I have had two separate experiences with NCO Financial, one good, one bad.
1. My wife had an AAFES Star Card sent to them for collections. She set up a payment plan to pay it off in 14 payments, all of which were automatically deducted from our checking account. After the 14 payments were paid, they stopped pulling the payments and we assumed all was well. We found out differently when we filed our tax return the next year and AAFES used the Tax Offset Program to take it for an outstanding balance. AAFES stated that they only received 9 of the 14 payments from NCO financial and that left a balance and they naturally had added thousands in late fees, collection fees and any other fee they could make up to fatten the balance back up. Even after sending them my bank statements showing the payments were pulled by NCO Financial, AAFES did not care. They told me to sue NCO Financial, who they hired and who did collect 14 payments of $485 from our account. It took us over a year to fix the problem and we never got a dime of that money back. They do this because they know hiring an attorney to get your money back would cost you more than the couple grand they stole from you and quality consumer attorneys are almost impossible to find.
2. My second experience was due to an unpaid federal student loan. When I defaulted, it was sent back to my home state and they used a different arm of NCO Financial to collect on defaulted student loans. In this instance, federal law worked in my favor and that is why I think this was a far more favorable experience. The government requires that student loan debtors are given an opportunity to rehabilitate their student loan through a loan rehabilitation program. You set up affordable payments with NCO Financial that are automatically pulled from your account. After nine "timely" (their wording) payments, the remaining balance is given to a regular lender and you pay the remainder off with that lender and your loan is considered rehabilitated. They then remove the default status from your credit report. The lates don't get pulled off, but the default does. This was a very positive experience for me and I almost have my student loan paid off.
What your experience would be is a roll of the dice. If you do work with them, I’d get everything in writing. In example one, we did everything over the phone with them. Always get it in writing before giving them a single penny. In example two, everything was in writing. That may have been the difference on top of the federal requirement.
