Portfolio Recovery Associates - Is it good at customer satisfaction?

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[QUOTE=Anonymous;503989]Unfortunately, with the exception of leaving messages stating the company name at POE, PRA rarely breaks the FDCPA Laws. When an account has hit them it is in the last stage of collections which means the creditor has already tried to receive payment as well as an in house collection agency. I know it isn't the best thing to say and I know that they can be rude but honestly, that is how they are trained to be. As a prior employee, I used to get in trouble for being too nice! I tried to take into consideration what was the situation of the customer. However, that just got me written up. The laws most of the time are being followed. They can call you several times a day but may only leave one message per phone per day and after a message is left they may not call back. When speaking with them they are trained to know how to push your buttons without them losing control. Be careful. If you tell them you are recording the call then they will terminate the call immediately.[/QUOTE]

Bull. Read this, folks...

From the FDCPA, section 806:
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? 806. Harassment or abuse
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][SIZE=3]A debt collector may not engage in any conduct the natural consequence of which is to harass, oppress, or abuse any person in connection with the collection of a debt. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is a violation of this section:
(1) The use or threat of use of violence or other criminal means to harm the physical person, reputation, or property of any person.
(2) The use of obscene or profane language or language the natural consequence of which is to abuse the hearer or reader.
(3) The publication of a list of consumers who allegedly refuse to pay debts, except to a consumer reporting agency or to persons meeting the requirements of section 603(f) or 604(3)[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][SIZE=1]1 [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][SIZE=3]of this Act.
(4) The advertisement for sale of any debt to coerce payment of the debt.
(5) Causing a telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number.
(6) Except as provided in section 804, the placement of telephone calls without meaningful disclosure of the caller’s identity.

Dont see anywhere in the text of the law a definition of "Harassment"
[/SIZE][/FONT]

[QUOTE=Anonymous;508374]? 806. Harassment or abuse
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][SIZE=3]A debt collector may not engage in any conduct the natural consequence of which is to harass, oppress, or abuse any person in connection with the collection of a debt. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is a violation of this section:
[SIZE=3](1) The use or threat of use of violence or other criminal means to harm the physical person, reputation, or property of any person. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3](2) The use of obscene or profane language or language the natural consequence of which is to abuse the hearer or reader. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3](3) The publication of a list of consumers who allegedly refuse to pay debts, except to a consumer reporting agency or to persons meeting the requirements of section 603(f) or 604(3)[/SIZE][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][SIZE=1]1 [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][SIZE=3]of this Act.
[SIZE=3](4) The advertisement for sale of any debt to coerce payment of the debt.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3](5) Causing a telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3](6) Except as provided in section 804, the placement of telephone calls without meaningful disclosure of the caller???s identity.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=3]Dont see anywhere in the text of the law a definition of "Harassment"[/SIZE]
[/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE]

figures you would mock the FDCPA.btw check line 5 chief.it evens says harrass right there.we will continue to give the facts while hoping you are someday sued out of business.

btw,my name isn't survivor.get the name right as you have not been right at all yet.

Have you read the FDCPA or did somebody paraphrase it for you?

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Hello everyone,
After losing my job, and house in foreclosure to a hard money lender, I am now being hounded by many debt collectors. I had filed bankrupcy 3 times, yes 3, in an attempt to stop the foreclosure and am uncertain how to determine the date of last payment on these debts. I did receive a couple of letters at a friends work place that I guess the USPS gave as a forwarding address but nothing at my home. I have never answered any phone calls from an unknown number meaning I have never talked to them.
I want to determine from my credit report what date to use for the last payments so that I can send the stop calling letter based upone the SOL. As I'm still unemployed, self now, and my income is 1/3 what it was before, I make no ammends about not wanting to pay these debts and just wait the 7 years for them to fall off my credit report. Is this a sound strategy to rebuild my credit?

Hello everyone,

While sending out a DV, do I have to list the entire account number? It's not listed on my credit report. A few are XX'd out.

Thanks,

Only the original creditor can sue you. Portfolio Recovery Associates has a bunch of sleeze working for them, who pressure you and lie to you - but if they want to file a lawsuit, they have to obtain the right to sue, they have to prove the case by producing all the documents, then they have to limit their collection to Small claims - Hightly unlikely they will sue anybody as they make a profit by doing mass collections, then they write off the losses on their taxes.

