Phoenix Financial Services or PFS is a third-party debt collection agency based in Indiana. It has received consumer complaints alleging violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), including improper contact or sharing of information and threatening to take actions that cannot legally be taken. If you have been contacted by this debt collector, make sure you understand your rights before responding.
The harassing company pays our fees.
They’re legit. Phoenix Financial Services, LLC is a legitimate collection agency. They are listed as a domestic limited liability company located in Indianapolis, IN. According to the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office, PFS were founded in 2014 and have a perpetual business license. Buzzfile indicates that Phoenix Financial has annual revenue of almost $500,000.00 and employs five people.
PFS’ website indicates that they are a “results-oriented revenue cycle management firm powered by data driven analytics and backed by the highest standards in regulatory compliance, quality assurance, data security, and customer care.”
Phoenix Financial Services focuses exclusively on debt collection, specializing in student loan debt, medical bills, and unpaid taxes and government obligations. PFS is a relatively new operator in the debt collection industry, and their founding date coincides with the recent upsurge of debt among college graduates resulting from the unprecedented corruption of the university system by widely publicized predatory lending schemes.
Their website hosts fairly complete information about regulatory and compliance laws, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). However, their consumer resources page is not particularly helpful. Federal resources include a link to the Internal Revenue Service page. Student Loan resources only refer site visitors to loan companies and information about wage garnishment. There are also links to the three credit reporting agencies. Their contact form collects information from site visitors but does not inform them of their rights under the FDCPA. Their pay online feature requires users to agree to accept phone calls from Phoenix Financial as a condition of using the service.
Phoenix Financial Svces is a young company in a very competitive industry. They have focused on collecting student debt, much of which is the result of predatory financial schemes underwritten with government-backed subsidies and accompanied by wage-garnishment legislation. Furthermore, like student loan debt, their secondary specialization on medical billing puts them in contact with people whose debts are often not the result of reckless consumerism or abuse of high-limit credit cards.
Who are we? We are Lemberg Law, a Consumer Law Firm
Lemberg Law is a consumer law firm helping victims of collection harassment and abuse. We are ranked A+ by the BBB. We’ve helped more than 15,000 consumers stop harassment and recover money from debt collectors. Harassed? Abused? Misled by a collector? Call our Helpline today! There is no charge unless we win.
Many complaints against Phoenix Financial Services result from overly aggressive or abusive practices. The Better Business Bureau indicates that this collection agency has been in business for three years and has been accredited since 2015. As of August 2017, the BBB lists a total of 129 closed complaints, 123 for billing or collection issues and 6 for problems with customer service. Many of these complaints indicate that people who receive debt collection notices from Phoenix Financial often do not recognize the bills or the original creditors and often have to negotiate to have false and damaging information removed from their credit reports. This occurrence may be caused by PFS’ business model, which requires them to purchase third-party debt in large quantities. Of the 36 total customer reviews on the BBB website, 26 are negative. Many of the positive reviews are the result of people who have voluntarily called in to pay or settle a debt, or who appear not to be otherwise impaired by financial difficulties. Justia lists at least 5 legal complaints filed against PFS.
Phoenix Financial Services, LLC
PO Box 361450
Indianapolis, IN 46236
Corporate Office: 1-855-342-6567
Website: https://www.phoenixfinancialsvcs.com/
It is illegal for a debt collector to make empty threats to sue you or garnish your wages. It is also unlikely PFS would sue you for a debt you may not owe or they cannot validate. However, debt collection agencies are known to have summoned debtors to court and garnish wages after a default judgement. Contacting an attorney BEFORE this could possibly happen would be a smart move. We’ve helped thousands of consumers fight back against unscrupulous debt collection harassers. Find out if we can help you too today!
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Unlawful Debt Harassment? Learn the Law & Sue the Collector.
Absolutely. You can sue a debt collector. Here is a Sample Case Filed in Federal Court:
In 2018, a proposed class action filed in New York federal court claimed Phoenix Financial Services LLC failed to clearly specify a consumer’s debt amount in a collection letter. The letter, dated January 3, 2018, indicated that the plaintiff’s account was accruing interest and fees but didn’t provide enough information for the man to calculate the true balance on a given day, the case claims.
The lawsuit alleged the defendant failed to specify the interest rate, amount of interest, date of interest and late fees would be applied, amount of late fees, and amounts of the added charges accrued over “any measurable period.”
