ARS Company, also known as ARS National Services, Inc., is one of the largest debt collection agencies in the United States.
They started collecting consumer debts back in 1987. At the time, they were known as Associated Recovery Systems, Inc., and were registered in California. Today, the company is called ARS and employs more than 500 people. Their 14 offices are scattered across the country, and they collect debts for big name credit companies like Capital One, Chase and Citibank.
Here's the rundown on ARS National Services, Inc.:
Full Name: ARS National Services, Inc.
Address: 500 La Terraza Blvd, Suite 330, Escondido, CA 92025
Phone: (888) 888-7080
Website: arsnational.com
Years in Business: 38+ years (founded November 20, 1987)
NMLS ID: 934304
They collect on every type of consumer debt you can imagine, from credit cards to auto loans, healthcare debts, student loans and even marketplace loans. The company is licensed in all 50 states, so no matter where you live, they have permission to call you.
Just because a debt collector is licensed to collect debts in your state doesn't mean that the debt they're trying to collect from you is legitimate. In fact, it doesn't even mean the debt is yours.
Over 550 federal lawsuits have been filed against ARS National Services. We don't say that to scare you, but it's a big deal. These aren't frivolous lawsuits, so what happened? ARS is also in the top 10% of companies that consumers complain about to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Out of 2,458 debt collection companies, they rank #227 for complaints. They've never been penalized by a federal agency, but they have been sued a lot, and a lot of consumers complain about them. For the most part, it's up to consumers to keep them in line.
We already told you that most of the lawsuits against them claim that they violated the FDCPA. But what does that really mean?
Well, one of the biggest problems they've had in the past is leaving voicemails for people. Between April 2008 and August 2011, ARS called about four million people and left voicemails. The messages didn't identify the caller as an employee or agent of ARS, nor did they say that ARS was a debt collector.
Finally, they didn't explain that the purpose of the call was to collect a debt. All of those things are required by the FDCPA. The company actually tried to settle a lawsuit related to this issue, but the judge wasn't having it. Under the terms of the proposed class action settlement, none of the four million people who received those voicemails would have received any money.
Instead, ARS would have donated $35,000 to a charity for veterans in San Diego, and would have paid $67,500 to the attorneys who represented the plaintiffs in the case. In return, everyone in the class would have agreed not to sue for damages. The judge in the case ruled that the proposed settlement was "worthless" and reversed it in January 2017.
So, what does this mean for you? If ARS called you and left a voicemail, there's a good chance that it didn't include all of the information that it was supposed to. It can become a dispute reason if not done.
Window Envelope Exposure and Written Notice Failures
Calling isn't the only issue that has bitten ARS. In several federal lawsuits, including Park v. ARS National Services and Link v. ARS National Services, the plaintiffs alleged that ARS mailed collection letters in window envelopes. The envelopes exposed barcodes with account information printed on them, a physical privacy violation that can become a dispute reason.
Understatement of the year: Failure to provide adequate written notice is the second most common complaint against ARS in the CFPB data. Consumers said they received collection letters lacking required information such as the balance owed, a statement about whether the balance may increase, and similar details. All are potential dispute reasons if they are missing.
When Collectors Start Calling Your Family
Documented Pattern of Contacting Relatives, Neighbors, and Even Children
One of the most alarming patterns in ARS's complaints is the company's practice of calling consumers' family members, neighbors, and even children. FDCPA rules tightly restrict whom debt collectors can contact and what they can say to third parties. But variations of this pattern show up in the BBB complaints, CFPB complaints, and federal lawsuits with remarkable frequency.
One CFPB complaint describes an ARS representative contacting the consumer's mother, brother, father, and wife. The caller described the debt and the amount owed and informed each family member how much would be needed to pay off the obligation.
A 2023 BBB complaint mentions ARS calling family members' phone numbers, including a child's.
A 2024 complaint alleged that ARS was contacting the consumer and friends, family, and neighbors about a debt the consumer did not recognize.
A BBB reviewer identified as Andrea K. echoed a common theme: "I don't appreciate them harassing my family members, who will they call next?" She describes how ARS called her husband. When he asked the ARS representative why they were calling him, the caller became hostile. The debt in question? From 2015, and already sold to two other agencies.
Why Third-Party Contact Creates Strong Dispute Leverage
Every unauthorized disclosure to a third party is a potential FDCPA violation. For credit repair purposes, it suggests a collection agency that may not be carefully managing its data, its consumers' identities, or its communications. If ARS can't figure out who it should be calling, can you trust what it is reporting to the credit bureaus?
This is why pulling your free annual credit reports is more than a drill. Your reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion will tell you exactly what ARS is saying about you and what it's saying you owe them. Any variance between what they are reporting and what you know you owe becomes a dispute reason.
Given the high error rate in the credit reporting system, a U.S. PIRGs study found that 79 percent of credit reports contain errors or other serious mistakes, it's unlikely that ARS's reporting about you is 100 percent accurate.
ARS National Services has an A+ rating with the BBB. Yet, their actual rating on the BBB from customer reviews is 1.09 out of 5 stars, with 10 out of 11 reviews being 1-star reviews. This is not a coincidence. Accreditation ratings are based on responses to complaints, not whether the responses resolve consumer issues.