If somebody threatens to sue you, you say, "go ahead" - you'll end up going to the court, and some sleeze attorney will meet you in the hall, and then take you aside, and try to pressure you into an out of court deal - NEVER SETTLE - MAKE THEM GO INTO THE COURTROOM AND PROVE THEIR CASE

THEN RUN IMMEDIATELY TO BANKRUPTCY COURT - OR RUN TO BANKRUPTCY COURT BEFORE THEY SUE YOU - OR JUST TELL THEM TO GET A LIFE AND HANG UP THE PHONE - OR JUST HANG UP ON YOUR CREDITORS

WORKS FOR ME - EVENTUALLY THEY GO AWAY. DON'T THROW FUEL ON THE FIRE AND WASTE YOUR TIME TALKING TO THESE SLEEZE. EVEN AFTER YOU PAY IT, SOME OTHER SLEEZE WILL CALL YOU UP AND PRETEND THEY NEVER GOT PAID

SHARI74@GMAILCOM

I received a call from Portfolio Recovery today trying to collect on a Providian account which was written off in my bankruptcy in 2002. They claimed that I had opened a new account with Providian in August 2003 and it defaulted December of 2003. The amount owed in this new account (which I never opened - and for which my signature would have to have been forged) was almost exactly the same as the amount written off in the bankruptcy of 2002. I had another attempt made at collecting a debt which was written off by my bankruptcy about 3 or 4 years ago. At that time they used the same method of claiming that I had opened up a new account with the same company within a year of filing my bankruptcy and that I had defaulted on this account within a couple of months. In both cases they had new account numbers listed for the accounts but the amount owed at the time of default was the same as the amount written off by bankruptcy. Again they could not provide proof that I had signed an agreement for the new account. It was my understanding ( and I saw this on a television program about this subject) that attempting to collect funds written off by a bankruptcy was a violation of Federal Law and State Law in many states. In addition a "State Of Limitation" or statue of limitation would seem to exist which PRA seems to believe they can violate at will. This all appears to be an attempt to circumvent the laws of this country. And this by a company that is listed on the NASDAG. Am I wrong?

Portfolio Associated violates both Federal and State laws concerning bankruptcy.

dean,you need to look into recording these calls.find out if you are a one party or two party state.then request a hearing with the court you filed at.compile your proof,and let the court take care of this bottomfeeder.use the courts to get rid of these shysters.

