What to Do If You've Been Sued by NCO Financial Systems Incorporated
Chloe Meltzer | January 10, 2024
Legal Expert Chloe Meltzer, MA
Chloe Meltzer is an experienced content writer specializing in legal content creation. She holds a degree in English Literature from Arizona State University, complemented by a Master’s in Marketing from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo.
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: If NCO Financial Systems is suing you for a debt, use SoloSuit to respond in 15 minutes and win your lawsuit.
Are you receiving calls or letters from NCO Financial Systems Incorporated suing you for past-due debt? If so, you may be ignoring these letters and this is the worst thing you can do. Not everyone at NCO is a big bad debt collector, but in some cases, you may make contact with rude collection agents. In some cases these rude agents may be a method to get out of the lawsuit altogether, so it is important to educate yourself on your rights, and what to do if you've been sued by NCO systems incorporated.
What is NCO Financial Systems?
NCO Financial Systems is a large debt collection agency that works to collect money that is owed to its clients. Most often their clients are companies that sell to consumers. They are also known as NCO Credit or NCO Financial Systems and use representatives to reach out to debtors by phone, email, and mail. There are many different branches in the United States and around the world. When responding to NCO Financial Systems you will want to ensure that you fax your information to the branch assigned to your account. This is incredibly important because it will most likely stop the calls immediately.
What to Do If You've Been Sued by NCO Financial Systems Incorporated
If you are a few months past due on a debt, then your creditor may assign or sell the debt to a third-party debt collection agency. In this case, a third-party debt collector will attempt to collect on this debt, and in cases where you cannot pay, you will be sued. If you do not believe that you are responsible for the debt, then you will need to follow the proper steps to respond. If you do not respond then NCO will be given a default judgment against you. This can lead to wage garnishment or money being taken directly from your bank accounts.
Verify the Timeline of Events
If you are being sued by a debt collector, then you should look into what the process is like. Your timeline will vary from any other timelines, but you should first always verify the debt and ensure that you do owe it.
Once you receive the letter that you are being sued, it is most likely already 180 days past due. Within five days of this letter, NCO must send you what is called a debt validation letter. This states how much you owe and how to dispute the debt if you believe it is not yours. If you believe that you do not owe the debt, then you can ask for a verification letter which must be sent within 30 days.
If your debt is yours, then you must respond. You may even be able to set up a plan to pay off the debt in a payment plan or negotiation. If you do not repay or settle the debt then you will be sued and this will lead to a court notice.
How to Respond
After verifying the debt, you will need to formulate your response, which is called an “Answer”. If you do not respond you will face worse consequences such as wage garnishment or taking money directly from your accounts. If you miss these deadlines is will be far harder to settle or countersue when the time comes.
Debt collectors usually obtain this debt after it has passed through multiple hands. This is why if you are being sued for a debt you should always challenge the lawsuit. Sometimes the debt may not even be yours, or you may have already paid it. It is also important that the amount is correct. Oftentimes debt collectors may sue you for debt that is more than you owe.
When filing your response to the lawsuit, you can ask for the following information to be included in your validation letter:
Name of the creditor
How much of the debt has been paid
What the amount on the debt is
Whether the debt is past the statute of limitations
Look to the Statute of Limitations
The statute of limitations are laws that govern how long a debt collector may legally sue you for debt. Although it is on average around six years, it can be anywhere from three to 20 years. This will vary on which state you are being sued in, but also the type of debt you owe.
Countersue
There are rules that govern how a debt collector may speak to you and collect on a debt. These rights are governed by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), as well as the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Truth in Lending Act. Under the FDCPA, debt collectors may not do the following:
Contact you at odd hours, which is generally outside the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Harass you in any way. This might include using profane language or threatening harm.
Threaten to take your property or deposit any post-dated checks.
Tell anyone other than your spouse about the debt.
Make fraudulent claims, and misrepresent who they are or how much you owe.
There are a few decisions you will need to make when you are fighting a debt collection lawsuit. If you decide to accept the judgment, then you can either go to court or accept the judgment and settle out of court. In these cases, you may be able to negotiate a settlement. If you have limited wages and assets then you may also be judgment proof. This means that your wages cannot be garnished because you make too little income.
Filing for Bankruptcy
The final option is to file for bankruptcy. In this case, all your debts will be forgiven and a debt collector will no longer be able to collect from you. You must know that this will follow you for life and that it is not usually the best option.
What is SoloSuit?
SoloSuit makes it easy to respond to a debt collection lawsuit.
How it works: SoloSuit is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your answer. Upon completion, you can either print the completed forms and mail in the hard copies to the courts or you can pay SoloSuit to file it for you and to have an attorney review the document.
Respond with SoloSuit
"First time getting sued by a debt collector and I was searching all over YouTube and ran across SoloSuit, so I decided to buy their services with their attorney reviewed documentation which cost extra but it was well worth it! SoloSuit sent the documentation to the parties and to the court which saved me time from having to go to court and in a few weeks the case got dismissed!" – James
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