NCO Group and NCO Portfolio Acquire Great Lakes Collection Bureau August 20, 2002 â?? NCO Group, Inc. ("NCO Group")(Nasdaq:NCOG), a leading provider of accounts receivable management and collection services, announced today that it acquired the net assets and related operations, excluding the purchased accounts receivable portfolio, of Great Lakes Collection Bureau, Inc. ("Great Lakes"), a subsidiary of GE Capital Corporation ("GE Capital"). NCO Portfolio Management, Inc. ("NCO Portfolio")(NASDAQ:NCPM), a leading purchaser and manager of delinquent accounts receivable, announced today that it acquired the purchased accounts receivable portfolio of Great Lakes. NCO Group owns 63% of NCO Portfolio. NCO Group paid approximately $10.6 million for the net assets and related operations of Great Lakes, subject to certain adjustments. As part of the acquisition, NCO Group and GE Capital signed a multi-year agreement under which NCO Group will provide services to GE Capital. The transaction is expected to be slightly dilutive to earnings in the third quarter of 2002 and is expected to be accretive to the fourth quarter of 2002 and thereafter. NCO Portfolio paid $22.9 million for Great Lakes purchased accounts receivable portfolio. NCO Portfolio funded the purchase with $2.3 million of cash and $20.6 million of non-recourse financing provided by Cargill Financial Services Corporation. This non-recourse financing is collateralized by the Great Lakes purchased accounts receivable portfolio. The transaction is expected to be accretive to NCO Portfolio's 2002 earnings. Commenting on the transaction, Michael J. Barrist, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NCO Group and NCO Portfolio, stated, "The Great Lakes acquisition represents a great opportunity for both NCO Group and NCO Portfolio. In addition to the near-term benefits of expanding our domestic receivables outsourcing business, NCO Group will benefit on a long-term basis from the opportunity to develop a strong ongoing business relationship with GE Capital. In addition, this represents the first step in NCO Portfolio's strategy of purchasing larger more predictable portfolios at reasonable prices. This strategy will be instrumental in NCO Portfolio's success in an environment where higher prices on smaller portfolios have made those purchases less attractive. I am also pleased that we have entered into a new strategic financing arrangement with Cargill Financial Services Corporation, a leading financier of credit-intensive portfolio transactions." NCO Group, Inc. is the largest provider of accounts receivable collection services in the world. NCO Group provides services to clients in the financial services, healthcare, retail and commercial, utilities, education, telecommunications, and government sectors. NCO Portfolio Management, Inc. is a leading purchaser and manager of delinquent accounts receivable. Source: Company Press Release
Well they can barely handle what they have now so this will allow them to violate more laws even faster.
I had a Great Lakes collection on a BMG Music Club from '98 that just gave up when I sent a "this person doesn't live here" letter. I misspell my name on all my third class mail so I know who sells my name to who. So Great Lakes should be pretty easy to get rid of. But now we know who collects for GE Capital. There's an idea for an ongoing lsit, who collects for who.
"In addition, this represents the first step in NCO Portfolio's strategy of purchasing larger more predictable portfolios at reasonable prices." A.K.A Buy out of SOL debt for .02 on the dollar and hope we can terrorize unsuspecting consumers into paying.
Kind of interesting how down most of you guys are on NCO. Of all the CAs I dealt with, 10 or so, they were the smartest (maybe "most clever" is more accurate) and most professional, although admittedly that isn't saying much. The only violation I could get them on was calling me at work, and they stopped that in a hurry. That GE should be, in effect, outsourcing its debt collection to NCO probably isn't a good sign in the long run. GE Capital is one of the largest creditors in the U.S. NCO getting access to that kind of business probably means they will become better capitalized, and more efficient. That, in turn, means fewer settlements based on CA mistakes, better trained collectors, and a tougher organization to deal with in general. By growing at this rate, NCO is probably taking on debt themselves, and companies that take on debt generally try to squeeze their businesses harder to pay it off. We are NCO's business. Since the one debt I have made no attempt to pay on is still with NCO, and since I plan on paying it off eventually, I would rather this deal hadn't happened.
I have/had a problem with them having a 6000 debt which was really 2500. (You read that right!!!) When I asked for validation, they wrote me a very nice letter stating that the true balance was 2600 something, and they must have made a mistake. This nice letter didn't have any type of validation in it at all.... (wink wink) I wrote a letter to them stating they didn't validate and I wanted it removed, and voila, it was gone. It wasn't as bad as some people have had it, but I was still irritated. Their new company might be more organized, but I know they will still make mistakes ;-)
If your name is "Stacy", put "Stacey" or "Marvin" instead of "Marlin" or "Melissa" instead of "Mellissa"
Yep, they are pathetically greedy. They bought a small, out of SOL loan from the school I went to, and tried to use that to get me to consolidate my student loans with them. When they found out I was in the process of rehabbing my student loans, they halted all collection activity -- it was obvious they didn't care about the little loan, but were going after the big fish. I thought that was smart of them. Another thing I'll say about them is that their collectors are the only ones I dealt with who didn't yell and scream. They were curt, and some of them could play some cute little games (Me: "You are calling me at work." NCO Collector: "So? I'm at work, too."), but they didn't yell or otherwise make asses of themselves, with the exception of making the usual mistake of threatening lawsuits over small debts. One of them, a woman, used to almost cry as she described how badly she wanted to "help me" by getting me to consolidate loans with them. I got a kick out of NCO, but I suspect they are fairly successful in general.
When I was in college a roommate and myself used to order CDs from BMG, using all sorts of ficticious names. The names don't even have to be close to your own; you just have to space your orders out so that it looks like new tenants are in the place. I think I got something like 12 CDs like this in 18 months. Probably one of the worst things I've done, although I still have those CDs.
I use just the first initial and misspell the last name. The funkier the better, but this only pertains to third class mail, book clubs, magazines, music clubs etc. I use my full name with middle initial for my CC's so I know if they sell my name. With BMG we (friends) would have memberships sent to ourselves, our pets, our parents house, adding an apartment number to our house, names we made upâ?¦.that's how I became Desdemona Buffett Only now Desdemona is my computer name. When I sent up email, non-account logins, anything that I don't want to give my real name to I use Desdemona Buffett as my name and I work/own the Space Station and Bake Shoppe. I live at 1 Particular Harbor, Hockeytown, USA. My DH is Bruce Springsteen, and Dan Marino.. which by the way Dan Marino receive a Chase pre-approval application at our house last year. We were a bit surprised because he only uses that name on-line.