In 2017, a complainant indicated that Phoenix Financial Services had initiated collection activity—including placing negative reports with Experian Credit Reporting Agency—for an unverified debt that the complainant had never assumed. This activity caused inconvenience, adversely affected the complainant’s credit, and violated the FCRA. Although the negative information was ultimately removed, and the debt was returned to the original creditor, Phoenix Financial Services accepted responsibility for the violation. Also in 2017, a complainant reported that unverified debts had been reported on his or her credit report in violation of the FCRA. After a standard complaint procedure, the negative information was removed. However, three months later, the same complainant was again notified by the credit reporting agencies that Phoenix Financial Services had again placed unverified negative financial information on his or her credit report. Although the error was again corrected, these repeated lapses indicate a pattern of behavior on the part of Phoenix Financial Services that indicates an inability or an unwillingness to respect financial regulatory laws or consumer protection laws.
Here are past Press Releases of Lawsuits Brought On By Lemberg Law Against this agency
October 6, 2015. On behalf of our client, Lemberg Law recently filed a complaint in U.S. District Court, Western District of North Carolina. The case, against Phoenix Financial Services, charges the debt collection agency with violating state and federal law and asks for $1,000 in statutory damages, plus other relief.
Receiving calls at work can be distracting. They can be against the rules. And they can get you into trouble. Our client says that this debt collection agency called him during work hours on his cell phone. He told a PFS debt collector that he wasn’t able to take calls before 5:00 p.m., but they still called during the day.
In addition, in an attempt to be cooperative, our client agreed to let the agency make automatic withdrawals from his bank account. But they did so without the written consent required by law.
The lawsuit charges that Phoenix Financial Services violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by engaging in harassing behavior; by contacting our client at a place and time known to be inconvenient; and by using unfair and unconscionable means to collect a debt. It also charges PFS with violating the North Carolina Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by engaging in harassing behavior, and with violating the North Carolina Unfair Trade Practices Act. It also charges Phoenix Financial Services with violations of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act by debiting our client’s bank account without his legal authorization.
Federal laws protect you. The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) regulates the behavior of collection agencies by prohibiting actions such as the use of abusive or threatening language; harassment; or the use of false or misleading information to collect a debt. The FCRA regulates how collection agencies and creditors report delinquent debts to credit reporting agencies. Additional consumer protection laws include the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA).
Yes. If you want to enforce your rights, or recover money for violations — you need to sue. Federal laws provide individuals like you with a means to seek monetary damages in court. For example, the FDCPA allows consumers who have been violated to recover damages of up to $1,000, plus attorney fees and court costs.
Consumers have reported this agency harassing them from the following numbers:
You may have a case, if…
“We were so impressed with how the attorney listened to us and understood the position we were in. Thank you for stopping the calls. The check was a nice bonus, but mostly we’re glad we’re not being hounded anymore.”
“Lemberg Law contacted me within a couple of hours of me submitting my info on their site. That same day Daniel emailed me instructions on what to do the next time the collection agency called. Within a week, the calls had stopped. Today marks week 2 and we’ve not had a call in three days. I can’t say thank you enough.”
“I can’t praise your service enough. I was lost and just really wanted my credit report cleaned up. You have gone beyond my expectations. Thanks again!”
In short, odds are good we can. Call us to today and we’ll tell you how we can help.
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Sergei Lemberg is an attorney focusing on consumer law, class actions related to automotive issues, and personal injury litigation. With nearly two decades of experience, his areas of practice include Lemon Law (vehicle defects), Debt Collection Harassment, TCPA (illegal robocalls and texts), Fair Credit Reporting Act, Overtime claims, Personal Injury cases, and Class Actions. He has consistently been recognized as the nation's "most active consumer attorney." In 2020, Mr. Lemberg represented Noah Duguid before the United States Supreme Court in the landmark case Duguid v. Facebook. He is also the author of "Defanging Debt Collectors," a guide that empowers consumers to fight back against debt collectors and prevail, as well as "Lemon Law 101: The Laws That Lemon Dealers Don't Want You to Know."
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Typical dishonest agency. They just dinged my wife’s credit and mine with no written notice , nor giving us 30 days to dispute the validity of the debt. From the balances it appears to be medical bills we disputed with the hospital for services not rendered. It was placed with a collection agency previously, we disputed the debts and the previous agency found our disputes valid and removed them from our credit reports. Here we are no notice, no calls…total violation of Federal laws….time for suit…
I have been receiving both mail and phone calls from this company asking for a debt payment from 2017. The thing is that this was payed on that same year. The original creditor was called some time ago and confirmed that nothing was owed. However, the one phone call I did answer from Phoenix Financial Services resulted in a pretty rude conversation which I ultimately had to hang up on.
It doesn’t seem like I can get this company off my back.
My boyfriend recently got in the mail that he owed 471 from this so called company and said he owed since 2018. He went ahead and paid it w/o consulting me. But it seems too sketchy to me because why send it now 2 years later?
