Never leaves a message so I don't know who it is?!  Just want to calls to stop; unless they are willing to explain who they are and what they want.

Yes, these calls are very annoying what's worse is my phone carrier offers me nothing free-of-charge that would allow me the option to block unwanted calls. I think all carriers should allow the customer this type of option free-of-charge. The sooner we can get our carriers to make such changes the sooner we can all rid ourselves of these annoying anf unwanted calls.

651-325-3877
Keep getting calls and no message left.  Call every other day, sometimes twice in 1 day.  Tried calling back and call wouldn't go through..

So annoying.  Just leave a voice mail! !

This is ECMC. Not sure what they wanted. They left a message and said the company but not a phone number to call back or what they wanted

This is wrong---and on so many levels:

Joshua Mandelman made $454,000 in a single year as a student-loan debt collector -- more than twice the pay of the U.S. secretary of education.

His boss, Richard Boyle, chief executive officer of Educational Credit Management Corp., received $1.1 million in 2010, including commuting expenses from his ranch in New Mexico. Five other managers each took home more than $400,000.

ECMC, a Minnesota nonprofit group, owes its success to an 18-year-old agreement with the U.S. government. The company charges fees to borrowers and earns commissions from taxpayers -- totaling as much as 31 percent -- when it collects on defaulted student loans. Those rich rewards, which are approved by Congress, are sparking criticism that ECMC and similar collection agencies are reaping a bonanza from former students? pain.

The loan program ?is enriching collection agencies and undermining a goal we all want for society -- to encourage people to go to college,? Robert Shireman, a former deputy undersecretary of education under President Barack Obama, said in a telephone interview.

ECMC is one of 32 little-known ?guaranty agencies? that play a key role in the world of higher-education finance. They oversee student loans for the U.S. Education Department, which began its lending program in 1965. The groups guarantee loans made by banks and other private lenders. They promise to repay the lenders if borrowers don?t. If the agencies can?t recover the money, the federal government takes over the loan, shifting the risk to taxpayers.

Scholarship Money
ECMC says it helps keep federal financial-aid programs solvent by recovering taxpayer money. Since its founding in 1994, the company has returned $4.3 billion to the U.S. Treasury, said Dave Hawn, ECMC?s chief operating officer.

The agency?s collectors steer borrowers into affordable payment plans, repairing their credit and turning their lives around, Hawn said in a telephone interview. ECMC also funds more than $20 million a year in college scholarships for low-income students and runs financial-literacy and higher-education counseling programs.

?I?m really proud of what we do as an organization,? Hawn said.

ECMC?s debt collectors earn bonuses as a reward for extracting money from defaulted borrowers. In 2010, the bonuses for top performers amounted to as much as 10 times their base salaries, which ranged from about $33,000 to $46,000, according to the company?s tax return.

Highest-Paid Collector
Mandelman?s $454,000 was more than double his pay in 2006, making him ECMC?s highest-paid collector, tax records show. Four other debt collectors took home between $301,000 and $389,000 in 2010.

In an interview outside his home in Minneapolis, Mandelman, 32, said he works 12-hour days helping borrowers get their finances back on track. Thank-you notes cover his desk, he said.

?I did well,? said Mandelman, part-owner of the Amsterdam Bar and Hall, a restaurant and nightclub in nearby St. Paul. ?I worked hard. I also helped a lot of people.?

U.S. higher-education debt is sounding alarms in Washington as defaults more than doubled since 2003, to $67 billion. Congress is debating whether to halt the doubling of interest rates on some student loans in July. With college costs soaring, outstanding student loans have spiraled over $1 trillion, surpassing credit-card debt.

In March, the Obama administration proposed changing how it regulates the student-loan debt collectors it hires, amid complaints they insist on stiff payments, even when borrowers? incomes make them eligible for leniency.

The Education Department declined to discuss compensation at ECMC, referring questions to the company.

?Personal Profit?
?We don?t think anyone working on our behalf should put personal profit ahead of serving the best interests of students,? Justin Hamilton, a department spokesman, said in an e-mail. ?Much of the loan-collection work carried out by guaranty agencies is defined by congressional statute. Some of those policies deserve a second look and we welcome a conversation with Congress about how they can help us with that.?