I have read many of these posts an I want to debunk some of the BS, particularly the BS being spread by the former PRA employee.
History
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Prior to marrying my wife, she had a credit card under her previous name. PRA apparently bought the alleged debt, which was previously sold, resold, sold again and then again and again. The alleged debt was sold 8 times before PRA picked it up. Each time te debt was sold, the new company reported the same debt under their name, basically making her credit report appear to have debt from multiple creditors. (this is a violation of the FDCPA)
PRA called my home once, asking for my wife by her previous name. I realized what the nature of the call was and owning my own telecomm company, I blacklisted all their phone numbers so they could never call my home again. I thought that would be the end of it.I was wrong. This dog likes to bite.
A few months later, they hired an attorney and filed suit against my wife, including her previous surname and her new one.
Under normal circumstances, I would simply pick up the phone, call my attorney and ask him to handle it, but I was in a good mood the day I receved her civil summons and I decided to research the claim, the company making it and the law, both federal and state.
After a few hours of research and having her pull her credit report, I found several violations of the FDCPA. I decided an attorney wasn't necessary.
I decided this was something an average person could handle, inexpensively. I wrote her defense and a formidble counterclaim. It took about 4 hours, including research.
She thought I was nuts, but decided to humour me and give it a try. She signed it, pro se, and took it to the county clerk at the court house and filed it. I think it cost $26, plus 30 minutes of her time. A copy was forwarded to the attorney handling PRA's case.
Within two weeks we received a reply to the counterclaim. Of course, it was nonesense and had about as much merit as the original complaint. It was obvious that PRA didn't want to spend a lot of money on this case and was only using the attorney to either scare her into paying their claim or getting a default judgement if she didn't hire an attorney or file a response in the alloted twenty days.
I suspect PRA and their attorney were stunned when they received notice of the answer and counterclaim. I can assure you, as you will see when you read it, it has teeth.
In summary, she asserted 5 formidible defenses and a counter claim for damages and, most importantly, a trial by jury.
Within 10 days after filing an answer to my wifes counterclaim, PRA's attorney contacted my wife asking her to agree to dismiss the entire case, with prejudice. (meaning it can't ever be brought against her again)
At this time, she has a $9000 actionable counterclaim against PRA for 9 seperate FDCPA violations and has not yet agreed to dismiss the case. I have instructed her to offer to dismiss the counterclaim as long as PRA agrees to completely clean up her credit report.
We're waiting to hear form their attorney.
Here is the defense and claim. Hopefully it will help someone.
Remember to format it according to your courts requirements.
Case NO. xx-y-zzzzzz COURT Name
DIVISION
PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES, LLC PLAINTIFF
v. ANSWER AND COUNTERCLAIM
Your Name DEFENDANT
*** *** *** ***
Comes now defendant, YOUR NAME (???Defendant???), and submits its Answer and Counterclaim to the complain of the plaintiff Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC (???Plaintiff???).
FIRST DEFENSE
1. On information and belief, Defendant denies the allegations set forth in Paragraph 1 of the complaint.
2. Defendant denies the allegations set forth in Paragraph 2.
3. Defendant denies the allegations set forth in Paragraph 3.
4. Defendant denies the allegations set forth in Paragraph 4.
SECOND DEFENSE
Defendant denies each and every allegation set forth in the complaint which is not specifically admitted herein.
THIRD DEFENSE
The Complaint fails to state a claim against the Defendant for which relief may be granted.
FOURTH DEFENSE
The Statute of Limitations has passed for which relief may be granted.
FIFTH DEFENSE
The claims of the Plaintiff are barred by its own negligence, contributory negligence, estoppels, laches, unclean hands, injury by fellow servant, waiver, contractual merger, and its failure to join an indispensable party.
COUNTERCLAIM
1. Plaintiff initiated contact, via telephone, in 2008 requesting payment of a debt.
2. Defendant disputed the debt and requested validation of said debt via proof of original signed contract as required by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (the ???FDCPA???), 15 U.S.C ?? 1692 et seq.
3. Defendant disputed the debt and requested an account history from the original creditor as required by Fields v. Wilber Law Firm, Donald L. Wilber and Kenneth Wilber, USCA-02-C-0072, 7th Circuit Court, Sept, 2004. Plaintiff failed to provide an account history from the original creditor.
4. Plaintiff???s debt collection notice failed to comply with 15 U.S.C ?? 1692g(a) rules.
5. Plaintiff failed to provide defendant verification of the debt within the thirty-day debt validation period.
6. Plaintiff filed credit reports of invalidated debt to numerous consumer reporting agencies in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and owes Defendant $1,000 in damages for each violation.
PRAYER FOR RELIEF
WHEREFORE, Defendant respectfully requests:
(1) That the claims of the Plaintiff be dismissed and held for naught;
(2) That defendant be granted judgment against Plaintiff for the sum of $1,000 for each offense with interest thereon;
(3) Trial by jury on all issues so triable;
(2) Compensatory damages in an amount to be determined by the jury;
(3) Punitive damages in an amount to be determined by the jury;
(4) Its attorney???s fees and costs incurred in bringing this action;
(5) Prejudgment and post judgment interest at the maximum amount allowed by law on all amounts; and
(6) Any and all other relief to which they may be entitled.
Respectfully submitted,
Defendant, pro se
___________________________________
Defendant
Street
City, State Zip
Phone Number
Certificate of Service
This is to certify that a true copy of the foregoing has been mailed to the following on Month Day, Year:
Law Firm
Attorney Name
Counsel for Plaintiff
Street Address
City State Zip
Phone
Defendant, pro se
___________________________________
Defendant
Street Address
City State Zip
Phone

FIRST - everyone receiving calls from this bunch of blood suckers should know it is _not_ Discover Card, it is a collection agency named Portfolio Recovery Assoc out of Norfolk, VA (with 'spoof' location in Kearns Utah). While they have obviously been put up to this by Discover Card, and represent themselves _as_ 'Discover Card', they are NOT Discover Card (or any other lender/company they claim to represent). Equal complaints should be made against both this organization AND to any company they claim to represent (such as Discover Card) for turning you over to this sort of abusive organization and providing them with your phone numbers given when you set up the account.

Here is what the CEO of Portfolio Recovery associates thinks of all of YOU they are constantly robo-dialing:

???This is Steven Fredrickson...some of these comments towards me are childish and shameful, and it doesn't surprise me that those who are deadbeats, would make childish, immature remarks like this. As to our collection procedures...we carefully follow the collection laws of our state and anyone claiming otherwise is a bald faced liar - it is YOU people who should be in prison for being a thief...not me!??? (scroll down comments: http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-801-902-2429/2 said July 30, 2009)

Hypocrite - apparently this bottom-feeder company of his is being sued by the Attorney General of Missouri for fraudulent debt collection practices related to their abusive debt collection procedures. May there be many more to follow. Everyone should contact THEIR state???s attorney general, reference the Missouri action, and request the same be done. Then we???ll see how long this smug b*****d holds court about us out here, many who are fifty and above, had jobs, took care of our financial obligations, but were laid off and now no one will even LOOK at us for a job.