I have Phoenix Financial trying to extort money from me for a medical bill that was already paid from an accident lawsuit. They have now reported this bogus collection on my credit bureaus ( both Experian & Equifax ) which has shredded my credit profile and decreased my score by up to a total of 45 points over a $517 falsified collection. I have no unpaid bills nor any other collections on my file and take pride in paying my bills and following the law however, they keep trying to get me to pay and they will not email me a copy of this collection. This is the third time that St Josephs hospital has sold my paid medical bills from said accident lawsuit to different collection agencies. Now if these bills were all satisfied, on time and taken care of the first time then how is it that this hospital can keep selling my already paid bills to various collection agents which in effect ruins my credit, takes time out of my life, repeated phone calls & most importantly ruins my good name and credit file as they are profiting from falsified collections. I am stressed the hell out & all they ( the collection low-life’s ) do is keep trying to get me to pay something that was paid 2 years ago. I am tired of shaking & being sick to my stomach & losing sleep and having my credit shredded for absolutely no reason at all. Is there any justice for a little guy like myself?
I received a notice on credit karma that a Phoenix Financial had placed a collection debt of $50 dollars from Pendrick Capital Partners on Equifax. The bill was legit since it was from a visit to the local ER hospital.
I called Phoenix to discussed their letter which stated the debt could be paid off with $19.79. I was extremely reluctant to pay since their representative stated that he could only “recommend” the removal of this debt to his supervisor.
But I decided to gamble and in my case it paid off….
On Wednesday, 12/28/2019, I paid $19.79 to Phoenix via a debit card. Yesterday, Sunday, 12/29/2019, (about two weeks later) I received a notice on credit karma the Phoenix collections had been removed raising my score 17 points on vantage.
This company placed a collection on my credit report for an account that was paid in full and closed almost a year prior. They not only reported a collection to all credit bureaus, but they even reported each month as a missed payment. This resulted in one of my credit cards being closed which resulted in a loss of $7,000 worth of credit. I had to fight for something which wasn’t my fault. These people are scam artists. I cannot wait for them to go bankrupt.
They handled my case illegally by not willing to release a claim that shouldn’t be paid by me in full. The total cost was super expensive and I had to pay everything by myself. Horrible attitude and illegal approach. I’m going to find out people who also suffered in similar experience and and get back the money that belongs to me through legal approach. I won’t give up and I’m here advocating people like me should align together and sue this company. Companies like Phoenix Financial Service should be punished and shut down. Otherwise more innocent people would be robbed by these criminals. In terms of attitude, the debt collector yield at me and gave me multiple call during my work time. They also used all uppercase letters in email when I was only begging them to send a receipt to me.
Phoenix Financial has been harassing me for The last three years, with questionable debts from 10 to 15 years in the past, they dont have the rights to these debts, they inflate the debts and continue to call after Ive informed them that they are NOT entitled to or authorized to collect, Ive informed them that I will NEVER PAY THEM ONE CENT!!! Ever, and they just continue to call….not looking for money just want to push back!!!
I always pay my bills in full and was surprized to get a notice requesting $136 and $85 from this debt collection company which was very minimal in details, the only connecting information I could find was a hospital that we had an ER visit to probably a year earlier. I called the hospital to confirm that my bills had been paid in full and that they do not use this debt collection company. Phoenix continues to send letters by the mail which go in the trash and calls from random phone numbers which I mostly am able to ignore but when picking up the call recently, they failed to mention who they were and just went straight into a script of trying to verify personal details and requesting the earlier amount. When I asked if I might record the call they refused and then I hung up. I checked my credit report and they filed 2 false credit report claims, one for each of the earlier listed amounts. I have sent registered a dispute with equifax on these false negative reports and listed this same complaint with the BBB where similar complaints can be found. I find it disturbing that Phoenix was able to collect these bits of personal contact information and frustrating the time wasted on their attempts to collect this fraudulent claim and disputing false credit reports. Hoping enough people report on this bad behavior that Phoenix is unable to continue this fraud and intrusion.
I have had my run in with Phoenix too. It has been a horrible experience and I have been very compliant and trying to help resolve it. They put the disputed amount and they KNOW it is disputed onto my credit report with Experian. Even with me providing proof I paid the thing with the original creditor. It was a small amount less than 50 bucks and they have gone from nice to hateful. I have done all I can. I dont know what more I can do. I am at my wits end.
I asked my hospital about an ER bill. They gave me a different number to call, then another number, which was phoenix. But I checked credit karma & a debt for an ambulance ride was on there – not the one phoenix was talking about. I set up payment for the one on my credit, but phoenix is calling saying he’s trying to help me by NOT letting my debt with him go on my credit.
My question : why wasn’t it already affecting my credit? What if I had never called Phoenix? I trusted to follow up on this because my hospital led me on a trail of phone #s. Can phoenix be holding debt that CAN be turned to credit bureaus?
