I just received a letter from PCR as well and surprising if they collect student loans-I don't have one. They are talking about traffic tickets AND non compliance of insurance card violation. My insurance has always been up to date and I have never been to Hancock County. The phone numbers don't match the one on the letter in any location and if its supposedly a different department then a legit website would list the departments as well.

Why should these student loan servicers want to "work" with anyone? Here's your answer:

{Guarantee agencies are paid a default aversion fee, equal to 1 percent of the loan balance, if they prevent a borrower from going into default. But the same agencies get paid much higher fees for collecting or rehabilitating a defaulted loan}.

At a protest last year at New York University, students called attention to their mounting debt by wearing T-shirts with the amount they owed scribbled across the front ? $90,000, $75,000, $20,000.

On the sidelines was a business consultant for the debt collection industry with a different take.

?I couldn?t believe the accumulated wealth they represent ? for our industry,? the consultant, Jerry Ashton, wrote in a column for a trade publication, InsideARM.com. ?It was lip-smacking.?

Though Mr. Ashton says his column was meant to be ironic, it nonetheless highlighted undeniable truths: many borrowers are struggling to pay off their student loans, and the debt collection industry is cashing in.

As the number of people taking out government-backed student loans has exploded, so has the number who have fallen at least 12 months behind in making payments ? about 5.9 million people nationwide, up about a third in the last five years.

In all, nearly one in every six borrowers with a loan balance is in default. The amount of defaulted loans ? $76 billion ? is greater than the yearly tuition bill for all students at public two- and four-year colleges and universities, according to a survey of state education officials.

In an attempt to recover money on the defaulted loans, the Education Department paid more than $1.4 billion last fiscal year to collection agencies and other groups to hunt down defaulters.

Hiding from the government is not easy.

?I keep changing my phone number,? said Amanda Cordeiro, 29, from Clermont, Fla., who dropped out of college in 2010 and has fielded as many as seven calls a day from debt collectors trying to recover her $55,000 in overdue loans. ?In a year, this is probably my fourth phone number.?

Unlike private lenders, the federal government has extraordinary tools for collection that it has extended to the collection firms. Ms. Cordeiro has already had two tax refunds seized, and other debtors have had their paychecks or Social Security payments garnisheed. Over all, the government recoups about 80 cents for every dollar that goes into default ? an astounding rate, considering most lenders are lucky to recover 20 cents on the dollar on defaulted credit cards.

While the recovery rate is impressive, critics say it has left the government with little incentive to try to prevent defaults in the first place.

Though there are programs in place to help struggling borrowers, the companies hired to administer federal student loans are not paid enough for lengthy conversations to walk borrowers through the payment options, critics say. One consequence is that a government program called income-based repayment has fallen short of expectations. Under the program, borrowers pay 15 percent of their discretionary income for up to 25 years, after which the rest of their loan is forgiven. But participation has lagged because borrowers are either not aware of the program or are turned off by its complexity.

?If people were well informed, how many defaults could be averted?? asked Paul C. Combe, president of American Student Assistance, a loan guarantee agency based in Boston. ?We are hurting people here.?

For borrowers, the decision to default can be disastrous, ruining their credit and increasing the amount they owe, with penalties up to 25 percent of the balance.

Ms. Cordeiro, a single mother, dropped out of Everest College, a profit-making school, 16 credits shy of a bachelor?s degree. She said she could not get any more loans to finish. ?I get these letters about defaulting, and I get them and throw them in the bin,? she said.

Jake Brock, who graduated in 2008 from Keuka College, a private liberal arts school in upstate New York, defaulted in May on a federally guaranteed loan of $8,000. With penalties and accumulated interest, the loan balance is now $13,000, he said. ?I just fell behind and couldn?t dig myself out,? said Mr. Brock, who is 29 and owes a total of $100,000 in student loans.

There is no statute of limitations on collecting federally guaranteed student loans, unlike credit cards and mortgages, and Congress has made it difficult for borrowers to wipe out the debt through bankruptcy. Only a small fraction of defaulters even tries.

?You are going to pay it, or you are going to die with it,? said John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education at SmartCredit.com, a credit monitoring service.

The New Oil Well?

Business is booming at ConServe, a debt collection agency in suburban Rochester. The company recently expanded into a neighboring building. The payroll of 420 is expected to double in three years.

?There is great opportunity,? said Mark E. Davitt, the company?s president and founder.

Where some debt collection firms have made their fortunes collecting on delinquent credit cards or hospital bills, ConServe is thriving because of overdue student loans, a large majority of its business.

