If you are looking for a way to remove a Phillips and Cohen Associates collection account from your credit report, you are probably feeling the stress and urgency that these companies want you to feel.
Their letters, phone calls, and other methods of communication are intended to result in one immediate response: payment of the debt in question without disputing its legitimacy.
While collection agencies hope you never discover this, many of their standard business practices make it relatively easy to dispute certain debts and request that they be removed from your credit report. This process requires an understanding of the agency in question and the common pitfalls of the industry.
The following overview will help you better understand who Phillips and Cohen Associates is, their history of interaction with federal regulators, and their past business practices. Armed with this information, you can be more effective in your effort to remove this account from your credit report.
Who is Phillips and Cohen Associates?
Phillips and Cohen Associates, Ltd. is a debt collection agency with an address registered at 1002 Justison Street, Wilmington, DE 19801-5148. Their phone number is 866-504-4754, and they have been in business since September 1, 1997 (28 years). They can be contacted via email at consumers@phillips-cohen.com.
Phillips and Cohen Associates is operated by parent company PCA Global Ventures and has offices in New Jersey, Florida, and several foreign countries, including the UK, Canada, and Australia. The company employs between 150 and 499 people and generates annual revenues of approximately $27.2 million.
The Deceased Debt Specialist With a Troubled Past
Phillips and Cohen Associates specializes in the collection of debts owed by the estates of deceased individuals. The company describes its work in this niche as “compassionate engagement services,” which has been the subject of a federal investigation.
In 2010, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigated whether Phillips and Cohen Associates violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by contacting people who were under no legal obligation to pay the debts of a deceased person. Although the investigation did not result in an enforcement action, the FTC noted that the closing of the investigation “is not to be construed as a determination that a violation of law did not occur.”
Phillips and Cohen Associates is currently accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) with an A+ rating. However, their rating from actual customers is a dismal 1.29 out of 5 stars. This is a common disconnect between a company’s letter grade and their customer review rating, which highlights the limitations of BBB’s accreditation process.
The Agency’s Blindspot: How Debt Collectors Create Their Own Vulnerabilities
Many consumers do not realize that debt collection agencies often create their own vulnerabilities through their business practices. Understanding how debt collectors operate allows you to recognize the weaknesses that you can exploit to your advantage.
High Turnover and Volume-Based Processing
Debt collection agencies are known for their high rate of employee turnover and emphasis on processing high volumes of accounts. Employees of these agencies are typically paid based on the amount of money they collect, which means they have a financial incentive to process as many accounts as possible.
According to documents filed in a recent lawsuit against Phillips and Cohen Associates, one employee of the company acknowledged making over 30,000 phone calls in a single year. At this rate, it is inevitable that employees will make errors and mix up information from different accounts.
In fact, a study conducted by U.S. PIRG found that 79 percent of credit reports contain errors or other serious mistakes.
Incomplete Records and Documentation Gaps
When the original creditor of a debt sells or transfers it to a collection agency, documentation and records from the account may not be properly transferred. If Phillips and Cohen Associates is collecting a debt that has been sold or transferred multiple times, they may not have access to complete records for the account. In some cases, they may not have any documentation at all.
Many consumers have filed complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) because Phillips and Cohen failed to validate their debt within the timeframe specified by federal law. In 2023, one consumer filed a complaint after Phillips and Cohen called them four times in one day, despite their request that the company cease contact. At no point did Phillips and Cohen attempt to validate the debt in question.
What the Federal Record Says
The public record of Phillips and Cohen Associates’ interactions with federal regulators and courts paints a telling picture of their business practices.
FTC Investigation of 2010
In 2010, the Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into whether Phillips and Cohen Associates was engaging in deceptive practices by contacting persons other than those permitted by law to collect the debts of deceased persons. They were also investigated for allegedly misrepresenting that relatives may be personally liable for a decedent’s debts.
Although the investigation did not result in an enforcement action, the FTC issued a policy statement to clarify their enforcement approach to collecting the debts of deceased consumers. The fact that the practices of Phillips and Cohen prompted the FTC to issue guidance for the entire industry is telling.
Consumers have continued to file complaints about these same practices in the years since the investigation. In May 2024, a consumer filed a complaint with the BBB after they were contacted about a bill owed by a deceased person more than seven months after their death. During the time that it took Phillips and Cohen to contact them, nearly $500 in interest and late fees were added to the amount owed.
Over 380 Federal Lawsuits
Phillips and Cohen Associates has been named as a defendant in more than 380 federal lawsuits, mostly alleging violations of the FDCPA. Several of these suits established important precedents for the industry.
In 2017 alone, multiple class action suits were filed against Phillips and Cohen. In one suit, the plaintiff claimed that the company violated the FDCPA by omitting required disclosures. In another, the plaintiff claimed that Phillips and Cohen’s collection letters failed to disclose the total amount owed and constituted unfair or unconscionable means to collect a debt.
At least one suit was filed as recently as January 2026 in Delaware federal court.
Hundreds of federal lawsuits represent more than just the cost of doing business for a mid-sized collection agency. They indicate that hundreds of consumers (or their attorneys) believed that Phillips and Cohen’s practices violated the law to the extent that it was worth their time to file a federal suit.
Why Paying This Collection Will Not Help You, Only Hurt You
It makes sense to want to pay this off and get it over with. The thing is, paying a collection, especially one by an agency with this history, will do you more harm than good.
The Charge-Off Truth
Once Phillips and Cohen Associates has reached out to you, the original debt has likely already been charged off. What is a charge-off? It means the original creditor has already written the debt off as a loss, claimed the loss on their taxes, and moved on. They took the hit. They closed the book. It is already done.
