Who is Phillips & Cohen Associates, Ltd.?
Company Name: Phillips & Cohen Associates, Ltd.
Company Type: 3rd party debt collection agency
Specialty: Deceased estates collections
Parent Company: PCA Global Ventures
Founded: September 1, 1997
Headquarters: 1002 Justison Street, Wilmington, Delaware 19801
Co-Founders/CEOs: Matthew M. Phillips and Adam S. Cohen, Esq.
Estimated Employees: 250-500
Geographic Footprint: US (nationwide) with offices in the UK, Canada, Australia, and Europe.
BBB Rating: A+ (accredited since April 2015); however, all 12 consumer reviews are 1-star
Industry Verticals: Credit card, retail, utility, telecom, healthcare, and student loan debts
Known Clients: Macy's/American Express, Comcast; claims to work with over 70 major creditors
Understanding Their History
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigated Phillips & Cohen Associates to determine if the company violated the FDCPA by contacting third parties not authorized under the FDCPA in connection with the collection of debts owed by deceased consumers.
Although the FTC chose not to take formal action against PCA in October 2010, the FTC noted that the decision to close the investigation should not be read to imply that no violation occurred.
Between 2016 and 2017 alone, PCA was the subject of approximately 400 federal FDCPA lawsuits and at least seven class actions. Over the past three years, the company has also been the subject of roughly 181 CFPB complaints and 33 formal complaints filed with the BBB.
In nearly every complaint, consumers allege being contacted about debts they do not owe, that calls continued even after they requested that communication cease and that PCA representatives refused to validate the debt.
Why Is Phillips & Cohen Associates Calling Me?
They collect debts from the Deceased
Phillips & Cohen Associates specializes in collecting debts from the estates of individuals who have passed away. When a person dies, creditors may file a claim against the estate, and companies like PCA are hired to find family members or others associated with the deceased.
The issue here is that PCA often contacts individuals who have no legal obligation to pay the debt. We’ve seen multiple complaints from consumers who report that PCA called them about the debts of an ex-spouse they divorced decades ago, or about debts owed by their adult children or grandchildren.
One consumer who posted on 800Notes about receiving a call from PCA regarding the debts of a deceased family member wrote, “What scumbag calls family members who are not responsible for someone’s debts who passed away?”
They may have the wrong person altogether
We’ve seen multiple complaints filed with the BBB from consumers who report that PCA contacted them about their own estate. One consumer who posted on the BBB website in September 2023 wrote, “I received a letter from this company saying I have passed away and wanted to contact the person handling my estate I am very much alive is this a new way of scamming people.”
These weren’t isolated incidents. When a debt collector can’t even verify whether or not the person they’re calling is alive, it’s reasonable to question every other claim they make.
What Phillips & Cohen Associates is counting on
They’re counting on you to panic and pay without validating the debt
Here’s what we believe that debt collectors like Phillips & Cohen Associates are counting on: that the grief and stress of losing a loved one will cloud your judgment. They’ll contact you during a family’s most vulnerable moments and make vague claims about debts owed, often without providing an invoice or any other documentation.
This is exactly what one BBB reviewer identified as Mike M described in November 2023 when he wrote that PCA contacted him about a debt owed to Comcast from an estate. “Of course there was no invoice, no bill, just a phone number so they could take the $$,” he wrote.
Debt collectors rarely have all of the documentation they need to validate a debt, and that’s exactly why their dispute strategy works: because the collector often cannot validate the debt when the consumer disputes it.
They’re counting on you to do nothing
The second scenario that we believe Phillips & Cohen Associates is counting on is that you’ll simply ignore their phone calls and allow whatever they’ve reported to the credit reporting agencies to remain on your credit report unchallenged.
A collection account can remain on your credit report for up to 7 years from the original delinquency date and can affect everything from whether or not you’re approved for a mortgage to the rate you pay for insurance.
Many consumers believe that if they simply ignore a debt collector, the problem will remain contained. In reality, ignoring a debt collector is allowing them to win by default: the item will remain on your credit report; the collector will report to the credit reporting agencies that the debt is valid; and your credit score will suffer all without the debt collector ever having to validate that the debt is legitimate.