Next ??? the Kearnes, UT people are using several numbers (such as 801-902-2429; 801-902-2976) both of which geo-locate to LAT 40.67 LONG -112.01 so pull those coordinates up Google Earth and it looks like someone in a residential neighborhood is running these calls out of their home with a Robo-Dialer. The Norfolk, VA coordinates for the home office of Portfolio Recovery Associates are Latitude 36.841488??, N 36 ?? 50' 29.4" 36 ?? 50.4893', Longitude -76.213085 ??, W 76 ?? 12' 47.1" -76 ?? 12.7851'

Now you know where to drop that 'blue-water ice' when you fly over at 30,000 ft ;)

Portfolio Recovery Associates??? website is: http://www.portfoliorecovery.com

Now you can start burning up THEIR phone lines and servers with bunches of daily calls and emails !!!

Also ??? FILE A COMPLAINT PEOPLE !!

US Justice Department
Attn: Steven Curran, Deputy Chief
Criminal Division
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite
PHB Division
Washington, DC 20530

And to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx

I was contacted by PRA and they were threatening to put a lien on my house. Nevada lien laws are within 90 days. Does the clock reset when the debt is bought by someone else or were they just blowing smoke? Also, does any know if after a lien is put on a house how long before they can attempt to foreclose on the house to satisfy the lien? Thanks

My state Attorney General's office, Consumer Protection Division, is going to help me with the same company. My (alleged, since this supposed card was issued in 1979) credit card bill is at least 18 years old! (And--if valid--was discharged in a Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy.) After exhausting every avenue to resolve the bills involved due to suddenly being unable to work, I reluctantly filed Chapter 7. Now to get calls from this group of bloodsuckers is totally ludicrous. Today I'm sending them the DO NOT CALL ME again letter required by state/fed regulations so they must stop. DO NOT LET THESE people bully your OR sweet-talk you into paying something that you do not owe! If you owe, fine, take their settlement offer (that they will make when you consistently indicate that you are not going to/cannot pay it). Their express intent is to 1. Bully you into paying money to get them off your back. 2. Be very helpful and 'sweet' to assist you to pay money that you many not even be legally or morally responsible to pay! Read their website pages where they are trying to get new clients to collect for; they give away their strategies, and it's almost fun to hear them follow the steps their company says they use to get money!! They are a multi-billion dollar business, publicly-held, so their tactics have worked on a lot of people. You don't have to be one of them.

Excellent!! I just don't have the energy to do this myself so am enlisting the help of our state Attorney General; they've already quickly responded to my initial contact via email. Today I'm sending PRA the "do not call me" instructional letter. You've don a huge service here by posting this; I particularly like the counter-suit for damages. THAT will get their attention, eh?

Sorry, put this in the wrong 'slot'; the gentleman who gave you/us the great information in post 66 deserves a gold medal. Remember, this company's aim is to embarrass, humiliate, intimidate, confuse, annoy, and insult you/us all. We must remember that WE are in charge of our lives; they are not. Stay calm, stay cool, and take advantage of all of the protection offered by the authorities.:cool:

They call once a week. I don't owe anyone anything, and never did. I just don't answer their calls and get this, they don't leave a message...

I went to this companies web site and they buy old debts, and they do not care if the debt is yours or not, they will start harrasing you. As of October 2009, my credit reports were clear and I had excellent credit according to my FICO score. I opened a BOA Visa acct. with a $10,000 limit and I have never been late and I pay them $1300.00 a month towards my balance. I just got a letter from PRA LLC, for a offer to settle a account from 'Bank Of Omaha' which I have never heard of, and never had a acct. with. They said I owed $600.00 but they would take $300.00 to settle. They are trying to extort me by threatening to report this to the credit bureas as a chargte off or something. They bought this debt for pennies and they feel that they can blackmail me and get a quick $300.00. That is not happening. I will not pay a debt I do not owe. If I owed this debt why has no one ever contacted me about it before? This is a scam outfit and they need to be brought down.