With an outstanding balance of more than $1 trillion, student loans have become a silver lining for the debt collection industry at a time when its once-thriving business of credit card collection has diminished and the unemployment rate has made collection a challenge. To recoup unpaid loans, the federal government, private lenders and others have turned to collection agencies like ConServe.

Mark Russell, a mergers and acquisition specialist, writing in the same trade publication as Mr. Ashton, the consultant at the N.Y.U. protest, suggested student loans might be a ?new oil well? for the accounts receivable management industry, or ARM, as the industry is known.

?While the Department of Education debt collection contract has been one of the most highly sought-after contracts within the ARM industry for years, I believe it is now THE most sought-after contract within this industry, centered within the most sought-after market ? student loans,? Mr. Russell wrote last October.

In 2010, Congress revamped the student loan program so that federal loans were made directly by the government. Before that, most loans were made by private lenders and guaranteed by the government through so-called guarantee agencies.

Of the $1.4 billion paid out last year by the federal government to collect on defaulted student loans, about $355 million went to 23 private debt collectors. The remaining $1.06 billion was paid to the guarantee agencies to collect on defaulted loans made under the old loan system. That job is often outsourced to private collectors as well.

The average default amount was $17,005 in the 2011 fiscal year. Borrowers who attended profit-making colleges ? about 11 percent of all students ? account for nearly half of defaults, while dropouts were four times as likely as graduates to default. A loan is declared in default by the Department of Education when it is delinquent for 360 days.

Borrowers are most often declared in default when they cannot be found. That is when the collection agencies take over. While some in the industry, like Mr. Ashton, worry about public revolt over aggressive collection tactics, there is no holding back at this point.

At ConServe, in a room of cubicles with college pennants lining the walls, collectors comb through databases and public records hunting for contact information for borrowers. If ConServe reaches a borrower who refuses to cooperate, the company considers garnisheeing wages or withholding a government check, which requires approval from the Department of Education.

Dwight Vigna, director of the department?s default division, says the government does not give up easily. If a vendor like ConServe has not found a borrower in six months, the department turns the case over to another collection agency.

In fiscal 2011, the department wrote off less than 1 percent of its loan balance, for such things as death or disability of a borrower.

?We never throw anything away,? Mr. Vigna said.

Lying in Wait

Arthur Chaskin, a disabled carpenter, can attest to the government?s long memory.

Since he left college in the late 1970s, Mr. Chaskin has largely ignored his student loans ? until June, when a federal judge ordered him to turn over $8,200.

Mr. Chaskin had borrowed $3,500 in federally guaranteed student loans to attend Northwestern Michigan College, a community college. He did not graduate. The federal government sued him in 1997, but over the next 15 years he made only five payments.

Last January, a lawyer in Michigan working on contract for the government was alerted to a credit check for Mr. Chaskin. The lawyer filed a garnishment order and discovered a brokerage account with nearly $20,000 that Mr. Chaskin said he had opened with disability checks.

By the time the government caught up with him, Mr. Chaskin owed more than $19,000 in accumulated interest and penalties, but the judge reduced the amount to $8,200 after Mr. Chaskin pleaded for a break.

?If you wait long enough, you catch people when their guard?s down,? said the lawyer, Charles J. Holzman, who was rewarded with more than 25 percent of Mr. Chaskin?s payment.

Government officials estimate they will collect 76 to 82 cents on every dollar of loans made in fiscal 2013 that end up in default. That does not include collection costs that are billed to the borrowers and paid to the collection agencies.

While the government?s estimates take into account the uncertainty of collecting money over long periods, some critics say they don?t go far enough.

A 2007 academic study, for instance, estimated that the recovery rate was closer to 50 cents on the dollar.

?The reporting standards that the government imposes on themselves are far weaker than what they require of private institutions,? said Deborah J. Lucas, a finance professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an author of the study.

Over all, collections on federally backed student loans were $12 billion in the last fiscal year, 18 percent higher than the previous year. Of that, $1.65 billion came from seizures of government checks like tax returns and $1.01 billion was collected by garnisheeing borrowers? wages. More than $8 billion of defaulted loans, however, were consolidated or rehabilitated.

Some borrowers say they do not see a path out of default, because they are sick, unemployed or facing so much debt they cannot imagine any way to pay it off. Some have defaulted on private student loans, too.

Patrick Writer of Redding, Calif., received a certificate in computer programming in 2008 from Shasta College, a community college. But he graduated in the midst of the financial crisis and has not been able to find a job as a programmer. He defaulted on $12,000 in federally backed loans in 2009.

?If you can?t make your utilities and your rent, your student loan payments are almost goofy, inconsequential,? said Mr. Writer, who is 57.

