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Income Taxes - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2015
Mar. 31, 2014
Dec. 31, 2014
Income Taxes [Line Items]      
Provision for income taxes $ 15,883,000us-gaap_IncomeTaxExpenseBenefit $ 11,742,000us-gaap_IncomeTaxExpenseBenefit  
Unrecognized tax benefit 47,700,000us-gaap_UnrecognizedTaxBenefits   44,400,000us-gaap_UnrecognizedTaxBenefits
Net tax benefit from unrecognized tax benefits, if recognized 16,000,000us-gaap_UnrecognizedTaxBenefitsThatWouldImpactEffectiveTaxRate   12,700,000us-gaap_UnrecognizedTaxBenefitsThatWouldImpactEffectiveTaxRate
Undistributed earnings 5,900,000us-gaap_UndistributedEarnings    
Other business combinations [Member]      
Income Taxes [Line Items]      
Unrecognized tax benefits, increase resulting from acquisition $ 3,300,000us-gaap_UnrecognizedTaxBenefitsIncreasesResultingFromAcquisition
/ us-gaap_BusinessCombinationSeparatelyRecognizedTransactionsAxis
= ecpg_OtherBusinessCombinationsMember
   
Costa Rica [Member] | Tax Holiday Through December 31, 2018 [Member]      
Income Taxes [Line Items]      
Holiday tax rate 100.00%us-gaap_EffectiveIncomeTaxRateReconciliationTaxHolidays
/ us-gaap_IncomeTaxAuthorityAxis
= ecpg_TaxHolidayThroughDecemberThirtyFirstAndTwoThousandEighteenMember
/ us-gaap_StatementGeographicalAxis
= country_CR
   
Costa Rica [Member] | Subsequent Four Years [Member]      
Income Taxes [Line Items]      
Holiday tax rate 50.00%us-gaap_EffectiveIncomeTaxRateReconciliationTaxHolidays
/ us-gaap_IncomeTaxAuthorityAxis
= ecpg_SubsequentFourYearsFromDecemberThirtyFirstAndTwoThousandEighteenMember
/ us-gaap_StatementGeographicalAxis
= country_CR
   
Income tax holiday, term 4 years