Ok, listen-up everyone.The reason that these companies are able to send "fake" payment request is they can easily access your credit report.Block access to your reports by "Fraud Alert".These companies have to call "you" first to get access.It works for me and everytime someone wants to view my credit report they have to call me (My 1-800) number.I just screen my call to see who's calling.I can also "Block" number too.

Portfolio has called me on a debt is over 16 years old....I never filed bankruptcy and never claimed the debt. Our friends at Portfolio have been putting the pressure on and I receive daily calls on my cell. I do not feel I owe them nor do I intend to pay them. What can I do and what can they do? Heeeeeeeeeeelp!!!!!!

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Be very watchful if you get this case dismissed as they have come up with a new tactic of sending a 1099-C to IRS for the amount of debt dismissed which is considered income and on which you will have to pay taxes to IRS. This just happened to me. I am in the midst of writing letters to all appropriate authorities and thought I would check the web for info about them before sending my letters. Glad to hear about the suit in MO...I will add that info to my letters. They have been bothering me for 1 and 1/2 years and refuse to send me any documentation. I had my ID stolen several times so I was insistant that they send documentation. No documentation so far just phone calls so I wrote letter to them demanding that they stop the calls or I would file a formal complaint to attorney general and Federal Trade. They stopped the calls but just received the 1099-C. Sounds like this company needs to be put in their place with a class action. They think they are God and act like it!!

PRA has been harassing me for 1 and 1/2 years for a debt dating back to 1997. Statute of Limitations in my state is 4 years. They refuse to send me documentation which I demanded because of previous ID theft. I sent a letter on 9-2009 demanding they not call my work anymore (which they continually violated). I heard nothing else from them until yesterday when I received a copy of a 1099-C -dismissal of debt which they sent to IRS. I am writing every agency I know of including my State's Attorney general in hopes of getting this changed. Otherwise I will have to pay taxes on an additional $6000. Has anyone else had this experience? I have read scenarios for everything else but this. I guess they are having to get more creative since more people are learning who they are and what they are really up to.

I have used the cease and desist letter and it worked perfectly. Do not send them any money as that will reset the statue of limitations and they can take you to court at that point. But for debts that are like 5 or more years old they don't have a leg to stand on to get that money from you. It's not even worth their time to pursue it. They buy old debts from companies in bulk for pennies on the dollar. If they get people to pay even 30% of those bulk debts, they make great money off it. Don't fall into the trap. Send the cease and desist and call it a day.

DO NOT listen to cease letter, it is obvious that person has no idea on what they are talking about. There is only one time when you send a cease and desist letter. That is when you are 100% sure the statute of limitations has passed and that there are no tolling laws in the original agreement, meaning the SOL can run longer in some cases. Also if a credit card agreement has a longer SOL by means of the contract only governed by another states laws it could be used against you though I doubt collectors are that smart. Also if you have a state such as NH and the agreement is only governed by that state, you could lower the SOL if you are ever sued.

There are plenty of people who are sued on debts more than 5 years old, in fact this is the time when you are more likely to be sued. You will have junk debt buyers getting debts for pennies and they will spend thousands just to get a few hundred. The other thing is 80% or more people almost always do not show up in court and/or do not know how to defend themselves, this is huge profit. If a debt collector sues 30,000 people in a year and get's 20,000 default judgments,,,,well do the math....they are paying say $100 for a $3,000 debt and will get the full $3,000 plus interest which adds up to huge profit for a default judgment. On top of that they could get attorney fees and court costs if allowed by law. For every few people that sue them or for the few cases they lose, the wins have it.......a lot of these debts are past the SOL too, and people are still getting judgments against them from scum bag lawyers who had no right to sue in the first place.

DO NOT sent a cease and desist on a debt that is not time barred!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only send a debt validation letter, furthermore do not put a limited cease and desist on a dv letter. there is no such thing unless state laws say so. Furthermore almost all collectors will take it as a full on C&D. They cannot contact you on a disputed debt anyway so it is pointless.