But Mr. Writer said he had come to realize what it meant to have a student loan that was guaranteed by the federal government. ?It?s the closest thing to debtor prison that there is on this earth,? he said.

A Bias Toward Default

Jill Shockley, 36, of Rockford, Ill., owes more than $50,000 in federally guaranteed and private student loans, some of which are in default. A nursing school dropout, she said her loan servicer, Sallie Mae, asked her to come up with $600 a month to keep three of her federal loans from going into default. But she said she did not have enough money.

?I barely clear $30,000 a year,? she said. ?I have rent, a car payment, insurance. They say maybe I should borrow from relatives.?

On paper, there are few good reasons struggling borrowers should go into default, or stay there, since there are many programs to help them keep up with payments. In addition to income-based repayment, there is forbearance for temporary financial woes and different types of deferment for issues like unemployment, military service and economic hardship. But the challenge of creating the right incentives ? and getting collectors and debtors to embrace them ? has bedeviled Congress and the Department of Education.

Critics say the result has often been contradictory incentives that provide little help to struggling borrowers. For instance, loan servicers are paid $2.11 a month for each borrower in good standing, but only 50 cents a month for borrowers who are seriously delinquent, too little to devote much time to them.

{Guarantee agencies are paid a default aversion fee, equal to 1 percent of the loan balance, if they prevent a borrower from going into default. But the same agencies get paid much higher fees for collecting or rehabilitating a defaulted loan}.

And debt collectors are rewarded primarily for collecting as much as possible, not for making sure a borrower can afford the payments, critics say.

Introduced in 2009, income-based repayment was supposed to help change that by allowing borrowers with high levels of debt but modest incomes to make relatively small payments over a long term. But many borrowers were never told about the income-based option, and many others have been frustrated by the onerous requirements. So far, 1.6 million borrowers have applied for income-based repayment; 920,000 are active participants and another 412,000 applications are pending.

In a June memo, President Obama wrote that ?too few borrowers are aware of the options available to them to help manage their student loan debt.?

Education officials say there are changes in the works that could help struggling borrowers and perhaps reduce the default rate, which they attribute to the sluggish economy and dismal results among profit-making colleges.

Under proposed regulations, debt collectors would be required to offer borrowers an affordable payment plan. And, the department vows to do a better job of publicizing income-based repayment, including telling borrowers about the plan before they leave college.

In addition, borrowers will be able to apply for income-based repayment online rather than going through their loan servicer. Monthly payments will be reduced to 10 percent of discretionary income, down from 15 percent.

But efforts to change the incentive structure for guarantee agencies have stalled. And the Obama administration?s efforts to impose new regulations on profit-making colleges were initially watered down and then significantly weakened by a federal court judge.

?We?re trying to balance two priorities, working with students who have fallen on hard times while trying to be good stewards of the taxpayers? dollar,? said Justin Hamilton, a Department of Education spokesman. ?We?re always going to be in a process of continuous improvement.?

Lindsay Franke, of Naugatuck, Conn., is among the borrowers taking advantage of income-based repayment. While her monthly payment is now lower, Ms. Franke, who is 28 and has a master?s degree in business administration from Albertus Magnus College, said the program had not changed a crushing reality: she still owes too much money and makes too little to pay it off. A marketing coordinator for a law firm, she filed for bankruptcy last year because she could not afford her mortgage, car payment and student loans. She lost the house, but still owes $115,000 in student loans, both private and federal. Under income-based repayment, she pays $325 a month on her federal loans; she also pays $250 a month on her private loans.

?I will never have my head above water,? Ms. Franke said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/business/on ... 6Skj3PpC4BembeQ

I don't care who the hell they are related to, Sallie Mae is no better. Don't call people liars when you don't know what the hell you are talking about. Most people would love to pay their loans if they could find a freaking job. Then these a***oles, PCR, triple your debt due to their "fees". Someone borrows $10,000 to go to school and after PCR get's a hold of it, it becomes $30,000. They are the scum of the earth and you're not far behind them.

Do you sleep well at night Anita? It is my understanding that the more money you vultures collect, the more you make. They tack on ridiculous fees and lie to the debtors. You know they do regardless of what you say. You are disgusting, revolting predators as is your mother company Sallie Mae. Why don't you get a real job where you are not praying on people struggling just to survive. Hopefully, all of you drop off the face of the earth one way or another.