As ECMC?S debt collectors have prospered, so has Boyle, the CEO.

Boyle -- a former executive with SLM Corp. (SLM), the largest U.S. student-loan company, known as Sallie Mae -- received $271,000 in 2002. His compensation rose to $618,000 in 2004, $852,000 in 2008 and $1.1 million in 2010, making him the highest-paid head of a guaranty agency.

Carl Dalstrom, who leads Indianapolis-based United Student Aid Funds Inc., the largest guaranty agency, got $775,000.

Commuting Expenses
As part of Boyle?s compensation, ECMC pays for his commuting expenses and then reimburses him for the taxes he owes on those expenses, a payment known as a ?tax gross up,? according to the company?s tax filing. Besides salary and bonus, his pay includes deferred compensation and benefits.

Boyle lives on a 715-acre ranch in Youngsville, New Mexico, with 26 head of cattle, property records show.

The 64-year-old CEO makes two or three trips a month to ECMC?s headquarters in Oakdale, Minnesota, near St. Paul, Hawn said. Boyle, who declined to be interviewed, also travels to ECMC offices in Sacramento and Indianapolis, Hawn said.

Boyle flies coach on commercial flights when commuting, Hawn said. Until recently, Boyle stayed in an apartment paid for by the company. He now stays in hotels, Hawn said.

Only ?a small number? of ECMC?s 90 debt collectors received pay in the $300,000 to $400,000 range, Hawn said. On average, they earn about $77,000 a year, he said.

Incentive Changes
ECMC itself decided that debt-collector bonuses were excessive. Last year, the company changed its incentive policy, making it difficult for collectors to earn more than $150,000 a year. ECMC took action to ?get our compensation for that team in line with the market,? Hawn said.

The company stands by its executive pay. Rising management compensation reflects ECMC?s growth, said Hawn, who received $541,000 in 2010.

Since Boyle became CEO in 1999, revenue tripled, to $168 million, as the company took over the portfolios of guaranty agencies in Oregon, Connecticut and California. Under the company?s charter, the Education Department turns to ECMC as the go-to organization to take charge of troubled agencies.

Boyle also used excess revenue to buy related businesses that aren?t tax-exempt, including Premiere Credit of North America LLC, which chases patients for medical bills and parents for child support, as well as students for loan payments.

Directors? Compensation
When setting executive pay, ECMC directors consider compensation inside and outside the charitable world, Hawn said. Under IRS rules, nonprofit companies must demonstrate they aren?t paying their employees excessively. ECMC directors hire independent compensation consultants to ensure they are in compliance, he said. Fees paid to company directors have about tripled during Boyle?s tenure, to as much as $90,000 a year.

The company benefits financially from federal student-loan collectors? powers under U.S. law. Unlike those chasing credit- card borrowers, student-loan collectors can confiscate wages without a court order and seize tax refunds and Social Security checks. There is no statute of limitation on collecting student loans, which are rarely discharged through bankruptcy.

In February, an ECMC debt collector phoned Susan Raposa, a 61-year-old special-education teacher, telling her to pay or face wage garnishment, Raposa said. ECMC now seizes $600 a month on behalf of the federal government -- keeping $96 -- or 16 percent -- as its fee.

As a single mother, Raposa said she struggled to pay off her student-loan balance -- now $47,000 -- since she graduated from Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts in 1992.

?My Fair Share?
?I absolutely want to pay my fair share,? said Raposa, who lives in Raynham, Massachusetts, about 35 miles south of Boston. ?But I?m going to live poorer than people on welfare.?

ECMC won?t discuss borrowers because of consumer confidentiality, Hawn said.

Like all guaranty agencies, ECMC receives more money collecting from borrowers like Raposa than it does keeping them from defaulting in the first place.

Agencies get 1 percent of a borrower?s loan amount for preventing a default through counseling. That?s $250 on a $25,000 loan, the current average of a student leaving college, according to the Education Department.

Once borrowers default, or fail to make payments for 270 days or more, the financial rewards for collectors multiply.

