The CBE Group: is it an ordinary bill or an IRS tax account?

The IRS lists CBE Group as one of three private collection agencies that contact people about overdue federal tax accounts on the government's behalf, at P.O. Box 2217, Waterloo, IA 50704, phone 800-910-5837.

The IRS first sends Notice CP40 to say your account has been assigned to a private collection agency, and the agency then sends its own letter; both carry a taxpayer authentication number you can use to check a caller. If you have not had a CP40 from the IRS, a CBE contact is most likely about an ordinary bill for one of its other clients. A 2010 federal appeals court opinion describes CBE as a collection agency assigned a hospital account.

Our letters are for consumer bills, not tax debts. If CBE is contacting you about federal tax, deal with it through the IRS: check your account at irs.gov and use the authentication number in your letters to confirm the caller.

CBE's consumer contact page gives 1-800-925-6686 and the address PO Box 900, Waterloo, IA 50704. Its contact page points to paycbegroup.com and to an account portal on cbecompanies.com. For a tax account, the IRS page above gives a separate CBE phone number and P.O. box.

If a caller pressures you to pay today, hang up and call back on one of those numbers. You can ask CBE in writing to contact you only by mail.

If CBE has reported the account, our guide on how collections affect your credit covers the special rules for medical debt, and disputing a collection entry covers the rest.

The notice must name the creditor, show an itemized balance and give a date by which you can dispute. A written dispute that arrives before then makes CBE stop collecting until it mails you verification.

Send it to the dispute address printed on your notice, or to PO Box 900, Waterloo, IA 50704, by certified mail. If you think the bill was already paid, for example a phone bill settled when you closed the account, say so and ask for the payment history.

If CBE has added the account to your credit report, our guide to removing collections from your credit report explains when an entry can be disputed. And if it is the calls that are the problem, you can tell a debt collector to stop contacting you in writing.

Suppose CBE mails a notice on Wednesday, March 10, 2027 about a $412.77 final phone bill.

1. There is no holiday that week, so five working days later, Wednesday, March 17, 2027, is the assumed receipt date.
2. The validation period runs until at least Friday, April 16, 2027.
3. Dispute in writing before then, saying the account was paid when you closed it, and keep the certified mail receipt.

For the rules that apply where this example is set, see debt collection law in Iowa.