Phillips & Cohen - stop ongoing harassment

Dear Susie,

As you are in a debt settlement program, the CAs can only contact you through your attorney and not directly. You should inform about this harassment to the company through which you are undergoing debt settlement and ask them to send a letter to Phillips & Cohen for stopping the ongoing harassment as you are in a debt settlement program.

I hope it will help.

Regards,

Phoenix

Main Office address of Phillips & Cohen LLP is
2000 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., 1st Floor, Washington, District of Columbia 20036

You can also contact them at their San Fransisco Office: -
Adrress: - 131 Steuart St, San Francisco, CA 94105, USA
Phone: - 415-836-9000
Fax: - 415-836-9001

Quote:

The fdcpa does not apply to business debts but if they are reporting on your CR's, then they are subject to the FCRA. Are they reporting? Is it accurate?

I am not sure if they still are, but Phillips and Cohen used to be connected with Sherman Companies. I dealt with them along with a number of other ones associated with Sherman, Resurgent, LVNV, etc. They dont' play fair and alot of times break regulations.

Good Luck..karen

Yes, the fdcpa only applies to consumer debts.

By definitions used in the FDCPA: "(5) The term ???????debt??????? means any obligation or alleged obligation of a consumer to pay money arising out of a transaction in which the money, property, insurance or services which are the subject of the transaction are primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, whether or not such obligation has been reduced to judgment."

Literally meaning, that the FDCPA doesn't apply to any debts incurred for a business purpose. (It is meant to protect consumers, not businesses).

I don't think you could cite them for violating the FDCPA since it doesn't apply. But maybe your state has some more stringent laws you can use that don't put such a distinction between the category of debts ???

I've heard many bad things about Phillips & Cohen. Personally, however, my experience with them was not bad. I had an old Chase credit card from 2002 that got sent to them ($6500 balance). For whatever reason, Phillips and Cohen thought I was dead (I nor anybody else never told them that). For a few months after Chase sent the account to them, they were sending letters to my "estate" claiming they were sorry to hear of my passing but that my estate needed to pay off the account. After a few letters they stopped and for 3 years I didn't hear a peep from them.

I guess I could have gone on letting them think I was dead; but I had seriously been saving up to pay back all my old debts and clean up my credit. So in 2007 I called them to settle the account. They really were surprised to hear from me, kept asking me "are you sure you're (Debtcruncher), because we show he's dead?" I told them God wouldn't let me into heaven until I paid them so I came back to take care of it. But they ended up taking a 75% settlement and I never had any other problems with them. For the most part I found them to be cordial when I called, although I was trying to get them down around 50% and they wouldn't do it.

Yeah, Phillips and Cohen completely ignored my Debt Validation/Cease and Desist letter(s), and it was a personal debt not a business debt. In addition to that, they kept calling my mother when they knew what my correct phone number was, as it has never changed and I included it on the letter. When I called and confronted them about this, the rep I spoke to tried to tell me they never received it and I advised her she was HIGH as I had sent two and I had the proof of their receiving it. Then she goes on to say, "Oh yeah, here it is in the notes. The collector that called must not have read them." She did attempt to get smart with me about this and once I used the words "I'm going to sue your company for fdcpa violations and mention you by name in that suit." She took me a little more seriously and advised I (or rather my Mother?) would receive no more calls.

Been about a month now, and no calls. Only time will tell.

The interesting thing, is I have not received any type of validation from them either. Getting ready to pull my credit report and looking forward to suing for any FCRA violations I might find.

I'd be willing to bet Phillips and Cohen has a long and rich history of violating the FDCPA and thinking they are untouchable.

Now, let me ask you something SusieQ. When you say "business account", was this a CC that your company made you take out in your name/SSN for the purposes of expenses and travel? And, as NascarDevil asked, is this card reporting on your credit bureau reports under your name/SSN? If so, then I'm willing to bet this card does in fact fall under the FDCPA and would be subject to a C&D request.

Let us know the answer to those questions so we can understand your situation a little better and help you out.

Ooops.

NVM, I guess DebtCruncher cleard up the question.

Not trying to start an argument, however.....

I still have to wonder about that though, because at the time this version of the fdcpa was written, I'm sure there were not that many (or more likely, none at all) "busniess cards" that were issued in the name/SSN of the person using it. They were probably only issued in the name of the business and were not reported on the user's CBR. There must have been some sort of situation (or situations) that have come up that has caused this to be addressed and clarified in regards to the FDCPA applying in this situation or not.

I remember I worked at a company where the guys had AmEx cards that were issued in their names, they used them for business purposes such as travel, parking, whatever. They submitted expense reports, were sent checks to reimburse them, and they paid off the accounts with this money. We had one employee that was notoriously late submitting his expense reports and usually didn't submit them until he had been late with the payment to the CC and they were already calling him looking for their money. Then, of course, he would want me to rush those through to the main office so he could get his money.

They never called the company looking for their money, though. You would think they would have if it was a business card and they realized the company had to reimburse him so he could pay the bill.

Just a thought.

You do have a point, UnemployedRon, which I'm not so sure about.

I guess I am assuming that the OP operated a business at one time, and took out the credit card for her own business. In which case, when they try to collect, they are not collecting against SusieQ the consumer, but rather as SusieQ the business owner.

If she was merely an employee of the company, and the company gave her a credit card to put business expenses on, then I think that would fall on her employer.

My company has a CitiBusiness account -- any employee on it gets a credit card with their name (but the company name is on the card too); Employees are basically authorized users on the company account. But the company actually does get a statement every month which itemizes all the charges on each separate card, and my company pays the bill directly. I have a company card, and I never gave them my social, nor does it report on my credit bureaus each month -- (I wish it did report, having a $75K limit always paid on time would probably boost my score.)

I guess it all depends in what way the card was taken out. If she opened the account personally, but had an agreement with her employer whereby they would reimburse her, then it might actually be a consumer debt since the business actually had no involvement in that credit agreement.

But if the card was taken out in a business name, and SusieQ is in charge of the business, then it definitely is not a consumer debt.

I have a different address for Phillips & Cohen Associates, Ltd. Is that the same company as Phillips & Cohen LLC?

258 Chapman Rd, Suite 205
Newark, DE 19702
866-301-6678

That is the address from the bottom of my bill. It says correspondence other than payments should be sent to that address.

My husband also has a business credit card (sole proprietor) that I have tried sending a CD on (to a different company). I have been told by them that they do not have to cease and desist on a business account.