I received a letter tonight from PCR saying they are collecting an old traffic violation debt for Columbia County, FL. I have never been to Columbia County, so could not have received a traffic ticket there. So to say they only collect for Sallie Mae is false. They have the wrong middle name, so some lazy person at PRC just chose a first and last name that matched and sent out the collection letter (even though I live across the country). This has happened before with another collection agency. Had to threaten a lawsuit to get them to back off, and I suppose it will probably come to that with these leeches. By the way, I have an above average credit score and no debt. So back off with the 'pay your bills like everyone else' comments

I got a call at work. I'm not the person they're looking for.  How do I prove that Im not the one they're looking for?  In the meantime, I sent a cease and desist letter. I think they are skip tracing using Facebook, Linked in, etc...

You have no idea what you are talking about, your rambles are pathetic.

Karma you said they are ethical, do you mean unethical? Anyway I am a former employee of Pioneer Credit, I no longer work there so I'm not trying to get you people scammed in any way. However, Pioneer Credit Recovery is a legit company contracted by the Department of Education to handle defaulted student loans. Other parts of it handle credit card debt. They do have the power to garnish your wages and your tax returns if these loans are not taken care of. The reason they ask for your checking account information is to automattically take out payments from you account to pay off the loan. there is a nine month rehab program that can completely remove the outstanding debt from your credit report, so it will look as though the loan never exsisted. The company has several different office, and they have local telephone numbers for their offices. However there are toll free 800 numbers for debtors to call, so you wont have to pay an outrageous long distance telephone bill. They have people who work different shifts and hours just like any other company out there, so the rep that may have called you might not be reachable. And sometimes they can't pull up the account by your name, since everyone has a different and single SSN the department of education attaches the debt to you SSN, and therefore attach it to your account. if they are calling you and have your home phone number, and address, then they already have your SSN, all your doing is verifying you are that person. Keep refusing to repay and the department of education will then garnish your wages, keep your tax returns and in some cases move forward with legal action such as seizeing your assets.

called my job asking my employer for SS# then called and asked for me then asked me same question but my employer had already alerted me about bizare question. Threated me that the dept of education was going to take action. Sorry don't owe anyone. is this a scam/ too bad divorce runied my credit many years ago. bankuptcy is hell. won't owe anyone ever again!And never took out ed loan.

Here we go;  I just received a letter from Pioneer Credit Recovery who tried to tell me I owed money to the Government for over payment of a travel voucher from when I got out of the Military 6 years ago. I'm not that dumb because I lived at the same address for 2 years and had the same phone number for 4 years. This guy tried to tell me the Military Finance has found some issues in the pay system and have been catching up. So supposedly I owed $568 in which the original debt was $412. I told the guy how was this possible that the Government has been looking for me and could never contact me but he was able to obtain my address for this letter. He also recited my home phone number that I never give out so I was really confused until he asked me for my checking account number. I told him I didn't have my check book on hand and he said he would wait for me to find it. The man stayed on the phone for 30 minutes. He had no idea I looked on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) looking for the company. I did however find the company but the address was different and none of the phone numbers matched. I called the numbers the BBB listed and spoke to someone who could NOT find my full name, social security number or any of the fake account numbers provided on the letter. Thank God for the internet!!

This company will use any tactics they can to get information about you--including calling other people with the same last name and asking if they know you.  They claim they are an old friend and are trying to get ahold of you.  Don't give them any information.  They are unprofessional, use illegal tactics, and are ethical.

The rehab is the best program other than the settlements. Now it is based off the balance not your income which is harder to do, but as for a balance-sensetive and it should lower payments drasticly. By the way, if you just make $50 dollar payments it will keep you out of a garnishment, but won't get you out of default. Ask a lot of questions.

Said like a pro, thank you.

It's not a scam. Maybe you have the same name as the debter, that is why we need to verify by social or birthday. We can't go around telling people that this person owes the government, first it's against the law, second it's just rude. That's why we have to say personal business matter. If it's no you then let them know. Other than that they are just trying to help for the most part.

We only collect on defaulted student loans. We are legit. Also, there are thousands of people in default. Since they don't have statue of limitations they won't go away so you can be from 21 years old to 100 years old and your account will still be there.

We have a few different agencies in different states, the numbers are different due to which department is calling you. If it's a wrong number then let them know or they won't stop calling due to reason to believe you know the debter or you are the debter.

Not everyone knows each others accounts that they work. We also work different hours. Now we can pull the account up by name or social. It is not a scam I work there and I hate it. My manager is a real greedy dick. I want to help people, not push them to pay with money I know you don't have. As far as I know 99% of the time the payments through credit cards and checking accounts are succesful. But you have to make sure you follow up!

I work there, the windows are bullet proof so don't bother.

