If you’re reading this page, it’s probably because you’ve received a call or letter from Coast Professional Inc about a debt you may or may not owe.
You might even have pulled a copy of your credit report and seen that Coast Professional has reported an account to the credit bureaus.
When Maria saw the Coast Professional Inc account on her credit report, it was for almost $12,000 on a student loan debt she thought was long resolved. She immediately wanted to call the company and get to the bottom of things. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what most consumers do in her shoes, and it can cost them thousands of dollars and years of damage to their credit reports.
Maria’s case is not unique. According to a study by U.S. Public Interest Research Groups, 79% of credit reports contain errors or other mistakes. If you find a collection account on your report, the issue isn’t whether or not you owe the money. The issue is whether the information being reported is accurate, verifiable, and legally valid.
Who is Coast Professional Inc?
Coast Professional Inc is a 50-year-old debt collection agency, founded on February 1, 1976. Coast Professional specializes in federal student loans, IRS tax debts, and education receivables that they collect under government contracts.
Company Address: 4273 Volunteer Road, Geneseo, NY 14454-9444
Main Phone Number: (585) 991-5200
Toll-Free Phone Number: (800) 231-0225
Company Email: info@coastprofessional.com
NMLS ID: 967350
Coast Professional operates several different divisions that deal with different types of debt, including a Department of Education Division and a College/University Division. The company is privately-held and owned by co-owners Everett Stagg and Brian Davis. Jonathan Prince is the CEO of the company.
A History of Regulatory Problems and Consumer Complaints
In February 2015, the U.S. Department of Education announced it was terminating its contracts with Coast Professional Inc. after secret audits uncovered that the company had made “materially inaccurate representations” to borrowers who were trying to get their loans out of default. The decision came even though the company had previously been rated as excellent under the department’s standard rating system.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) complaint database contains 322 complaints about Coast Professional Inc. Of those complaints, 67% are about debt collection problems and 29% are about student loans. The most common complaint is about the company’s attempts to collect debts from consumers who say they don’t owe them, including debts that consumers already paid to the original creditor and debts that resulted from identity theft.
According to records from PACER, the federal court system’s online database, more than 120 federal lawsuits have been filed against Coast Professional Inc, mostly for violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).
These are all facts that Maria would have needed to know before she picked up the phone and called Coast Professional.
Why You Shouldn’t Pay First
The Payment Trap That Catches Most Consumers
Like most consumers who get a collection notice, Maria’s first instinct was to just pay what she owed and move on. After all, we’re taught to always pay our debts, right? What we’re not taught is that paying a collection often doesn’t make it go away.
When you pay a collection, the status of the account is updated from “unpaid collection” to “paid collection,” but the account remains on your credit report for every lender to see for up to 7 years. Having a paid collection on your report still tells lenders that you had a delinquency so severe that it was sent out for collection. Most credit scoring models treat paid and unpaid collections the same, so you may not even see an immediate benefit from paying.
And if the debt you’re being asked to pay is too old, making a payment or even acknowledging that you owe it can “re-age” the debt and restart the clock on the statute of limitations. This could leave you vulnerable to a lawsuit for a debt that may have been past the statute of limitations.
Why Disputing Always Comes First
The battle that you’re going to fight with any collection agency isn’t over whether or not you owe the money. The battle is over what’s being reported on your credit report about that debt. And the good news is that collections can be removed from your report if the information is incorrect, if the collector can’t verify the account within a reasonable amount of time, or if there are errors in the way information is being reported.
Given that nearly 8 in 10 credit reports contain errors, the chances that any given collection account contains at least one reportable error are high.
Coast Professional Inc has a history of failing to verify accounts. In a December 2016 complaint filed with the CFPB, one consumer alleged that Coast Professional Inc told him he needed to make $5 monthly payments to qualify for loan rehabilitation. After making the payments for 9 months, the consumer said that Coast Professional Inc changed the terms, saying that because of his 2015 financial data, he now needed to pay a different amount.
These types of documentation and verification issues create openings for consumers to dispute Coast Professional accounts. And when a debt collector can’t fully and accurately document a debt, the CRAs don’t have any choice but to delete the account from your report.
