FirstStates Financial Services Phone Harassment?

Is FirstStates Financial Services calling about a medical or ambulance bill, or tacking a collection fee onto a debt you already paid? FirstStates is a third-party debt collector, so its calls, letters, and credit reporting fall under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). If it broke those rules, you could recover up to $1,000 in statutory damages, and finding out costs you nothing.

Consumer Rights Law Firm PLLC has taken on abusive collectors for consumers since 2010, and the Better Business Bureau grades our firm A+. Reach us at (877) 700-5790 or open a free case review. Nothing is added to your bill. When a collector breaks the law, the statute makes it pay our fees, not you.

Who Is FirstStates Financial Services?

FirstStates Financial Services Corp. is a Pennsylvania collection and revenue-cycle company in West Reading that collects almost entirely for healthcare providers. It pursues balances for medical practices, hospitals, and emergency medical services, including ambulance and fire-department response bills, on behalf of the providers that treated you. Here is the confirmed record.

The defining trait of FirstStates is that its debts are medical, and often surprising ones, an ambulance ride you did not know your insurance denied, or a provider fee added after the fact. That healthcare focus, and the extra charges that come with it, is where most disputes start.

Why Is FirstStates Financial Services Contacting You?

A medical provider placed your account with them to collect. FirstStates works for doctors, hospitals, and emergency services, so the balance behind its calls is usually a health-related bill, a doctor visit, a hospital charge, an ambulance transport, or a fire-department response your insurance did not fully cover.

Our attorneys treat that medical footprint as a guide to the proof that matters, your insurance explanation of benefits, the provider’s itemized statement, and any record of what you already paid. Because these bills frequently arrive with an added collection fee, the smart first move is to make FirstStates identify the provider, the original balance, and any extra charges in writing before you agree to pay.

Can FirstStates Add a Collection Fee to My Medical Bill?

Only if the fee is authorized by the agreement you signed or by state law, and that is exactly what consumers dispute. In its own BBB responses, FirstStates explains that a collection fee is “assessed by our client when the account is placed into collections” and points to a financial policy the patient signed. One consumer reported settling a medical debt, then being told they still owed a $100 collection fee, with the representative insisting it was part of a contract they signed with the provider.

The added collection fee is the single issue we see most with FirstStates, and it is not automatically valid. A collector can tack on only a fee the original contract or state law actually permits, and if the amount, or the authority for it, cannot be shown, the charge is open to challenge. That question, whether FirstStates demanded a sum it had no right to collect, is precisely what a federal court examined in the Lamonaca case discussed below.

Is FirstStates Financial Services a Scam or a Legitimate Company?

FirstStates is a real, operating collection company, not a scam, although several consumers used that word after dealing with it. It collects for actual healthcare providers and appears as a named party in federal court records.

Being legitimate does not make a specific charge correct. Its BBB file includes consumers who describe a settled bill that generated a surprise fee, a rude representative, and a payment website that only asks for a credit card number, which one complainant found “untrustworthy.” Never enter card details into a portal before you have written proof the debt and the amount are valid. The real question is not whether FirstStates exists, but whether this particular medical balance, and the fee attached to it, can be justified.

Are the Calls and Letters From FirstStates Financial Services Legal?

That depends on how FirstStates behaves, not on the fact that the debt is medical. Collecting a valid bill is allowed; the FDCPA prohibits deception, harassment, and unfair charges. Any of the following can make its conduct unlawful:

• Calling before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m., or repeatedly to badger you.
• Adding a collection fee the agreement or state law does not authorize.
• Demanding more than you agreed to after a settlement was reached.
• Continuing to call after you sent a written cease-and-desist.
• Pursuing you for a bill that belongs to someone else.
• Reporting or threatening to report a debt inaccurately to the credit bureaus.

In the FirstStates files our attorneys review, the sharpest disputes are about the money and the manner, an unexplained fee, a reneged settlement, or a caller who turns hostile. We build the claim from the documentation and the call record.

How Do You Verify a FirstStates Financial Services Debt?

Insist on written proof, and never pay through a card-only website first. Within 30 days of the first written notice, mail a certified request for the provider’s name, an itemized statement, the original balance, the basis for any collection fee, and confirmation that FirstStates is authorized to collect. Our debt validation letter guide provides the wording.

Verification is especially important with medical debt, where insurance adjustments and separate provider fees make errors common. Gather your explanation of benefits and proof of any payment, and compare them against the demand. One consumer reported that FirstStates kept billing after a settlement and mailed a check to an old address despite being given the new one, so keep your certified-mail receipt and document every contact, because a fee or balance FirstStates cannot substantiate is one you should challenge.

What Do FirstStates Financial Services Complaints Say?

They center on surprise collection fees, reneged settlements, and aggressive calls over medical bills. The BBB lists five complaints over three years, nearly all billing disputes, and FirstStates answered each. These are specific, verified examples from the live BBB complaint file.

