Key Takeaways
- The Bureaus, Inc. is a real, licensed debt collection company based at 711 N. Edgewood Ave., Suite 200, Wood Dale, Illinois. They are not a scam, but being legitimate does not mean they are allowed to break the law.
- They moved. Older articles and even Google’s business panel still list a Northbrook address. Their own contact page and their Better Business Bureau profile both list Wood Dale.
- Consumers filed 1,717 complaints against the company with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau between January 2021 and August 2026, and the yearly count has more than quadrupled since 2023.
- The single most common complaint is being chased for a debt the consumer does not owe, which accounts for 616 of those 1,717 complaints.
- You have 30 days from the first contact to demand written validation of the debt. Send that request and collection must pause until the company produces proof.
- If the company broke the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, they pay your attorney’s fees and costs, not you. You can recover up to $1,000 in statutory damages plus any actual losses.
The Bureaus, Inc. is a debt buyer and third-party collection agency in Wood Dale, Illinois. If they are calling you, writing to you, or showing up on your credit report, it is because they either bought your old account from the original creditor or were hired to collect it. You do not have to talk to them, you do not have to accept their word that the debt is yours, and if they have harassed you, misstated what you owe, or reported bad information about you, federal law lets you sue them at no cost to yourself.
This page explains who the company is, why the name is so hard to pin down, what consumers complain about most, and the specific steps that stop the contact. If you want to talk it through with a lawyer first, call Agruss Law Firm at 888-572-0176. The consultation is free.
Who is The Bureaus, Inc.?
The Bureaus, Inc. is a family-owned company that buys portfolios of charged-off consumer debt and services them, meaning they collect on accounts that banks, lenders, and credit card issuers have already written off. They also act as a master servicer, placing accounts with other collection agencies and law firms on behalf of the portfolio owner. That second role is why the letter in your mailbox may carry one company’s name while the call comes from another.
They describe themselves as founded in 1928. The Better Business Bureau lists their business start date as January 30, 1974. Both dates circulate online, which is worth knowing if you are trying to confirm you are dealing with the right company.
The Bureaus, Inc. at a glance
| Current address | 711 N. Edgewood Ave., Suite 200, Wood Dale, IL 60191 |
| Former address | 650 Dundee Rd., Suite 370, Northbrook, IL 60062 (still listed in many older sources) |
| Main phone | 877-887-4824 (toll free), 847-328-4300 (local) |
| Hours | Monday to Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Central |
| Business type | Debt buyer, collection agency, and master servicer of accounts receivable |
| BBB rating | B, accredited since May 1, 2015 |
| BBB complaints | 183 |
| Google rating | 1.5 out of 5 across 47 reviews |
| CFPB complaints since 2021 | 1,717 |
Sources: their own contact page, their Better Business Bureau profile, and the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, all retrieved August 5, 2026.
Why is The Bureaus, Inc. calling me?
Almost always because they hold an old account with your name on it. Credit card balances, auto loans, personal loans, and store accounts get charged off after roughly 180 days of non-payment, and the original creditor then sells the portfolio for pennies on the dollar. Whoever buys it, in this case The Bureaus, tries to collect the full balance.
That sale is also where the errors come from. Portfolios change hands with thin documentation: a spreadsheet of names, balances, and last-four account numbers, often with no statements and no signed agreement. When the data is wrong or stale, the wrong person gets the call. That is the single largest category of complaint against this company, and it is squarely the conduct the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act regulates. If collectors are calling you about an account you never opened, read why debt collectors call people who owe nothing.
The name on the letter may not match the name on your credit report
This is the most common source of confusion with this particular company, and it is why so many people cannot find information about them. Searching “the bureaus” mostly returns results about the three credit reporting bureaus, which are entirely different organizations. Meanwhile the tradeline on your credit report, the return address on a letter, and the caption on a court filing can each show a different name, because a master servicer may place your account with an outside agency or law firm that uses their own letterhead.
Do not assume a mismatch means fraud, and do not assume it means the debt is valid either. Write down the exact company name, address, and account number from every letter and every call. That record is what a lawyer uses to work out who actually owns the account and whether anyone in the chain broke the law.