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[QUOTE=Anonymous;655115]DO NOT listen to cease letter, it is obvious that person has no idea on what they are talking about. There is only one time when you send a cease and desist letter. That is when you are 100% sure the statute of limitations has passed and that there are no tolling laws in the original agreement, meaning the SOL can run longer in some cases. Also if a credit card agreement has a longer SOL by means of the contract only governed by another states laws it could be used against you though I doubt collectors are that smart. Also if you have a state such as NH and the agreement is only governed by that state, you could lower the SOL if you are ever sued.
There are plenty of people who are sued on debts more than 5 years old, in fact this is the time when you are more likely to be sued. You will have junk debt buyers getting debts for pennies and they will spend thousands just to get a few hundred. The other thing is 80% or more people almost always do not show up in court and/or do not know how to defend themselves, this is huge profit. If a debt collector sues 30,000 people in a year and get's 20,000 default judgments,,,,well do the math....they are paying say $100 for a $3,000 debt and will get the full $3,000 plus interest which adds up to huge profit for a default judgment. On top of that they could get attorney fees and court costs if allowed by law. For every few people that sue them or for the few cases they lose, the wins have it.......a lot of these debts are past the SOL too, and people are still getting judgments against them from scum bag lawyers who had no right to sue in the first place.
DO NOT sent a cease and desist on a debt that is not time barred!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only send a debt validation letter, furthermore do not put a limited cease and desist on a dv letter. there is no such thing unless state laws say so. Furthermore almost all collectors will take it as a full on C&D. They cannot contact you on a disputed debt anyway so it is pointless.[/QUOTE]


they can try to sue you but unless it in stat they cant..and wont its a waste of time..offer a crazy settlement amount .. dont get pushed around but be nice if u know what im sayin

This company calls at all hours of the day and night. I am a senior citizen in bad health and there threats just make things worse. I have turned them into better business bureau and the sates attorney office but they continue to call and harass

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Portfolio Recovery Associates does not like to sue people. it does cost them money to retain the attorneys they use. therefore it is very easy to get a settlement with them. I know from experience. I had 12 thousand dollars worth of accounts and i got out by paying them less than 6500

Did this work? I got the same letter (though my date of purchase is 2000 and opened account in 1997) and want to reply accordingly. Also, is the next step, once the Date of Default is verified, to inform PRA that the debt is beyond the Statute of Limitations and to not contact me about it further?
Thanks for your help.
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Also, do I need to confirm that I am disputing this debt in my response? That thsi reponse is a continuation of the dispute? Will this keep them from contacting me and/or considering the debt valid, allowing them to 'terminate the investigation' on the dispute'?

The final note on the letter states, 'Please note if we receive no information or documentation describing the details of your dispute by 2/28/1010, we may then terminate the investigation related to this account due to lack of clarification of the nature of the dispute.'


Thanks again for your help.



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Thank you PokerTramp. Here is some more information about my situation.

I live in California. Yes, I first got a letter from them in January about a very old debt that I do not believe was mine. I sent a certified letter requesting Validation of debt and received a 'verification' letter similiar to this one below in return:

"Dear ***
Re: Verification Information Concerning PRA acc. #########

The following information is being provided in response to your communication concerning account reference above. Account number 123456789 and its proceeds were sold, assigned and transferred by the Seller to Portfolio Rec. on 11/14/2006 (8/30/2000 in my case). At the time of the sale, the Seller provided an electronic file of its business records concerning this account. According to the Seller???s records, there was due and payable from Jane Doe to the Seller in the sum of $30531.31 with respect to the account as of 11/14/2006, there being no know un=credited payments, counterclaims, or offsets against this account at the date of its sale.

Here is a summary of additional information listed in the electronic file for this account:

Original Creditor's name: DIRECT MERCHANTS BANK
Original Creditor's address: P.O. Box XXX, Rockville, MD
Account holder???s name provided by seller: Jane Doe
Account holder???s last 4 digits of SSN: ****
Date Account opened provided by Seller: Jan. 4, 1994 (2/14/1997 on my letter)
Balance at date PRA purchase: $XXXXX
Interest accrued since the date of purchase or last payment to PRA: $XXX
Cost and other fees: $0
*Total Balance Due as of this Letter $XXXX

Please contact us if you would like to receive a payment history of payments that have posted to this account since our company purchased this account.
Contact information

If you wish to dispute this account, please send written documentation describing the nature of your dispute and any information or materials that may be helpful to our investigation so this dispute may be investigated in a timely manner. Please send all documentation related to disputes to the following address:...

Please note if we receive no information or documentation describing the details of your dispute by 2/28/1010, we may then terminate the investigation related to this account due to lack of clarification of the nature of the dispute."


For now, they have stopped calling me since I am seeking validation. I have written back to PRA about this letter asking for the Date of Default on the debt as suggested by Chrys Henderson in an earlier post regarding this type of letter. I assume that once I find out the Date of Default, which I assume is very old, I will be able to confirm the debt is past SOL, inform them of that and request that they stop contacting me on it?

