DICKSON CITY, Pa. — A Dickson City based medical debt collector is banned from business after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleged they violated federal laws.
The business, Commonwealth Financial Systems, ran afoul of the Fair Credit Reporting Act by failing to properly investigate disputed debts and, in thousands of instances, by providing credit reporting agencies with debt information without mentioning that the debt was disputed, the bureau said.
The bureau also alleged the company violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by trying to collect disputed debits without substantiating documentation.
Commonwealth must shut down and cease debt collection activities, tell consumer reporting agencies to delete collection accounts for those whom it furnished information and pay a $95,000 fine, the bureau said.
Court filings state that between January 2017 and September 2022, Commonwealth's clients provided them with approximately 126 million accounts.
Attempts to reach Commonwealth officials for comment were not successful.
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