Phone numbers The Bureaus, Inc. may call from
Collection operations rotate through many numbers, so the number on your phone is a weak signal on its own. These are numbers publicly associated with The Bureaus, Inc., primarily from their Better Business Bureau profile:
| Phone number | Phone number | Phone number |
|---|---|---|
| 877-887-4824 | 800-401-4528 | 800-708-1301 |
| 847-328-4300 | 800-635-7239 | 800-266-9647 |
| 800-301-8644 | 800-334-7412 | 800-378-9357 |
| 800-409-8316 | 800-445-5041 | 800-445-7333 |
| 800-603-7183 | 800-606-8494 | 800-611-6569 |
| 800-611-8433 | 800-635-5976 | 800-636-0455 |
| 800-711-3418 | 844-729-7808 | 917-382-7654 |
A number missing from this list does not rule the company out, and a number on this list does not prove the caller is who they claim to be. Scammers spoof legitimate collection numbers. Verify by asking for written validation rather than by trusting the caller ID, and never give bank or card details to someone who called you. If the calls are automated or prerecorded, a separate law may apply as well, which our TCPA lawyers can explain.
What consumers complain about
Complaint volume against The Bureaus, Inc. fell through 2023 and has risen sharply since. The 330 complaints filed in the first seven months of 2026 already exceed the total for all of 2024.
The pattern inside those complaints matters more than the total. Six categories account for the large majority, and every one of them describes conduct the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act governs.
Every one of the 1,717 complaints in this period was closed with an explanation, and 1,715 received a timely response. A company can answer every complaint on time and still violate the statute; the CFPB process records the response, it does not adjudicate the legal claim. That is what a private lawsuit is for.
Is The Bureaus, Inc. legitimate, or are they a scam?
They are a legitimate company. They have operated for decades, hold a B rating from the Better Business Bureau, have been BBB accredited since 2015, and publish a real address and phone number. Their consumer ratings are poor, at 1.5 out of 5 on Google and 2.3 out of 5 on WalletHub, but poor reviews are ordinary for the collection industry and are not evidence of fraud.
The practical point is that “legitimate” and “following the law” are different questions. A licensed collector still cannot call you at work after you tell them to stop, threaten a lawsuit they do not intend to file, misstate the amount you owe, discuss your debt with your relatives, or keep reporting a debt you have disputed without noting the dispute. Those are violations regardless of how long the company has been in business.
Your rights when The Bureaus contacts you
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 and following, applies to third-party collectors and debt buyers like this one. Under it, a collector may not:
- Call before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. in your time zone
- Keep calling you at work once you say you cannot take calls there
- Contact you at all once you send a written request to stop, except to confirm they are stopping or to tell you they are suing
- Contact you about the debt once they know a lawyer represents you
- Discuss your debt with your family, neighbors, or employer
- Use profanity, threats, or repeated calls meant to annoy or harass
- Misrepresent the amount of the debt, the identity of the creditor, or their own identity
- Threaten arrest, wage garnishment, or a lawsuit they cannot legally take or do not intend to take
Two federal statutes often apply alongside it. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act covers autodialed and prerecorded calls and texts, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act covers what gets reported about you. If the same conduct violates more than one, the claims stack.
What to do if The Bureaus, Inc. contacts you
- Do not admit the debt is yours and do not make a payment. A payment or a written acknowledgment can restart the statute of limitations on an account that was already too old to sue on. This is the most expensive mistake consumers make on a first call.
- Write down everything. Date, time, the number that called, the name the caller gave, the company named, and what was said. Keep every letter and every envelope.
- Send a written debt validation request within 30 days of first contact. Send it by certified mail with return receipt. Collection must stop until the company mails you verification of the debt.
- Pull your credit reports. Check whether the account is reported, in what amount, and under what name. You can get your free credit reports from all three bureaus.
- Dispute anything inaccurate in writing. Our guide to disputing inaccurate credit report information walks through the letter, and common credit report errors covers what to look for.
- Send a written cease and desist if you want the contact to end. Once they receive it, they may only contact you to confirm they are stopping or to notify you of a lawsuit.
- Call a consumer lawyer before you negotiate. If there are violations, the leverage changes completely, and you should know that before you discuss any settlement.
Our stop debt collection harassment page covers each of these steps in more detail, and debt collection law explains how the statutes fit together.
Can The Bureaus, Inc. sue me or garnish my wages?
They can file a collection lawsuit if the account is within your state’s statute of limitations, and debt buyers do file them. They cannot garnish your wages without first suing you, winning a judgment, and obtaining a garnishment order from the court. Nobody can skip those steps, and a collector who claims otherwise on a phone call has likely just violated the FDCPA.
If you are served with a lawsuit, respond before your deadline. Most collection judgments are default judgments entered because the consumer never filed an answer, not because a court weighed the evidence and found the debt valid. Ignoring the papers is what turns a disputed account into an enforceable judgment.
Check your paperwork for an arbitration clause as well. Many credit agreements contain one, and it can change where and how your dispute is resolved. Our arbitration attorneys can review it.
What if The Bureaus, Inc. is on my credit report?
A collection account can stay on your report for seven years from the date the original account first went delinquent. That clock runs from the original delinquency, not from the date a debt buyer purchased the account, so reselling a debt does not lawfully reset it.