The Coast Professional Inc Complaint Pattern
Wage Garnishment Without Warning
One pattern that’s emerged in complaints about Coast Professional Inc is that the company will garnish consumers’ wages without properly notifying them ahead of time.
In a complaint filed with the CFPB in July 2019, a consumer identified as Joyce T. said that, “CPI sent a letter to my employer to garnish my wages and my employer has complied twice.” She said that she has never received any correspondence from the company and is having a terrible time getting information from her employer about who is taking money from her every two weeks.
In April 2019, Richard filed a complaint with the CFPB saying that Coast Professional Inc is, “extremely difficult to contact with long hold times that result in a message that they are unable to take your call.” He said that the company recently garnished his paycheck despite no mail attempts to contact him and that $520 per month was, “entirely too much for me to pay.”
These consumers said that by the time they found out that Coast Professional Inc was after them, the damage was already done. That’s why it’s so important to monitor your credit report at the first sign of trouble.
Phantom Debt Collection and IRS Impersonation Concerns
Several complaints filed through the Better Business Bureau’s website document instances where Coast Professional Inc tried to collect IRS debts that consumers say didn’t exist.
In a complaint filed in November 2024, one consumer said they were, “suspicious that [Coast Professional Inc] is a fraudulent company.” The consumer explained that they got a letter about a tax liability for their business but when they called the company, they were told that Coast Professional Inc no longer had a case opened for them. The consumer said that when they called the IRS, the agency had no knowledge of the tax liability and was concerned that the attempt to collect was a fraud designed to get their personal information.
In a complaint filed in May 2025, another consumer asked, “Why do you continue to contact me as a debt collector on behalf of the IRS when I do not owe them any money?” The consumer called it, “fraud,” and said the IRS was now aware of the claims.
Consumers should never assume that a collection notice they get in the mail is legitimate just because it says it’s from or about a government agency. Collectors know that people will naturally defer to authority and when they get a letter “from the IRS or Department of Education,” the natural reaction is to do whatever it takes to comply. That’s why verification is so important before you do anything else.
What Did Maria Do Differently?
Calling in the Pros
The first step Maria took was to research Coast Professional, Inc. She quickly realized that if she tried to handle the situation on her own, she would be at a disadvantage. Debt collectors negotiate debts and disputes every day. Most people have never had to deal with it before. They don’t know the rules, they don’t know the tactics, and they don’t know where the leverage points are in the system. It’s a David and Goliath story where Goliath has home-field advantage.
Maria hired a professional credit repair service to act as a go-between with Coast Professional, Inc. This wasn’t just about expertise. It was about not being emotionally attached. Collectors are trained to use pressure tactics and emotion to get what they want.
One attorney wrote, “Some of the negative consumer complaints against Coast Professional are complaints from consumers regarding the aggressiveness of the debt collection representatives from the company. Apparently, these collectors believe because they’re collecting a student loan debt that FDCPA doesn’t apply to their behavior.”
By hiring a pro, Maria took herself out of the equation. She avoided the urgency, the scare tactics, and the fear-based decision making that debt collectors bank on. While her representative did the talking, she maintained strategic silence.
The Investigation that Turned the Tide
There are several steps in the process of dealing with a collection agency. The first step that Maria’s credit repair service took was to request validation of the debt under FDCPA. By law, Coast Professional had to provide evidence to prove that:
1. The debt is valid
2. The amount is accurate
3. Coast has the right to collect the debt
4. They have the right to collect from Maria specifically
When the credit repair company requested verification, it turned out that Coast couldn’t provide it. In several places, the original amount of the loan did not match what Coast was claiming. The account had changed hands several times, and the paperwork wasn’t complete.
Perhaps most egregious was that some of the interest charges and fees that Coast was adding to the balance may have been usurious. One former customer wrote, “The guy from Coast Professional claimed they were collecting on behalf of Department of Education with 25% interest then cost and fees of another 25%. It seems they are inflating the interest.”
If a debt has been modified with improper interest or fees, then the amount they are reporting is, by definition, inaccurate.
The difference between BBB ratings and real life
What an A+ Rating Really Means
Coast Professional, Inc. has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. Meanwhile, the average customer review rating is 1/5 stars. This is a great example of why relying on a company’s rating alone to determine whether or not they will treat you well is a recipe for disaster.