Under government rules, guaranty agencies add collection costs -- currently as much as 25 percent -- to a borrower?s loan balance. They also keep 16 percent of any money recovered.

Hitting the Jackpot
If an agency ?rehabilitates? a loan -- getting borrowers to make nine payments in 10 months -- it gets a jackpot.

By law, the organizations can receive as much as 37 percent of a borrower?s entire loan amount, half in collection costs and half in taxpayer-funded commissions. ECMC says it typically collects 31 percent, or $7,750 on a $25,000 loan. That?s 31 times what it can make for preventing the default through counseling.

In 2010, ECMC generated $131 million from collections, or about three quarters of its revenue, compared with about $17 million from programs aimed at preventing default.

In terms of caseload, ECMC devotes more employees to default prevention than collections, Hawn said. The company averages 77 default-prevention workers for 241,000 delinquent borrowers in need of counseling. It has about 90 debt collectors for 557,000 borrowers in default.

?Poorly Aligned Incentives?
Guaranty agencies now rely even more on collections after the Obama administration in 2010 stopped private lenders from offering federal student loans. The Education Department has since issued all new loans directly -- cutting out a major source of fees for guaranty agencies.

Last year, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, whose annual salary is just under $200,000, asked the guaranty agencies to choose either debt collection or default prevention. He cited ?poorly aligned incentives? because agencies make so much more money collecting on defaults.

The request was voluntary, and two dozen agencies submitted proposals. ECMC wasn?t one of them.

American Student Assistance, a guaranty agency in Boston, proposed getting paid based on the loans it keeps current.

?You shouldn?t profit from defaulted borrowers? as a public-service organization, said Paul Combe, who received $364,300 in 2010 as CEO of the agency.

Defaults Prevented
The National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs, which represents guaranty agencies, says the organizations prevented 88 percent of seriously delinquent loans from defaulting in 2009, the most recent year for which data is available.

?There?s no factual basis for this claim that the incentives are misaligned,? Shelly Repp, president of the Washington-based council, said in a telephone interview, referring to Duncan?s comments.

Off a highway interchange in Oakdale, ECMC operates from a two-story brick building in an office park across from a Target store and McDonald?s restaurant. There is no sign out front, or in the reception area.

Prized Pinata
Debt collectors work in a ?cubicle farm? in a one-story building attached to the main office, according to Shane Kussatz, ECMC?s former director of collections support. There, supervisors would hang pinatas over top producers? desks, while automatic dialers and other computer systems helped the company track down more borrowers, he said.

?There was a lot of talk about operating as a nonprofit company,? said Kussatz, who took a buyout in January after 12 years at the company. ?At the end of the day, our job was to collect debt. I didn?t fool myself.?

ECMC emphasized collections, according to Paul Fiedler, who worked as a default-prevention counselor from 2004 through 2009 in Richmond, Virginia.

The company asked counselors to call as many as 500 borrowers a month to get them back on track with their payments, said Fiedler. Under the federal program, he could let borrowers defer payments or temporarily reduce outlays because of a job loss or other hardship.

During Fiedler?s night shifts, counselors were expected to stay at their desks, except for bathroom breaks, said Fielder, 67. He left ECMC after it shut down the Richmond office.

?It was an endless job,? Fiedler said in a telephone interview. ?I don?t know why they didn?t hire more people. A lot of borrowers fell through the cracks. There were not enough hours in the day to get to them.?

Including monthly bonuses tied to his record of preventing defaults, Fiedler earned in the mid-$40,000-a-year range, he said. ECMC?s Hawn said collectors make more than counselors because recovering money from borrowers is ?significantly more challenging.?

Default-prevention counselors clamored for the rare openings in debt-collection, Fiedler said.

?Everyone knew that?s where the big money was,? Fiedler said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-15/taxp ... dent-loans.html

Then why do they hang up every time I answer the phone?  You would think that if they are calling they would want to talk instead of hanging up.

Call twice a day, no one on the other end

I have had this number call me a number of times.  They do not leave a message Man do I HATE that!!!!!!!!!!! I do have student loans but they are being taken care of.  I am not behind so if they think that they can intimidate me they are wrong.  I call my student loan servicers and they tell me not to give any information to them and to just deal with them directly.