• A $100 collection fee added to an already-settled bill (September 2023): A consumer reported settling a medical debt on August 21, 2023, then being contacted afterward and told they still owed a $100 collection fee, which the representative said was part of a contract signed with the provider. The consumer also found the payment website suspicious because it only requested credit card information.
• A reneged ambulance settlement and demands to a wrong address (December 2023): A consumer who settled a $1,564.60 ambulance bill for their son at $1,167 reported that, after a check arrived unsigned, FirstStates refused to mail it back, pressed for immediate electronic payment, sent notices to an old address, and then declared the full $1,564 owed for a “broken contract,” threatening their credit. The consumer, who works for a district attorney’s office, said it felt like a scam.
• Daily calls to someone who never did business with them (October 2025): A consumer reported that FirstStates “will not stop incessantly harassing me,” calling daily and sometimes twice a day at varied hours with the same generic callback message, over an account with a company they had “never heard of.”

The through-line in this agency’s file is a medical debt complicated by a surprise fee, a reversed settlement, or a hostile call, with consumers unsure the amount is even right. One complainant even suspected FirstStates had shared their information with another collector that began pursuing a second bill for the same family member.

Has FirstStates Financial Services Been Sued?

Yes, in federal court under the FDCPA, and one case struck at the heart of its fee and balance practices. Consumers have named FirstStates as a defendant in Pennsylvania and New Jersey federal courts. A filed case is an allegation rather than a ruling, so read these as documented history.

Lamonaca v. FirstStates Financial Services, Corp.

FDCPA case in the District of New Jersey (No. 1:18-cv-11829): As reported by ClassAction.org and shown in the Justia docket, a consumer alleged that FirstStates sent a deceptive collection letter and tried to collect an unlawful amount for a City of Chester Fire Department response to a car accident in which, the suit said, the fire department provided no assistance to him or his vehicle. Judge Noel L. Hillman entered an opinion in the matter on June 26, 2019.

Key takeaway: Lamonaca is exactly the kind of record our attorneys weigh, because a court examining whether FirstStates demanded an unlawful amount speaks directly to the fee and balance disputes throughout its complaint file.

Other FDCPA Filings

Coghlan v. FirstStates Financial Services, Corp. (No. 5:10-cv-02855) and Wann v. FirstStates Financial Services, Corp. (No. 5:19-cv-01908): Both were FDCPA actions filed against the agency in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Full dockets can be pulled through PACER, with free copies on CourtListener and Justia.

How Often Can FirstStates Financial Services Contact You?

There is a limit on how much it can call. Under the CFPB’s Regulation F, more than seven calls to you about one debt within a seven-day period is presumed to be harassment, as is calling again within a week of a live conversation about that debt. Any call before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. in your local time is prohibited on its own.

A consumer reported FirstStates calling daily, and sometimes twice a day, with the same generic message, which is the kind of volume that can cross the line. Keep a log of every call with its date, time, and number, and save each voicemail, because that record turns a feeling of being hounded into proof. Our breakdown of the 7-in-7 rule shows how the count works.

What Are Your Rights When FirstStates Financial Services Contacts You?

Federal and state law both protect you.

• FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act): Governs FirstStates as a third-party collector, banning harassment, false statements, and unauthorized charges, and requiring written validation of a disputed debt. Damages reach $1,000 plus your losses and attorney fees. More on our FDCPA page.
• FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act): Lets you dispute an inaccurate, paid, or unverified medical entry and forces a 30-day reinvestigation. More on our FCRA page.
• TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act): Restricts automated or prerecorded calls and texts to your cellphone without consent, at $500 to $1,500 per message. More on our TCPA page.
• Pennsylvania and New Jersey collection laws: Both states add remedies against unfair or deceptive collection, and a fee not authorized by contract or statute can violate them.

FDCPA and FCRA Issues Seen in FirstStates Complaints and Cases

How Do You Stop FirstStates Financial Services Harassment?

• Identify the medical bill and keep a record. Determine which provider and service the balance came from, save every letter and voicemail, and log each call with its date, time, and number, noting any added fee.
• Demand validation in writing. Within 30 days, mail a certified request for the provider, an itemized statement, and the basis for any collection fee, using our debt validation letter, and keep the return receipt. Collection must pause until FirstStates responds, and do not pay through a card-only website first.
• Challenge the fee and the credit reporting. If a collection fee is unexplained, or a paid or disputed account appears on your file, dispute it in writing with FirstStates and the credit bureaus to open a 30-day investigation. Our credit dispute guide covers the steps.
• Cut off contact if it continues. A certified cease-and-desist letter invokes FDCPA Section 805(c); once FirstStates confirms receipt, it may only reach out to confirm it is stopping or to name a specific legal step.
• Report it and get counsel. File with the FTC, the CFPB, and your state attorney general, then contact Consumer Rights Law Firm PLLC at (877) 700-5790 or open a free case review. If FirstStates broke federal law, fee-shifting means the help costs you nothing.

Consumer Rights Law Firm PLLC

Consumer Rights Law Firm PLLC is a law firm that specializes in helping clients who are facing harassment from debt collectors in any form, including telephone communication. Rather than suffer alone, contact our office to begin the process to stop the FirstStates Financial Services harassment. Our office has been assisting consumers since 2010. We have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.

If you are interested in learning more about how to safeguard yourself and prevent harassment from First States Financial Services. call us at 877-700-5790 for immediate assistance.

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