Had a NCO collection on my report, $102 and 6 years old. I recently paid the CA and they "agreed" to delete, but since not in writing they went back on it once they got my cash. I argued by phone an entire day through 8 departments and levels of management at NCO - obviously no luck. I contacted the OC with a sob story, and amicably requested an delete due to the age and minimal amount. "We don't delete"! Put in a written amicable request to the OC... "We don't delete"! Sent a certified letter disputing validity off account, mentioning misrepresentations by NCO, tossed out some legal refs, and *POOF* Gone! Deleting a six year old $102 account brought my TU up 18 pts. overnight! WAHOO!!! But the work's not over yet...
NCO settled with FTC over illegal re-aging of reported information. On top of paying a large fine, as part of that settlement they agreed to maintain systems to ensure that they were handling all consumer complaints and credit reporting properly. Promising a deletion to get paid with no intention of doing so, or reneging on that agreement, would have been an FDCPA violation for deceptive collection, and they would have had to document any such consumer complaint and how they handled it for FTC auditing purposes to determine compliance with their consent agreement. Since consumers might also be filing complaints of such activity with FTC, they would have to document all such complaints, and properly "investigate" and correct, and be able to show they had done so, and all that documentation would be checkable by FTC against any consumer complaints filed with FTC. Due to their earlier systematic misreporting, any "errors" resulting in patterns of abuse would be seen in hindsite as a violation of their agreement, and they could be held in contempt. As reporting is completely voluntary, the safest approach is to remove any reports that might be erroneous rather than build up the paper trail that might get them nailed again. They don't appear to want any trouble. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/05/ncogroup.htm "For Release: May 13, 2004 NCO Group to Pay Largest FCRA Civil Penalty to Date One of the nation’s largest debt-collection firms will pay $1.5 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by reporting inaccurate information about consumer accounts to credit bureaus. The civil penalty against Pennsylvania-based NCO Group, Inc. is the largest civil penalty ever obtained in a FCRA case. ... Additionally, NCO is required to implement a program to monitor all complaints received to ensure that reporting errors are corrected quickly. The consent agreement also contains standard recordkeeping and other requirements to assist the FTC in monitoring the defendants’ compliance."