I am taking this path to deal with this because I am not familiar with the debt they are suggesting I owe and have no records from 10 years ago to dispute or verify it. I have a clean credit report and high FICO and no debt; I am not a deadbeat. I just want to get PRA to stop pursuing me on this and want to know if this approach will work.

Thanks so much for your help on all this.

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Yeah most likely it is time barred. As for the SOL it is 2 years for no writing, which means that they came to you and offered you the credit card, such as a pre approval offer. It is 4 years if you actually went to them to sign up for a credit card......Either way, you could be 80% sure because if nothing appears on any of your 3 credit reports, most likely it is past the 7.5 year reporting period which would make it way past the higher of the SOL4 years......the only thing is that some companies do not report to credit reports, that is the 20% of unsure.....but if a debt collector is not on there either, then that would mean they don't report or they cannot report cause the debt is too old.

[LEFT][FONT=Arial][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]I called Portfolio Recovery Associates, at their (local)# 757-519-9300 and asked for their fax number and they wouldn't give it to me. Then I called back and asked to speak to a rep about my case, a lady named Ahsaki Wilson came on and I told her that I needed to verify their fax number, I asked is your fax number(757) 321-2505 and the lady said yes, I said are you sure, and she said yes. Then, I called back and asked another rep, is your fax number (757)321-2506 and the rep said yes. This clearly shows me that they are lying and don't want anyone to have their fax number. I called back and asked for Wilson lady and she came on, I told her that I was a debt collector trying to recover some money that she owes for a sears credit card. Isn't your name Ahsaki Wilson, she said yes but I don't have a sears account. So I said I'm only an employee here at BRP and it shows here that you owe $1255 to sears and it shows on your credit report as no payment has been made. She freaked out and said that she works for a collection agency and she knows all the little tricks that these companies play. I said so your familiar with the process and that Portfolio Recovery Associates reports to the credit bureau when they shouldn't be doing so. She stayed quiet told me to remove that immediately from her credit report. So I said, let me have your fax number and I will fax you the information right of away so you can see for yourself. So she said(757) 321-2504.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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LOL
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I believe she was saying the truth this time
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I verified online in a forum, that someone else had this same number[/LEFT]

Well here is some clarification for all of you who didn't seem to understand the previous employees answer to the question. I too have worked for this company, we are taught "ALL" collection laws. The way this works is...you make the debt, dont pay it for whatever reason came up, the acct is sold to several various companies trying to collect the debt that they purchased, still you dont pay it, it goes to a company used by PRA called "Thomas West" who are a collection of attys who sue for debt. If you own a home, have a job, any assests (land etc) they will attach a lien on said properties until debt is paid. If you pay on this debt or "ANY" debt that you havent paid on in appropriate time frame for your state, it will set the statue of limitations back to your states statue of limitations. Keep in mind statue of limitations means you cannot be sued not that you do not owe the debt so one writer is correct when they stated it will follow you should you want to purchase a home, car etc. Maybe you can understand this now. If not, you shouldnt be making debt.

I too am a former employee who tried to be nice about collecting debt from debtors and got into trouble for not being aggressive enough. PRA has a bonus initiative that the employees get "IF" they hit their collection goal. The goal goes up every month and if you can't hit goal then you eventually lose your job. I think its sad that we couldn't or weren't trained to be somewhat compassionate to someones feelings or situation. I mean I am going to put it out there I have been on the other end of that phone and didnt like how I was treated so why would I want to put someone else through it? But I just had to move onto bigger and better things and am so much happier. Good luck to all of you who are dealing with PRA.

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Hi everyone, I was hoping someone might be able to help me out.
I received a collections letter from PRA in January, immediately sent them a DV letter, and received this in response:

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The following information is being provided in response to your communication concerning account reference above. Account number 123456789 and its proceeds were sold, assigned and transferred by the Seller to Portfolio Rec. on 06/15/2007. At the time of the sale, the Seller provided an electronic file of its business records concerning this account. According to the Seller???s records, there was due and payable from "My NAME" to the Seller in the sum of $XXXXXX with respect to the account as of 06/15/2007, there being no know un-credited payments, counterclaims, or offsets against this account at the date of its sale.

