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Respond to Advantage Collection Professionals

Sarah Edwards | April 23, 2024

Sarah Edwards
Legal Expert
Sarah Edwards, BS

Sarah Edwards is a professional researcher and writer specializing in legal content. An Emerson College alumna, she holds a Bachelor of Science in Communication from the prestigious Boston institution.

Edited by Hannah Locklear

Hannah Locklear
Editor at SoloSuit
Hannah Locklear, BA

Hannah Locklear is SoloSuit’s Marketing and Impact Manager. With an educational background in Linguistics, Spanish, and International Development from Brigham Young University, Hannah has also worked as a legal support specialist for several years.

Summary: Advantage Collection Professionals is a debt collection, and if contacted by them, you can respond by requesting debt validation or filing an Answer to your debt collection lawsuit. SoloSuit can help you respond to Advantage Collection Pros at any stage of the debt collection process.

Having debt hanging over your head is no fun. And when you keep getting calls and emails from debt collectors on top of that, it gets even more stressful. It might seem like your only option is to pay in full — even if you don’t have the funds to do so.

However, you have more options than just paying up! Here’s how to respond to Advantage Collection Professionals.

What is Advantage Collection Professionals?

Advantage Collection Professionals is a debt collection agency in Massachusetts. (This company is not the same as Advantage Approval Program — more on that below!) It sometimes operates under the alternate business name Advantage Collection Pros.

Below is the contact information for Advantage Collection Professionals:

  • Phone number: (763) 689-1500
  • Address: 495 2nd Ave SE, Cambridge, MN 55008
  • Email: collections@advantagecollections.com
  • Website: advantagecollections.com

Read Advantage Collection Professionals reviews

According to its website, Advantage Collection Professionals treats customers with dignity and respect. We decided to investigate that claim by taking a look at its reviews and complaints online.

According to its Google reviews, the company has an average rating of 1.5 out of 5 stars. Many reviews say the company appeared on credit reports without calling, emailing, or sending a letter first. Many also say that Advantage has tried to collect debts that original creditors say were never owed.

We also took a look at its Better Business Bureau (BBB) profile and saw that while it isn’t BBB accredited, it has a BBB rating of A+. Reviews from its BBB profile claim that Advantage Collection Pros hangs up on consumers, fails to send written notices of debt., and report fraudulent information to the credit reporting bureaus.

The last place we checked for information was the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) complaint database, where Advantage Collection Professionals have received dozens of complaints. Many mention the company showing up on credit reports with no prior notice, and many also say the company has not validated debts when asked.

What should you do if Advantage Collection Professionals contacts you?

If you’re contacted by this debt collector (or any other), remain calm! You may not end up having to pay the amount they say you owe. Here’s what to do.

First, ask them to validate the debt

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) gives you the right to ask a debt collector to prove you owe a given debt. If the collector doesn’t validate the debt, you don’t have to pay it.

However, there’s a catch — you must ask a collector to validate the debt within 30 days of the first contact. You also must make the contact in writing with something called a Debt Validation Letter.

SoloSuit lets you draft and file a Debt Validation Letter in minutes.

Check out the following video to learn more about how to ask Advantage Collection Pros to validate your debt:

Next, choose a settlement strategy

The best-case scenario here is if Advantage doesn’t validate the debt. If that happens, you likely won’t hear from them again. If they do validate it, you have three options: pay it in full, offer a settlement, or ask for a payment plan.

  1. Pay in full: If the debt is very small (or if you’re tired of dealing with the collector), you can simply pay and be done with the debt.
  2. Offer a settlement: You might already know that if a debt collector sues you, your best option is (usually) settling. You can also offer to settle before a lawsuit has been filed against you.
  3. Ask for a payment plan: If you can’t afford to pay the full amount at once, it’s worth asking for a payment plan. Most of the time, debt collectors will let you make monthly payments until the debt is paid off.

Let’s look at an example of how to settle with Advantage Collection Pros:

Example: Bob gets a letter from Advantage Collection Professionals saying he owes $440 on an old medical bill. Money is tight, so Bob wants to see if he can settle the bill for less. He reaches out to Advantage and offers to pay $300. Advantage comes back with a counteroffer: they want him to pay $400. Ultimately, they meet in the middle. Bob pays $350 and is done with the debt!


What is the Advantage Approval Program?

As you may have already noticed, many debt collectors and other finance-related businesses — even ones that are actually scams — have very similar names. If you’ve been getting calls from a company claiming to be the Advantage Approval Program, you should know that it’s a completely separate entity.

So what is Advantage Approval Program? Unlike Advantage Collection Professionals, the Advantage Approval Program is an actual scam. It robo-calls people and offers them a loan or debt relief.

The Advantage Approval Program calls from different numbers, such as:

  • (570) 203-7146
  • (906) 323-4361

If you get an Advantage Approval Program phone call, it can even be from a phone number with any area code.

How should you respond to Advantage Approval Program phone calls? Because this company is an actual scam, you don’t have to do anything. However, to keep them from bothering you, you might want to block the number each time you get another Advantage Approval Program call.

As a side note, if you have debt in collections, you also might get a call from The Advantage Group. The Advantage Group is not a scam like the Advantage Approval Program — it’s another debt collector.

Deal with debt collectors the simple way with SoloSuit

Resolving your debt might be nerve-racking, but it doesn’t need to be complicated. Whether you’re just now being contacted by Advantage Collection Professionals or have had a lawsuit filed against you, SoloSuit is here to help. Get started on your path toward financial freedom today.

If Advantage Collection Professionals has already filed a debt lawsuit against you, check out SoloSettle by SoloSuit!

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