ARS has had 20 BBB complaints within the past three years. Two were resolved to the consumer's satisfaction. Eighteen others received responses that the consumers either rejected or did not accept as satisfactory. ARS responds to 100 percent of complaints, but only 10 percent of the time do consumers accept the response as resolving the issue.
"ARS is the worst company on the planet," writes Jantzen W. in her BBB review. "They call and call and call and harassed me and my family and then when I get on the phone with someone they say do I know who I'm talking to like they are this powerful person."
"A company that calls me daily, never leaves a voicemail, and never answers when I call back has an A+ rating?" asks another reviewer. "How is this even possible?"
ARS A+ rating does not prove anything about your account. It does not mean the debt is legitimate. It does not mean the balance is correct. It does not mean that ARS followed proper procedure when adding the tradeline to your credit report. It does mean that ARS is a sophisticated company that can maintain its business rating while engaging in practices that consistently upset consumers.
It is this level of sophistication that makes dealing with ARS accounts risky for consumers. In a dispute with a debt collector, the information balance is skewed heavily in favor of the debt collector. The collector has the original creditor's documentation, the chain of assignment, the full account history, and knowledge of relevant laws in your state.
You only know that this account showed up on your report. If you assume it is valid because the debt collector has an A+ rating, you would be making one of the most common errors consumers make. All debts from ARS should be viewed as disputed until you have gone through the formal process of verifying the debt.
ARS National Services | Should I Pay This Debt?
Paying a collection will change the status on your credit report from "unpaid" to "paid," but the account will usually remain for the full seven-year period. A paid collection is still a collection.
For most credit scoring systems, the impact of a collection account is based on its presence on the report, not whether there is a balance due.
Settlement is no safer. Paying less than the full amount due on a collection account might help or it might hurt your credit score depending on the credit scoring system used by the lender, the age of the item, and other information on your credit report. There is no guarantee settling will improve your credit score and in some cases, it can cause the item to be updated, which can hurt your credit score. Instead of paying or settling first, your best bet is to dispute first.
Removal Without Paying Is Possible
Many consumers are unaware collections can be deleted entirely from their credit reports if the information is inaccurate, erroneous, or if the credit reporting agency is unable to verify the information in a timely manner.
This isn't a little-known secret. It's a fundamental aspect of the credit report dispute process and is even required by federal law as part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
Given the history of non-compliance by ARS, including millions of consumers affected by voicemail messages and others whose account information may have been exposed due to window envelope failures, there may be grounds to dispute what they're reporting.
A credit report dispute doesn't require you to prove the debt isn't legitimate or yours; it simply requires the credit bureau (and the collection agency, in this case ARS) to prove the information on your report is accurate, complete, and verifiable. If they cannot do so within a specified amount of time, the disputed information must be removed from your credit report.
Many people who use a credit repair company to dispute the debt never hear from the collection agency again and don't pay them a single penny.
Time Is of the Essence
Why time is critical when ARS is on your credit report: Collection agencies, such as ARS, depend on your reaction to the urgency and fear of their phone calls. The scripts they use are meant to intimidate you, and some agents have even been caught leaving threatening voicemails that may or may not be empty threats.
One reviewer on the BBB website claimed to have received a text from ARS stating they had a "legal matter" against her, and an hour later received another text saying they knew where she was. Another claimed an agent from ARS said he was with an "AARS mediation department" before laughing and hanging up when she asked him to validate the debt.
These tactics work because most consumers don't know how to respond. They either pay, they ignore it and hope it goes away, or they call and try to deal with a company that has been doing this for 39 years and has a lot more information and a lot more power. All of those reactions serve the interests of the debt collector.
What you can do instead is contact a professional credit repair expert who understands how to dispute what ARS is telling the credit reporting agencies about you.
When you hire a credit repair expert, they will obtain your credit reports and go through them with a fine-tooth comb to identify any potential errors or verifications issues with the debt collection. They will then send formal disputes to the credit reporting agencies that are reporting the debt collection, which will force ARS to verify the account. If they are unable or unwilling to verify the account, then it must be removed from your credit reports.
With over 550 federal lawsuits, a history of being among the most-complained-about collectors in the CFPB database, and a history of non-compliance, the likelihood that what they are reporting on your credit reports is entirely accurate and verifiable is not very good.
Do not give them the opportunity to continue taking advantage of you. Let the dispute process do the talking. Empower yourself by hiring professional credit repair help before allowing ARS to take more than they deserve.
ARS Company has been in the debt collection business for almost 40 years, and in that time, they have accumulated a trail of lawsuits, complaints, and documented violations that raises serious questions about the accuracy of what they report.
They have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau but an average consumer rating of less than one star. They have been sued in federal court for illegal communication practices and been accused of contacting family members and using threats and intimidation to get what they want.
You do not have to let them push you around and take advantage of you. The Fair Credit Reporting Act provides you with the legal right to dispute any information on your credit reports that you do not believe is accurate or cannot be verified.
When you contact a professional credit repair expert at FightCollections.com, they will help you understand how to exercise those rights and take the first step toward getting ARS Company off of your credit reports. You do not have to call them and give them money. You do not have to speak with them at all.
Contact us today to find out how we can help you regain control of your credit reports and get the negative information removed once and for all.
