whistle by the phone and blow it sharply into the ear of the crackhead on the other end. It is very satisfying to picture in your mind the blood running out of the ears of this crackhead criminal as you hang up the phone.

Also, saturate all fax#'s repeatedly with hundreds of pages of cease communication requests. Do it at night, when they are not there to stop it, and just after paper and toner has most likely been refilled.

Do this every day for a week just before you go to bed.

NCO has 3 fax#'s that I have personally done this to.

It works.

Here's a few basic rules.

1). NEVER speak to ANY third party collector on the phone.

2). NEVER send ANY payment to a third party collector.

Always insist on everything in writing.

File a new FTC complaint on every violation, as FTC action is not taken on an individual basis, but rather by the number of complaints.

You can sue and get up to $1000 per FTC violation plus costs.

And, a question...How old was that student loan?

Chances are that they sold it to NCO, in which case you were off the hook to the federal government.

Have you ever heard of statute of limitations? If it was legally collectable, the feds would have already garnished your pay.

Unfortunately, by making a payment, you have validated the debt, and re-affirmed it. This means the statute of limitations has been restarted, as well as the 7 year negative reporting to the credit bureaus.

The best thing to do with scum like an NCO collector is keep a police whistle by the phone and blow it sharply into the ear of the crackhead on the other end. It is very satisfying to picture in your mind the blood running out of the ears of this crackhead criminal as you hang up the phone.

Also, saturate all fax#'s repeatedly with hundreds of pages of cease communication requests. Do it at night, when they are not there to stop it, and just after paper and toner has most likely been refilled.

Do this every day for a week just before you go to bed.

NCO has 3 fax#'s that I have personally done this to.

It works.

Here's a few basic rules.

1). NEVER speak to ANY third party collector on the phone.

2). NEVER send ANY payment to a third party collector.

Always insist on everything in writing.

File a new FTC complaint on every violation, as FTC action is not taken on an individual basis, but rather by the number of complaints.

You can sue and get up to $1000 per FTC violation plus costs.

And, a question...How old was that student loan?

Chances are that they sold it to NCO, in which case you were off the hook to the federal government.

Have you ever heard of statute of limitations? If it was legally collectable, the feds would have already garnished your pay.

Unfortunately, by making a payment, you have validated the debt, and re-affirmed it. This means the statute of limitations has been restarted, as well as the 7 year negative reporting to the credit bureaus.

The best thing to do with scum like an NCO collector is keep a police whistle by the phone and blow it sharply into the ear of the crackhead on the other end. It is very satisfying to picture in your mind the blood running out of the ears of this crackhead criminal as you hang up the phone.

Also, saturate all fax#'s repeatedly with hundreds of pages of cease communication requests. Do it at night, when they are not there to stop it, and just after paper and toner has most likely been refilled.

Do this every day for a week just before you go to bed.

NCO has 3 fax#'s that I have personally done this to.

It works.

Here's a few basic rules.

1). NEVER speak to ANY third party collector on the phone.

2). NEVER send ANY payment to a third party collector.

Always insist on everything in writing.

File a new FTC complaint on every violation, as FTC action is not taken on an individual basis, but rather by the number of complaints.

You can sue and get up to $1000 per FTC violation plus costs.

And, a question...How old was that student loan?

Chances are that they sold it to NCO, in which case you were off the hook to the federal government.

Have you ever heard of statute of limitations? If it was legally collectable, the feds would have already garnished your pay.

Unfortunately, by making a payment, you have validated the debt, and re-affirmed it. This means the statute of limitations has been restarted, as well as the 7 year negative reporting to the credit bureaus.

The best thing to do with scum like an NCO collector is keep a police whistle by the phone and blow it sharply into the ear of the crackhead on the other end. It is very satisfying to picture in your mind the blood running out of the ears of this crackhead criminal as you hang up the phone.

Also, saturate all fax#'s repeatedly with hundreds of pages of cease communication requests. Do it at night, when they are not there to stop it, and just after paper and toner has most likely been refilled.

Do this every day for a week just before you go to bed.

NCO has 3 fax#'s that I have personally done this to.

It works.