I do not talk to anyone who does know how to pronounce my properly. This being on my home phone or my cell . I will admit that I do have a bad debt on credit report, caused by a considerable loss of income in my household. The problem is the debt keeps bouncing from debt collector to debt collector. Each time it is sold to another one, they keep updating my report as though the debt just went bad. This last one keeps renewing the date on all of credit reports each month. At this rate it will never fall of after seven years. I have read the FCRA and I know for a fact this is against the law as described in FCRA. These people are very crooked and will do anything to anybody, without a care in the world.
I found a credit report filed on my credit through Lifelock. Lifelock protects you by alerting of fraudulent charges and credit report filing. I have no idea who Phoenix Financial is nor do I know what the charges are for. I had no warning, just that they filed it on my credit several months ago and I didn’t have any warning until now because I pay for fraudulent activity through Lifelock.
These people are a joke, I explained to them that we do not owe this money.It is a workman’s comp case.
These stupid b*** keep calling my cell number, trying to reach someone I do not know. They don’t seem to grasp the concept that I have had this phone number for more than a year and, if the person they seek ever had this number, he or she no longer does.
I have told them to stop calling my number, but they talk over anything I try to say that they do not want to hear.
I want them to cease calling my number.
Phoenix wants a copy of my Federal Tax return to verify my income. Is this legal for a student loan debt??
I just received a bill from Pheonix Financial Services LLC stating I owe a balance of $3,394.76 in debt. I would like to know how this is possible when I do not have debt in that amount and never even received a first request. The other day I received an email stating my credit went down and I am wondering if this is why. If so, this is not ok as I am trying to build my credit up and these people are possibly the cause for it going down. I am 100% aware of the debt I do have and this is not one of them.I did contact them explaining the situation, so hopefully this gets taken care of. Is there anything else I can do to get this taken care of? Thank you so much.
These bafoons keep calling my cell. I do not have any collections or unpaid bills. They won’t tell me why they are calling and I am not giving out any information.
How do I stop them from calling me?
I’m receiving the same thing. I told them I will not pay it until I see what Dr etc the bill is for. I’m not just paying a bill to Phoenix as it was sent. I went through all my bills and none match up with the amount they are saying I owe.
How do I keep this from going to a credit report?
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Hello, Phoenix has been calling me for my husband saying he owed a physician’s bill from last year. However, we never even gotten a physician’s bill from the hospital. They keep calling from different numbers, what should I do? Can we even be liable for a bill we didn’t even know we had?
I have been getting calls from Pheonix Financial Services about a doctors billl for my daughter that was incurred in 2014 or 2015 that if I don’t pay That they will report it to the credit bureau is this true? Can they do this? I am afraid that if I try to pay it they will still put it on my credit report. Let please let me know.
I am being harassed by Pheonix financial services about a doctors bill for my daughter that read is 2014 or 2015, they are threatening me that if I don’t pay that they will send it to the credit bureau is this true? Can they do this?
Hello. I have a collection from Phoenix Financial Services just appear on my credit account for $1400 originally dated 7/14 for a TN hospital. Can you help me get this off my credit report?
They’ve been withdrawing money from my account monthly for about 8 months.. paying off some hospital bills from about 5 years ago. What do i do
Phoenix financial has been calling me multiple times leaving no messages and then threatening my credit even though it was an ER trip last year and I was told from the hospital and my insurance that that would not affect my credit.
If I owe for students can Phoenix Financial Services garnish my wages? Can I ask for a copy of the signed promissory note for this debt. PLEASE HELP
They just called my number harrassed me called me names and hung up on me! All because they think I’m some John Krandle! I’m a woman !!!! These people are ridiculously rude!
> For real? I had no idea.
> You are incorrect. this is an old wives tale and not the law at all. check your info before you get someone sued.
A little known fact is that when a company buys your medical debt you no longer owe that money. They cannot ding your credit anymore. It means now you have a write off on your credit. In 7 years it will go away. These collection agencies never report when you do pay because they don’t have to. Don’t pay these people they literally bought your debt per pennies on the dollar.
> They just took over my ER bill from August 2013. I have cancer and no money. I had been told by the hospital I did not owe this bill but this must be the fifth company to take it over. They have called me three times in the last two hours. No messages, just calling.
Phoenix just bought my radiology bill from someone else after 7 years is this legal
This literally happened to me, but it’s 4 years. Supposedly they are the 6th agency to take over my debt. Is this real?
I live in California. Can you help? Naviant has no accounting, No promissory note(they are relying on an unsigned application to consolidate) which is unsigned by the original alleged lender. I filed bankruptcy in 2015 and they had no accounting, no signed promissory note signed by me and the bank. Every month they violate the CRA and FDCPA by reporting me to the 3 credit bureaus. I just got a call from another collection agency. I have an account with the original lender Citibank and they told me they have no account and nothing in the computer and said I would not have been able to open an account if I wed them money. I asked Naviant for these documents in my continued dispute for years and they admitted they don’t have them. They have the unsigned Application.