subject: Stop Viking Collection Service, Inc., Harassment [print this page] Viking Collection Service, Inc., is a privately held agency that has been in business for over 40 years. It is licensed to collect debt in all 50 states and has offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Phoenix, Arizona. It"s clients include large, regional, and community banks, as wells as insurance companies and debt buyers. However, over the last 20 years, Viking Collection Service has focused on the credit card collection industry. The Company recently ranked as the 37th largest consumer collection agency by Collections and Credit Risk monthly magazine. The said agency is affiliated with the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals, the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota, the National Association of Subrogation Professionals, and the American Collection Association.
Viking Collection Service"s track record of complying with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is not as bad as some other agencies. The FDCPA has been around for almost 35 years. The FDCPA is a federal law that applies to every state. In other words, everyone is protected by the FDCPA. The FDCPA is essentially a laundry list of what debt collects can and cannot do while collecting a debt, as well as things debt collectors must do while collecting a debt.
According to the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER), Viking Collection Service has been sued 70 times in the last 3 years for debt collection harassment. The Better Business Bureau has processed 25 billing/collection issues regarding Viking Collection Services in the last three years. Although PACER and the Better Business Bureau do not shed a bad light on the agency"s activities, it does have a history of not leaving compliant voicemail messages for consumers. Under the FDCPA, the agency must identify the company"s name and state the message is from a debt collector when leaving a message for a consumer.
If this agency has harassed you over a debt, whether they called you excessively, threatened you, called you at work despite knowing you cannot receive these type of calls at work, disclosed your debt to a third party, tried to collect a it from you that you did not owe, or left you a voicemail message without the proper disclosures, contact the appropriate lawyer which provides a free case evaluation. A debt collector who fails to comply with any provision of the FDCPA is responsible for any actual damages sustained, punitive damages, and statutory damages up to $1,000.00. Plus, the FDCPA has a fee-shift provision. This means, the collection agency pays your attorney"s fees and costs.