What Consumers Are Reporting
Persistent phone calls that ignore requests to cease communication
When we looked at the complaints about calls from 866-270-0195, we saw a pattern of persistent communication. One consumer who posted on 800Notes wrote that they received a call from PCA every weekday morning between 8:00 and 8:30 am, and suggested that they were using an automated dialing system.
Another consumer, Laura, posted in February 2022 that she had been receiving calls from PCA weeks after her husband passed away. “They call at least 4 times a week. It’s regarding my very recently deceased husband (1 and 1/2 months deceased). They leave voice-mails with heavy breathing and typing, but never leave an actual message. This is more than annoying - they are harassing a new widow.”
Formal complaints filed with the BBB go even further. One consumer wrote that after sending a cease-and-desist letter to PCA, the company responded by calling her, sending a text message, and mailing her two additional letters four separate violations in a single day.
Vague allegations without any supporting documentation
We saw the same theme repeated across every platform we reviewed: consumers reported that PCA contacted them about debts without providing any details at all no account numbers; no documentation from the original creditor; no itemized statement of the charges.
One BBB reviewer wrote that PCA sent condolences and requested money from an estate that had been closed for over three years.
In one complaint filed with the CFPB, a consumer reported that a PCA representative threatened to take a Social Security recipient to court over an alleged debt. When the consumer requested written documentation, the PCA representative allegedly told the consumer that no letter would be sent. Consumers have the right to request validation of a debt under the FDCPA, and the debt collector’s refusal to provide that information is a violation of the law.
Challenging Your Credit Report
The battle with Phillips & Cohen Associates isn’t about whether you owe a debt. It’s about what’s being reported on your credit report, and for how long.
Every collection account on your report is a claim that you can dispute, and the credit reporting agencies have a legal obligation to investigate those disputes and remove any information that cannot be verified.
When you dispute information on your credit report, the burden shifts: instead of you having to prove that the debt collector is wrong, they have to prove that their information is accurate, valid, and yours.
Given PCA’s history of contacting the wrong people; pursuing debts from estates that had long since been closed; and refusing to validate debts when consumers challenge them, it’s entirely possible that they won’t meet that burden.
Why disputing is better than paying
Many consumers believe that if they pay a collection account, it will be removed from their credit report and their credit score will improve. Unfortunately, that’s just not true.
Even if you pay a collection account in full, the information about that account can remain on your credit report for up to 7 years from the original delinquency date. You’ll still have a “paid collection” listed on your report, and that negative history will still be evaluated by lending agencies when they assess your creditworthiness.
Disputing is different. When a debt collector cannot validate a debt to the satisfaction of the credit reporting agency, the agency will completely remove the information from your report. It won’t be marked as “disputed” or “unverified.” It will be deleted.
That’s why disputing is more powerful than paying: because it gets at the root of the problem.
BBB complaints are more than a warning sign
The 33 complaints that the BBB has received about Phillips & Cohen Associates in the past three years aren’t just a warning sign. They’re evidence of systematic problems that you can use to support your own dispute.
When a debt collection agency has a proven history of contacting the wrong people and ignoring requests to cease communication, that’s evidence that you can use to make your case to the credit reporting agency. A debt collector with a history of errors will have a much higher burden of proof when a credit reporting agency evaluates a dispute.
Every single complaint is a data point that you can use in your own dispute. Those complaints are a matter of public record, and they tell a story that no A rating can erase.
Conclusion
Phillips & Cohen Associates is counting on your grief; your confusion; and your inaction. Every time your phone rings and you see that 866-270-0195 is calling, it’s a reminder that the company has made a calculation about you that you won’t challenge them.
Don’t call them back. Don’t negotiate. Don’t pay a debt you don’t think you owe in the hopes that it will magically be removed from your credit report, because it won’t.
Instead, focus on the one place where you have the power to control the outcome: your credit report.
Are you ready to start your free credit report dispute today? If Phillips & Cohen Associates has made an error on your credit report, you have the legal right to dispute it.
At FightCollections.com we specialize in helping consumers dispute unverified and inaccurate collection accounts on your credit report through the credit report dispute process and it costs you nothing to get started.There’s never been a better time to stop allowing the debt collectors at 866-270-0195 to dictate the terms of the conversation.
Visit FightCollections.com today to begin your free dispute and start the process of taking back your credit report.