Here is a summary of additional information listed in the electronic file for this account:

Account holder???s name provided by seller: My NAME
Account holder???s last 4 digits of SSN: ****
Date Account opened provided by Seller: 10/27/1999
Balance at date PRA purchase: $XXXXXXX
Interest accrued since the date of purchase or last payment to PRA: $XXXX
Cost and other fees: $0
*Total Balance Due as of this Letter $XXXXXX

Please contact us if you would like to receive a payment history of payments that have posted to this account since our company purchased this account.
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They couldn't even provide me with the Original Creditor's name or address. In addition to that ridiculously general information, I received an Identity Theft/Fraud form.
They've in no way proven that this is a valid debt or that the SOL hasn't run out. I'm just going to send them an updated version of the original DV stating that they haven't provided me with ANY of the information I requested that proves this as a valid debt, but my fear is them trying to sneak a quick judgment against me to validate this supposed debt.

Another wrinkle in this is that I lived in PA from 1996 through the end of 2004, early 2005, which is in the time frame they're claiming the account was opened. I've since moved to N.J and been here since 2004/5. I haven't opened any new accounts since moving.

I've looked up the SOL for both states, and it appears to be 6 for N.J and 4 for PA.
If I'm interpreting everything I've read in this thread correctly, PRA doesn't have a legal leg to stand on in *either* state. Am I correct? Does the clock reset if I move?

Regardless, I was wondering if anyone here who's dealt with them has actually had to go to court to dispute their claims, and if so, what did you do? Did you have to hire an attorney, or were you able to refute their claims on your own? I'd rather not have to deal with them at all, but I don't want them getting a quick default judgment against me.
And if they do plan to sue, are they going to try to do it in N.J, where I currently reside, or try to have a trial in PA? The letters I've gotten from them are addressed from VA.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

No the clock does not reset if you move. The trick is to get the state with the lower SOL, seeing as you signed the contract in PA, you should have the right to that states SOL....

You will have to find out when the last time a payment was made to figure the SOL. So far it has been at least 3 years but it could be more depending on if a different debt collector or 2 had this account beforre PRA.....

They would have to sue you where you reside right now. For you to travel to PA is rediculous just for a court case, furthermore a PA court will not pay to have a summons served to you in a different state, not only that I think it is illegal. As long as they know your address,PRA that is, they should have no problem finding you and having you served in your current state. I highly doubt they would be stupid enough to serve you at an old address in a different state knowing you do not reside there just to win a default but I guess there is a first for everything.

I am not even sure if they sue or not. If you do not know much about defending yourself in a civil case, I say get an attorney, most likely he will find something to countersue them on....go to NACA.net to find one in your state.

Also go to annualcreditreport.com to see your 3 credit reports and see if this debt collector and the original creditor is on there.

Also another thing, if you ever get a credit card terms and agreements from them, read it over. Some have a clause that says the contract is only run by a certain states laws, such as providian which only goes by NH law, 3 year SOL and Capital One I think uses only Virginia law SOL 3 years......a little trick to use it against them.

This company filed a judgement out on me for civil court and I have no idea what they are taking me to court for. I never got any phone calls or letters from these people. They have never been on my credit report or anyone else negitive for money owed. Is'nt that a kick in the pants. I intend to file a complaint with the FDC and contact the news media to stop these ass holes.They are commiting fraud.

Just wanted to post an update in regards to my problems with PRA. After sending my initial DVR letter and receiving a general non-answer from PRA, I mailed them a letter (overnight and certified) that stated:

Re: Account Number XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dear Debt Collector:
I am responding to information your firm sent in regards to this account, on which you claim I owe an alleged $XXXXXXX in debt.

The information provided is unsatisfactory and insufficient.

I am requesting once more that you provide me with information that validates this alleged debt. Please dispatch copies of the following with your reply:
-What the money you say I owe is for;
-Explain and show me how you calculated what you say I owe;
-Provide me with copies of any papers that show I agreed to pay what you say I owe;
-Provide a verification or copy of any judgment if applicable;
-Identify the original creditor;
-Prove the Statute of Limitations has not expired;

This will be considered the second attempt to receive validation of said debt, and will be filed as such in preparation for possible litigation.

Sincerely,
Name

Over the weekend I received a letter from PRA that stated the following:
Dear Name,
Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC (PRA) has concluded its investigation of your dispute and is closing your account. If PRA is reporting this account on your credit reports, PRA will request that the three major credit reporting agencies delete PRA's trade line for this account from your credit reports.
Sincerely,
Disputes Department


Game, set, match. If you are being harassed by these people, you cannot afford to ignore them or hope that they go away. The only way to get them to back off a bogus claim is to put the burden of proof where it belongs; on them. When push came to shove, as well as a promise to take this to the courts, they *will* back down and back off. I wish anyone else dealing with these frauds the best of luck. Like most bullies, these guys are full of hot air.