National Asset Management Collection Agency
National Asset Management
Corporate Office:
412-424-0250
Customer Service:
1-866-591-5015
Web: http://www.nationalmanagement.net
How to Protect Your Privacy from National Asset Management Skip Tracers and Bill Collectors
National Asset Management, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been in business for over a decade and operates a commission only program for consumer and commercial accounts. Even before you realize that you are significantly past due on an account, you might receive a series of “pre-collection” notices from National Asset Management, sent back-to-back, demanding payment, and intended to convince you to pay a debt.
Usually National Asset Management will send the first notice within 24 hours of receiving an account, and then try to make phone contact with you within 48 hours. They also have an in-house judgment recovery service and deal with “aged recovery,” which is another way of saying they make a last-ditch effort to collect on old accounts before they’re closed.
National Asset Management uses a collection method knows as “skip tracing” to locate debtors, and says that their “representatives will use all available means of obtaining location information, including but not limited to neighbors, landlords, and employers,” in addition to accessing the information on your credit file. Skip tracing is a collection method used by collection agencies or debt collectors to determine a person’s whereabouts. Skip comes from the expression “skip town” (the person being searched for is often called the “skip”) and the tracing part is, of course, the intent to locate the person.
Skip tracing tactics include collecting any available information about the debtor, then analyzing, condensing, and verifying it. Often third parties such as family members, former neighbors, and employers are contacted to ask about the subject, often under false pretenses. As repugnant as this may sound, in most areas this type of “pretexting” is legal. Skip traces may use credit reports, phone number listings, information on loan or credit card applications, background checks, job applications, utility bills, public tax information – and the list goes on – to collect as much information as they can. The goal with this information collection, or “skip tracing”, is to locate the person who owes the debt.
Even though it is legal to use skip tracing to locate a person, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act applies privacy safeguards that limit the parties who may discuss your debt. These parties are limited to: 1) you; 2) your creditor; 3) an attorney representing one of the parties; and 4) a credit bureau.
By no means is National Asset Management allowed to shame you into paying debt, and they cannot legally discuss the details of your account with anyone but the above-mentioned parties. Additionally, the collector must identify him/herself, and identify the name of the collection agency if asked. Debt collectors can only contact another party (such as family members or neighbors) if they have not been able to contact you directly or don’t have your address or phone number. Usually they can only contact another person once to try to determine your location. Know that you have a right to privacy under the FDCPA – and a right to be free from harassment by National Asset Management or any other collection agency.