Keep getting calls from this number on my cell.  Never answer because I NEVER give out my cell number to anyone that I have not preprogrammed into my phone.  VERY annoying.  Calls come at all hours.  

Person calling asked for another name. I saiid wrong number,the woman kept asling if I was that person,when i was ggetting out of patience she stopped and hung up.Never heard about the U of Phoenix from where,reading other post the call generated.

Just holding the phone!

Same people Calling Us ECMC with this number calling my grandpa im like lol hes 70 why would he need a student loan like seriously so finally i said to let me see it and then i looked up the number and came here next time they call they're gonna get a taste of their own medicine.

This may be a Sallie Mae number but I don't have a Sallie Mae loan. They keep asking for my social security number which I refuse to do. Not to mention, they are calling on my job.

I dont actually believe the people on  here are retarded, of course they know this is not where you complain! Which is why im only complaining about you...you sound like you work for this number...welll leave these peeps the hell along...okay!!!!!

To all of you posting about not wanting calls from this number... you should know and realize this is NOT where you complain about that.  There's NO part of this site that is related TO the phone number.   ok?

Got a call from this number - they asked for Tyler - there is not now, nor ever has been, a Tyler on this number!

ECMC.  Google "Josh from ECMC" and read some of the comments.  I had to deal with this guy.  It's true...he goads you into wanting to cuss him out (which I didn't.  I caught myself and stopped at "a-hole"), and then he threatened to have ECMC put a garnishment on my wages, and contact any other companies I may deal with, and inform them that I am unreliable when it comes to paying my bills.  I had already made arrangements with Sallie Mae, which I could prove, but he continued harrassing me.  I tried to contact someone above him to complain, but could never get past him.  I finally wrote to Sallie Mae and also to the ECMC Corporate address, and the ECMC representative laughingly told me that they get complaints about him all of the time!  This is supposed to be a non-profit agency, but look at the $400,000+ he made in one year in commissions.  

I had gotten behind on my loan payments due to a divorce, and cut back in hours at work, but never defaulted.  Oh, and at one time I started getting letters from ECMC addressed to the director of my company!!  I went to an attorney, but he said it would have to be a class action suit against ECMC itself, with Josh named as a co-defendent.

I'm just glad I don't have to deal with him anymore.  I'm 61 yrs old, and that creep actually had me in tears several times.  

I get a call from this number at least twice a day. When I pick up no one says anything, and of course if I do not answer the phone, no voice message is left. STOP CALLING MY NUMBER!

dont want to see this number

I do not want to have more phone calls from this number, Thanks!!!

They just hung up. I don't have student loans.

Just got a call. They did leave a message and it was someone looking for "Eric." I never pick up these calls, and just let them go to voicemail. Once I know it's a debt collector, I put them on my auto-reject list.

It's Sallie Mae
calling from a bank of (651)325-XXXX numbers

This is two different callers. One caller is really student loans. The other is a scammer that can fake their caller id as student loans.  Best to hangup. If you have a student loan, call them from the number on your paperwork. Problem solved.

How did I know the scammer called? It was before 9, and I paid off my loans already...

The reason they dont leave messages is because FDCPA allows them to call many times a day IF They dont leave a message. If they leave a message, it counts as the one contact they are allowed to have per day. They are legit for Sallie Mae, albeit, unprofessional an mostly all morons.

I kept getting calls from them. Apparently the person who had my number before owed money. They were very nice about removing my number from their list. Just call them back and keep pressing 0 when they ask for SS and Birthdate and it will send you to a rep to have your number removed!

Just received a call on the home phone. I say, "Hello," and there is an immediate hang-up. Instantly, my cell phone rings. I answer with, "Hello?" Another immediate hang-up. If this were legitimate they'd at least have the wherewithal to make sure their system worked. This is another robo-caller company with no legitimate reason for calling anyone. Since it's in MN, I'd assume Travelers, but then I'm biased that way...

i don not have loans,student loans no loans what every.

WTF...
This is the ECMC Student Loan Default Center calling or so the message says.
Caller: ECMC Student Loan Center
Call Type: Debt Collector