The harassing company pays our fees.
Phillips & Cohen Associates or PCA is a multinational corporation and third-party collection agency based in Delaware. PCA has received consumer complaints alleging very serious violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), including making false statements in an effort to collect a debt and improper contact or sharing of information. If you have been contacted by Phillips & Cohen Associates, make sure you understand your rights before responding.
According to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Phillips & Cohen Associates, Ltd. was founded in 1997 and incorporated in 2000. The BBB established PCA’s profile page in 2001. PCA is listed as a collection agency. Buzzfile estimates PCA’s annual revenue at $27.2 million and the size of its headquarters staff at 80 employees, with an estimated 400 additional people employed at locations around the world.
According to its website,Phillips & Cohen Associates is “an award-winning industry leader providing expert niche services recognized for its unique and compassionate style of customer
interaction.”Phillips & Cohen Associates claims to have “built its reputation in the credit industry by providing specialized compassionate engagement services to clients, enabling them to realize additional recoveries and deliver tangible customer experience process enhancements.”
With offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Spain, PCA “currently works with over 70 of the world’s largest creditors across a wide range of industry sectors including banking and finance, home shopping, utility, telecoms, debt purchase, local government, and central government.” PCA’s U.S. headquarters specializes in delivering “measurably superior collection services.” Their collections staff collects delinquent accounts for several industries, including consumer retail accounts, consumer credit cards, business credit, healthcare, student loans, and the estates of deceased individuals.
Phillips & Cohen Associates boasts business methods whose effectiveness results from efficiency, aggressiveness, relentless, and thoroughness. Concerns about money appear to be paramount. Although their website employs elegant and sophisticated language, their claims betray a tendency to view the law and the rights, feelings, beliefs, and values of people solely as obstacles to be overcome in the pursuit of more profit. For example, their deceased accounts division has “implemented grief-training protocols for all our deceased account care specialists. Certified grief counselors are available for immediate transfer during calls to survivors in case their professional services are either required or helpful.” Yet, PCA has advertised its sensitivity training programs not to assure the public and prospective clients of their genuine concern for the survivors in deceased estate cases, but rather to establish themselves as the industry leader in ensuring that “complex estate debt situations…are resolved in a manner that achieves… their clients’ important financial goals.”
Phillips & Cohen Associates Our Values page includes an assurance that they are dedicated to compassion, compliance, commitment, and innovation. Their Consumer Resources page includes a toll-free number and an email address for complaints. However, there is no mention of consumer protection laws or enforcement agencies.
Who are we? We are Lemberg Law, a Consumer Law Firm
Lemberg Law is a consumer law firm helping victims of collection harassment and abuse. We are ranked A+ by the BBB. We’ve helped more than 15,000 consumers stop harassment and recover money from debt collectors. Harassed? Abused? Misled by a collector? Call our Helpline today! There is no charge unless we win.
As of February 2018, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has closed 14 complaints against Phillips & Cohen Associates in the preceding 3 years, with 8 complaints closed in the past 12 months. Most of the complaints allege problems with billing and collections. As of April 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has received 18 complaints about PCA. Justia lists at least 28 cases of civil litigation involving Phillips & Cohen Associates.
Absolutely. Here are some Sample Cases filed in Federal Court
Phillips & Cohen Associates case history reveals a pattern of involvement that is not typical of many debt collection agencies. In 2001, PCA attorneys represented a realtor who brought a case in cooperation with the United States federal government against a Medicare billing service for violations of the False Claims Act. According to court records, the plaintiff was faced with considerable challenges but was motivated to pursue his claim in part because he knew that “sustained involvement by Phillips & Cohen would entitle the firm to additional compensation if the case resulted in a recovery.” PCA attorneys have also had success in deterring plaintiffs from pursuing debt collection civil cases, as in a 2017 case in which a plaintiff was convinced to dismiss her “claims with prejudice as to all Defendants PCA, Portfolio Asset Group, and Capital One…with all rights of appeal waived, and all parties to bear their own fees and costs.” In a 2008 case, the plaintiffs protested a debt that had resulted from identity theft. Despite having confirmed the nature of the debt, Phillips & Cohen Associates “representatives began a relentless debt collection campaign…by engaging in practices of harassment and intimidation outlawed by the Federal Debt Collection statute.” PCA insisted that the case be dismissed because the plaintiffs, as victims of identity theft, could not claim to be consumers according to the FDCPA, to which the Court issued a stern rebuke and denied PCA’s motion.