At this point, the debt gets sold, usually for pennies on the dollar, to a third-party debt collector or debt buyer. The company now calling you demanding money likely paid pennies on the dollar for the debt. They did not lend you money. They did not give you a service. They bought the right to attempt collection on a debt that is already closed.
This matters because it means the debt is no longer between you and the original creditor. You are now dealing with a third party who bought the right to collect.
Paying The Collection Will Not Remove It, Only Update It
Here is the thing most people do not know: when you pay a collection, you are not removing it, you are only updating the status from unpaid to paid. The collection will still be listed on your report. A paid collection is still a collection. It will still affect your credit score. It will still be there for seven years telling anyone looking at your credit report that you had an account go into collection.
Paying the collection will not cause the clock to start over. The seven-year clock starts from the original delinquency date of the original account. Paying it now will not make the item disappear any faster. It will only change the status on your report from unpaid to paid.
That is why it is more effective to dispute possible errors than to pay the collection. If there is an error with the account, and given the error rate in the industry, there likely is, getting the collection removed will completely remove it from your report. This is a much better outcome than having a paid collection still on your report.
How You Can Strategically Dispute The Collection
The paperwork issues and operational issues outlined above provide you an opportunity to dispute the collections on your report. Here’s how.
Why You Can Dispute The Collection Against This Agency
When you dispute a debt collection, the credit reporting agencies must look into it. This investigation requires the collection agency to prove the debt is valid. They must provide paperwork that proves you owe the debt, that you owe the amount they are saying you owe, and that they have the right to collect it.
For an agency that has been sued over 380 times for violating the FDCPA, that has had CFPB complaints filed against it for failure to validate, and that processes so many accounts that they cannot possibly verify each one, this can be a problem. If they cannot verify the debt in the allotted time given to them, the account must be deleted.
In addition to the general issues, the widespread reports of mixing up identities at Phillips and Cohen Associates provide another angle for disputing the debt.
As mentioned above, consumers have reported getting letters in the mail saying they were dead when they were, in fact, still alive. Others have reported getting phone calls for debts owed by people they do not know. These are not isolated incidents. They are the logical outcome of processing so many accounts without properly verifying them.
Systematically Removing The Inaccurate Collection
Credit repair is not a guessing game. There are established steps that have proven to work. The process involves identifying errors, documenting them, and forcing verification through the proper channels. It involves knowing what type of errors are likely to get the account completely removed, how to document that, and how to follow up to make sure the account gets removed.
A professional credit repair agency will know the steps to take, the paperwork that must be filed, and the follow up that is needed to make sure the outcome happens. This is not a process you want to take on by yourself.
This process works because it takes advantage of the same weaknesses in the system that cause the errors in the first place. The turnover, the volume, and the paperwork issues that cause errors also make it difficult to verify when challenged to do so.
How To Protect Yourself During The Dispute Process
While you are disputing the collection account, you will likely still be getting calls and letters from the collector. You need to be careful about how you interact with them.
Do Not Give Them Information
The information should only go one way. From them to you. Everything you tell them can and will be used against you. If you confirm your identity, acknowledge the debt, or give them other information, you are making their job easier and your job harder.
Consumers have made complaints to the CFPB about Phillips and Cohen Associates representatives demanding their social security number and date of birth before they would even discuss details of the debt. This is a tactic to get information from you that they can use. You do not have to give it to them.
Stick To Written Communication
Communicating in writing creates a paper trail and avoids the he said she said mess that phone calls can create. It also takes away the pressure they can apply on the phone. Just because you are not talking does not mean you are doing anything wrong. It means you are playing the game to your advantage.
Do Not Buy Into The Pressure
They are going to try to create a sense of urgency. That is because urgency works for them, not for you. The threats of what will happen if you do not pay right now, the threats about what will happen to your credit score, the implication that you need to do something right now are all designed to get you to act without thinking.
The reality is that the older a debt is, the less of a threat it is. There is a statute of limitations for how long they can sue you over the debt. The reporting period is seven years, so eventually it will fall off your report regardless of if you pay it or not. The urgency is in their best interest, not yours. Do not play into it.
Credit repair is a long game. The investigation will take a few days. You will need to follow up over the next few weeks. Eventually, you will get the outcome you are looking for. It just takes time and persistence.
Conclusion
Phillips and Cohen Associates is a debt collection agency that operates in a field that has already caught the attention of federal regulators, has been the subject of hundreds of lawsuits, and has a history of consumer complaints over verification issues and contact issues. These are not just risks for consumers. They are current, documented issues that can serve as the basis for a credit dispute.
If you have a collection from Phillips and Cohen Associates on your credit report, that may not be the end of the story. That may be the beginning of successfully disputing the account and getting it completely removed because it should not be on your report in the first place.
How You Can Get Help Now
The process of disputing the collection on your report and getting it removed requires knowledge of the laws governing credit repair, what types of issues you need to identify, and how you need to document and follow up on them. Most people who try this on their own end up making critical mistakes that jeopardize their case, whether it is providing information they should not have or missing a deadline.
We can help. FightCollections.com specializes in helping people dispute collection accounts that are inaccurate, incorrect, or unverifiable. Our systematic approach has been perfected over thousands of people dealing with collectors just like Phillips and Cohen Associates.
If Phillips and Cohen Associates has put a collection account on your credit report, do not pay it until you have talked to us about possibly disputing it and getting it removed.
Contact us today for a free consultation. The same operational issues that got you here may also be what finally get you the outcome you deserve.