The reason for the discrepancy is simple: The BBB doesn’t measure the quality of a company’s response to a complaint. They simply measure whether or not the company responds at all.
Over the past 3 years, the BBB has registered 38 complaints against Coast Professional. 89% of those were complaints about billing issues. Former customer Ann W. wrote, “This company is rude and yells and is threatening. They do not even have the correct information on my family.”
Another wrote, “They keep calling my cell phone and when I hang up they call right back and just harass me non-stop. They want over $30,000 on a loan of $6000 that I have already paid off.”
This kind of behavior is hardly what you would expect from an A+ rated company.
Litigation History
Over 120 federal lawsuits have been filed against Coast Professional, Inc. In one such case, Alexander v. Coast Professional, Inc. A class action settlement was approved on March 7, 2016, by Judge Nitza I. Quinones Alejandro in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The class action alleged violations of the FDCPA.
In another, Graham v. Coast Professional, Inc., filed September 17, 2018, in the Central District of California, a plaintiff alleged the company sent a misleading and deceptive debt collection letter to her that contained “confusing language regarding two (2) separate interest charges.” She claimed violations of both the federal FDCPA and the California Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
When you know the history of litigation against a collection agency, you have power. Each of those cases represents potential evidence in your favor. Those cases demonstrate potential patterns of behavior that may apply to your account as well.
How to Win Your Coast Professional, Inc. Dispute
Why the Credit Report is Where You Win
A dispute with a collection agency isn’t about whether you owed the money or not. It’s about what’s on your credit report and whether that information is accurate, complete, and verifiable.
The credit reporting system is flawed. If 79% of credit reports have errors on them, there’s no reason to believe that yours is any different.
Maria’s credit repair company focused the dispute on the information being reported. They challenged the amount, the dates, the account details, and whether Coast could verify their right to collect and report the debt. When any one of those things can’t be verified, you have a legitimate reason to have it removed.
The burden isn’t on you to prove that you don’t owe the debt. The burden is on the collection agency to prove that every single piece of information they are reporting is accurate. Many times, they can’t do that because debts have changed hands so many times, because documentation has been lost, and because systems aren’t designed to maintain perfect records over the course of decades.
Professional Help
If Maria had tried to do this on her own, it may have taken her months or even years to get the results she was looking for. By hiring a credit repair professional, she got access to the expertise and language necessary to trigger Coast Professional’s legal obligations. She got access to strategies for which documentation to request and what was most likely to expose the weaknesses in their file.
Most importantly, she got the professional buffer that meant she didn’t have to deal with Coast’s aggressive tactics on her own.
The information gap that exists between debt collectors and consumers can shift in your favor if you have someone on your side who knows the system as well as they do. The debt collection industry is built on the fact that consumers don’t know their rights. When you have professional help, that dynamic changes.
Conclusion
Coast Professional, Inc. has been in business for 50 years and has collected hundreds of millions of dollars in federal student loans and tax debts. In that time, they’ve accumulated 322 complaints with the CFPB, been the subject of over 120 federal lawsuits, and have been temporarily been removed from Department of Education contracts for making “materially inaccurate representations” to borrowers.
Despite all that, they’re still in business and still reporting to the credit bureaus.
If you have a Coast Professional, Inc. account on your credit report, you aren’t out of options. The history of verification issues, phantom debt, and aggressive tactics that they have exhibited give you legitimate reason to dispute the account. The question isn’t whether or not you should push back. The question is whether you’ll try to do it on your own or get help from someone who does this for a living every day.
Take Action Today
Don’t call Coast Professional, Inc. Don’t admit that you owe the debt. Don’t send a payment hoping that it will all just go away. All of those things could make the situation worse, not better.
Instead, contact FightCollections.com for a free consultation. Our experts specialize in disputing collection accounts and know exactly where to find the pressure points in a collector’s file. We’ll handle the communication with Coast so you don’t have to deal with the pressure tactics and emotional manipulation.
Maria had her Coast Professional account deleted from her credit report and closed on her mortgage three months later. Your situation may be different, but you deserve to understand your options before you do anything else.
Contact us today so we can review your case.