One case in particular illustrates PCA’s unique style of litigating delinquent debt. In 2010, in United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, a plaintiff charged that PCA’s pursuit of his deceased wife’s credit card bill violated Section 1692c(c) of the FDCPA, as well as state laws against invasion of privacy and negligence. In this case, the plaintiff’s wife had accrued $11,154.67 in credit card debt but passed away in November 2007. Phillips & Cohen Associates representatives began calling the plaintiff in January 2008 to request payment for the outstanding bill. PCA allegedly made 14 calls to the plaintiff and sent four letters during the period from January 2008 through July 2008. The plaintiff had sent three cease-and-desist letters and had made at least one verbal request that PCA representatives not contact him. During trial, the plaintiff presented signed receipts indicating PCA had received his letters, but PCA attorneys denied ever having received them. After the plaintiff had sent the initial cease-and-desist letter to PCA, he received a call from a Phillips & Cohen Associates collector who had apparently completed PCA’s sensitivity training program. Court records indicate she responded to the plaintiff’s comment that his wife had just passed away by telling him politely that it is PCA’s policy “to give three months to grieve.” The plaintiff testified that he was so angry by this response, that he “‘wanted to reach through the phone and choke her.’” The judge in this case denied Phillips & Cohen Associates motion to dismiss the case and set it for trial to determine whether the plaintiff would be awarded punitive damages.
Phillips & Cohen Associates, Ltd.
1002 Justison Street
Wilmington, DE 19801
Telephone: (888) 608-1766
Website: http://www.phillips-cohen.com/
Federal laws protect you. The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) regulates the behavior of collection agencies by prohibiting actions such as the use of abusive or threatening language; harassment; or the use of false or misleading information to collect a debt. The FCRA regulates how collection agencies and creditors report delinquent debts to credit reporting agencies. Additional consumer protection laws include the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA).
But here’s the rub: If you want to enforce your rights, or recover money for violations — you need to sue. These laws provide individuals like you with a means to seek monetary damages in court. For example, the FDCPA allows consumers who have been violated to recover damages of up to $1,000, plus attorney fees and court costs.
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Sergei Lemberg is an attorney focusing on consumer law, class actions related to automotive issues, and personal injury litigation. With nearly two decades of experience, his areas of practice include Lemon Law (vehicle defects), Debt Collection Harassment, TCPA (illegal robocalls and texts), Fair Credit Reporting Act, Overtime claims, Personal Injury cases, and Class Actions. He has consistently been recognized as the nation's "most active consumer attorney." In 2020, Mr. Lemberg represented Noah Duguid before the United States Supreme Court in the landmark case Duguid v. Facebook. He is also the author of "Defanging Debt Collectors," a guide that empowers consumers to fight back against debt collectors and prevail, as well as "Lemon Law 101: The Laws That Lemon Dealers Don't Want You to Know."
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I received a letter in the mail from Philips & Cohen Associates,Ltd today. It states that they received notification that I had passed away. I am alive. This does not sit right with me; especially, since the scare my family had with me being ventilated a couple months ago with Covid/Pnemonia. How to I go about this? The reviews with this company are not good at all.
My Uncle passed just over a month ago. Last week there was a message from “Bill Hunt” on his answering machine stating he worked for “Freedom credit union. I’m an Estate Appraiser.” He said he wanted to come this friday to appraise our property located in another town with an address that does not exist. He called the next day and said his name was “William Hunt” and of the same place but this time gave a different address of the property he was being asked to appraise. I called the local Freedom credit union and not only no body with that name works there but they don’t have that position at any branch. They told me not to respond. Someone had once told me they worked for a credit recovery company that would deceive people and one of the “code names” they use is “Bill Hunt” as in bill hunters because that is essentially what they are doing, hunting down bills owed. Phillips and Cohen happen to send a letter not explaining who their client is that they are working on behalf of but would like an administrator or executor to call or go online with a pin number and reference number.
I have been receiving letters from them Phllips & Cohen after my mother-in-law passed as I’m the executor of her estate. They claim that they are requesting me to contact them since one of their “Clients” has hire them but yet there is absolutely no mention of who this client or creditor is in their letter. I just don’t know if I should even attempt to contact them and don’t know what my liability is if I just ignore these letters.
Phillip and Cohen just sent me letter referencing my recently deceased wife. I mistakenly called them, and the told me my wife had a credit card debt of $18,700. My wife had no debts when she passed other than a $1700 B of America debt. Needless to say, I’m panicking now, and do not how to proceed.
Thank you