At the beginning of 2007 I became very sick and had to be hospitalized for 5 days, unfortunately I didn't have health insurance and ending up with a $13,000.00 bill from the hospital. I went to a Debt reduction agency and started making monthly payments however the hospital sent me to collections anyway. That is where NCO comes into play.
They contacted me for the first time in September, I explained the situation to them and they agreed to take payments. The following month I received a new call from NCO, the lady I spoke to explained that they could settle my debt with the hospital for a little less then $4400.00 and if I was able to pay that amount in full by the end of October it would never show up on my credit report. I jumped at the chance and my husband and I got a personal loan for the amount and paid off NCO on October 30th.
A few weeks ago my husband and I decided that we wanted to purchase a new car, We applied for a few loans to see what kind of financing we could get. I was shocked when the first one we applied for came back denied he has perfect credit and mine although it's not great shouldn't have caused it to be denied completely. The second loan came back with an outrageously high APR. Today my husband called his bank since he knows the loan officers there, and she told him after checking my credit that I have and outstanding debt from NCO for nearly $6500.00
I was shocked, I called up NCO and told them what we had found. Their response was "oh, yeah that happened with a lot of the settlements we made" Great thanks for telling me. Then I got the run around, I was told to call an 877 number where the guy on the phone told me that I would have to call the same place that had just given me his number. He transferred me and I couldn't get a hold of the person I had been speaking with. Finally I asked for a manager I was transferred to "Brandon" who started to tell me to call the 877 number again when I told him no. Then he said after looking at my account that it was sent to show as paid on my report that it was "an error, that someone didn't cancel it properly" I asked him when It would be removed from my report he said 2-3 weeks (I really doubt it will without me disputing it, which I am).
We called the loan officer back and explained what was going on she said that she would be able to go through with the loan if I got a letter explaining what was happening. I called NCO back I spoke with an associate who told me to call that 877 number again, so I asked for Brandon he looked at my account said that the letter was stopped on Monday? Where Monday came into this I don't know? He said he fixed it and I should get this "letter" next week, we'll see. Beware of making any settlements with this company, I thought I was getting a break on my medical debt, but really all I was getting was a day of frustration and a headache.
Jen
Idaho Falls, Idaho
U.S.A.
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