Dispute it in writing with each credit bureau that reports it if the account is not yours, the balance is wrong, the dates are wrong, or you already paid or settled it. The bureau must investigate and report back, generally within 30 days. If it verifies bad information anyway, or if the furnisher keeps reporting a disputed debt without marking it disputed, you may have a Fair Credit Reporting Act claim on top of any FDCPA claim. Start with credit report problems, and see identity theft if the account was opened in your name without your knowledge.
How Agruss Law Firm helps
We are consumer rights lawyers. We sue debt collectors, creditors, and credit reporting agencies for violating federal and state consumer protection laws, and we have handled these cases against collection companies nationwide for years.
Here is what matters financially. The FDCPA and the FCRA are fee-shifting statutes: when we win, the collector pays our fees and costs. You can recover up to $1,000 in statutory damages under the FDCPA, plus actual damages for out-of-pocket losses, and many clients also get the account deleted from their credit report or the balance wiped out as part of the resolution. You never pay us out of pocket, and you never owe us a fee unless you recover.
Call 888-572-0176, or use our contact form. Tell us what happened and we will tell you honestly whether you have a case. If you are not sure the calls are even about a real debt, that is fine, and it is often the answer we find. See also debt help for a broader overview of the options.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Bureaus a collection agency?
Yes. The Bureaus, Inc. is a third-party debt collection agency and debt buyer based in Wood Dale, Illinois. They purchase charged-off consumer accounts from original creditors and also act as a master servicer, placing accounts with other collection agencies and law firms. Because they are a third-party collector rather than an original creditor, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act applies to them in full.
Why is The Bureaus, Inc. calling me?
They are contacting you because they believe they hold an account in your name, usually an old credit card, auto loan, personal loan, or store account that the original creditor charged off and sold. They may also be servicing the account for whoever owns the portfolio. If you do not recognize the debt, that is common: the most frequent complaint filed against this company with the CFPB is attempting to collect a debt the consumer does not owe.
Is The Bureaus, Inc. a scam?
No. They are a real company. They have operated for decades, hold a B rating from the Better Business Bureau, and have been BBB accredited since 2015. That said, scammers do spoof the phone numbers of legitimate collection agencies, so never give bank or card details to someone who called you. Ask for written validation of the debt and verify the company independently before you pay anything.
Can I just ignore The Bureaus, Inc.?
Ignoring calls is risky. A debt buyer can file a collection lawsuit, and if you do not respond to the court papers the court can enter a default judgment against you, which can lead to wage garnishment or a bank levy. The better approach is to respond in writing: send a debt validation request within 30 days of first contact, and send a cease and desist letter if you want the calls to stop. Never ignore anything that looks like a summons or complaint.
What should I never say to a debt collector?
Do not admit the debt is yours, do not promise to pay, and do not make even a small payment before you have verified the account. Any of those can restart the statute of limitations on a debt that was already too old to sue on. Avoid giving bank account numbers, card numbers, your employer’s name, or details about other assets. Keep the call short, ask that all further communication be in writing, and write down what was said.
How do I make The Bureaus, Inc. stop calling me?
Send a written cease and desist letter by certified mail with return receipt requested. Once they receive it, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act permits only two further contacts: confirming that they are stopping, and notifying you that they are pursuing a specific legal remedy. If calls continue after that letter is received, each one may be a separate violation, and the certified mail receipt is the proof that makes the claim provable.
How do I get The Bureaus, Inc. off my credit report?
Dispute the entry in writing with each credit bureau that reports it, and explain specifically what is wrong: not your account, incorrect balance, incorrect dates, or already paid or settled. The bureau generally must investigate and respond within 30 days. A collection account may remain for seven years from the original delinquency date, and reselling the debt does not lawfully restart that clock. If inaccurate information stays on your report after you dispute it, you may have a claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
What does it cost to sue The Bureaus, Inc. for harassment?
Nothing out of pocket. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act are fee-shifting statutes, which means the collector pays your attorney’s fees and costs when you win. You can recover up to $1,000 in statutory damages under the FDCPA plus actual damages for any out-of-pocket losses. Agruss Law Firm handles these cases on that basis, so you never owe us a fee unless you recover.
Talk to a lawyer today
If The Bureaus, Inc. have called you repeatedly, contacted people around you, threatened action they cannot take, or put something on your credit report that is not right, you have a claim worth having looked at. Call Agruss Law Firm at 888-572-0176 for a free consultation, or reach us through our contact page. There is no cost to find out where you stand.
This article is general legal information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Company details, ratings, and complaint figures were verified on August 5, 2026 and may change. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case.