Sad to say, but 'dumbfounded' is correct. PCR is a legit debt collection agency that is contracted by Sallie Mae and other student loan providers. I am one payment away from getting my loan taken off default status. They are pretty aggressive, but they will also help you. Also note that they are a business, so they too charge interest on your defaulted loan while you are in the rehab program. While attempting to resolve your debt, i would advice you to temporarily forget about the almost 18% interest, and just make sure you have the funds available for automatic monthly withdrawal. In my case, all they asked for was 9 on time automatic withdrawals from my checking account - this is not a criteria set by the collection agency, but by the government in order to ensure that the person attempting to pay his/her debt is able to responsibly maintain at least some financial stability. Next time pick up the phone and talk to them - they'll help you.

all of you people are completely ridiculous.  PCR is a debt collection agency owned by sallie mae-- google it!-- and they have different departments to collect on student loans for various levels of default, like with sallie mae directly or with your state or even the dept. of ed.  they are not allowed to tell 3rd parties why they are calling you or even to speak to you without verifying you are actually you, hence the need to say "personal business" or verify by ssn.  Sorry to the person who claims they threatened jail but no they did not that is a bold-faced lie.  think about it-- do you want someone else talking about your personal biz with a bill collector?  Hello!  Ignorance keeps you people in debt!  Pay your bills like the rest of us and stop being so paranoid!  If you don't act like a total douchbag and are honest with mr. bill collector, you may be surprised at what they can do to help you get out of collections!  Yes, there are always rude people working there just like an ywhere else you go, so nicely ask to talk to a different person .  These kinds of debts NEVER go away including thru bankruptcy so pay your frickin debt before they take it from you anyway!

I got a call at work from this number -- a "Mr. Wylie" --- speaking very fast and asking for personal information.  He said that if I don't pay my debts in full that I might have to go to jail!

I know this has to be illegal --- is it?  I asked to speak with Mr. Wylie's supervisor --- a "Mr. Patilla" -- he told me my "only option for paying off my loan was to pay it in full."

Is this true?

Something has to be done about these guys.

Sounds like to me they're calling many people who have no loans or debts....doesn't sound legit to me.

These people made several calls to my mother looking for me....she didn't give out any info.....some girl named "Tasha" called several times....saying it was a "personal business matter"......my mother was given this phone number so I looked it up on the net and found this site and the comments by other people who had been called also. The only loan I have is for my house.....I've never had a late payment....same with my credit cards....it must be some kind of scam.

This is an agency called, Pioneer Credit Recovery, hired by the government to handle loans that are in default, such as your school loans.  They are simply trying to give you options for repayment so that your wages aren't garnished or your credit is not ruined.  I talked with someone directly from the US Department of Education and he verified their legitimacy.  The 1-800-609-0194 is the direct line to access them.  The person I spoke with was extremely NICE and very very HELPFUL.  If you owe ANY money on school loans, it would benefit to speak to someone.  Then the calls will stop.  This is their job to contact you and speak with you on the issue.

I also received a phone call from Pioneer Credit Recovery and thought it was concerning a debt, because that's what was said by this "Andrew" guy.  I did not take the call; I allowed the answering machine to pick up.  Andrew gave a similar type of message that poster JMS gave above (posted on 4 Jan 2008).  I happened across this particular website while trying to use a cross-directory to find a physical address for the number 1-800-609-0194, of which I am having no luck.  I've found different physical addresses for Pioneer Credit Recovery, but none that match this particular phone number.  I have not returned that phone call from Andrew, and it seems unlikely that I will now (thanks to running across this website).  I'm so glad I found this .... thanks a million all you helpful people!  Karen in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Called my work number and left a msg on voicemail.  Asking if I was "first name, last name", and if I was that by listening to the rest of this msg I acknowledge that I am "first name, last name".  Then, he went on to say that Federal law required him to tell me this call was regarding a debt collection.  He (Terry) left this phone number and an ext.  But miraculously, when I called back after the weekend, "Terry" wasn't available.  I demanded to know what this was all about.  The girl answering the phone tried to look me up by last name.  Then, she said the debt could be on your maiden name.  Well, I was a little suspicious at this point... But when she said still no info on the computer, so give me your SSN, and I'll look for a match on that.  I said "No way do I give my SSN out to people on the phone I don't know!!".  I tried one more time to get hold of this "Terry" person, but when the next guy tried to pull the same routine, I said "You're not getting any more info from me, this sounds like fraud, you can deal with my attorney!", and then hung up.  This has to be a scam.  To not have any info by my name -- when the VM insisted they were looking for "me".  Just doesn't add up.  BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pioneer Credit Recovery, Inc.
20 Parker Lane, Perry, NY 14530

Pioneer Credit Recovery, Inc.