General Credit Topics

[weezie]

I received a collection letter from an agency called Portfolio Recovery Associates yesterday. Looks like they claim they bought an old Capital One (nee Signet Bank) account that was charged off about 14 years ago. I sent a cease communications letters today.

I was wondering whether any of you have had any experience with this collector, and could share your opinion on what I can expect as far as their "attitude" is concerned. When I had the same experience on the same old debt a few years ago with NCO, NCO sent their "we won't contact you anymore" letter pretty quickly and that's the last I heard from them. Just wondering if I'm in for a fight with this Portfolio Recovery Associates.

[Boswd]

I am currently in the middle of my repayment plan with them.    I tried to get a PFD way back but to no avail, but besides that they were pretty decent to me.   They wanted 20% upfront to get into a payment plan and I told them I didn't have that much right now, but were willing to to split it up into two payments over a course of one month and so far they have lived up to their word, gave me everything in  writing without any hassel.  

[Boswd]

going back and re reading your post, I missed the part about it being 14 yrs old since it was charged off initially.   How long ago was your last payment?   What is your state  SOL?  If you haven't paid anything on this in 14 years and it falls under your states SOL, send them a cease and desist letter claiming it is well beyond your state's SOL.   But there could be a catch and that is,  Was this credit card opened up in the same state you live in now?   If not there could be some tolling involved.   Which means  let's say you used to live in New York and opened up the card there and then you moved to Montana.   The Statute of Limitations freezes on the date you left New York.

[weezie]

Thank you for chiming in Boswd! Your story definitely helps! And I appreciate your advice.

Any claim they could assert is time-barred; the SOL has long passed. Thankfully, I won't have tolling (or tacking) problems. The state I was in has a 3 year SOL and the state I am in has a 6 year SOL. So, I won't be paying anything on the claim because it's time-barred. My letter says this pretty clearly. They needed to know that contacting me is a total waste of their time!

Mainly, I hope Portfolio Recovery Associates acts in a professional manner towards me as they have done for you so I don't have to get into a long drawn out tussle with these folks. I just want my "sorry we bothered you" letter so I can be done with this round.

[Noah_Bodie]

weezie,

You used "Portfolio Recovery" and "professional manner" in the same sentence. I just wanted the name of your doctor that prescribed your medical marijuana so I can get me some. Portfolio Recovery has a pretty bad reputation on Bud Hibbs and elsewhere.

Opinions vary, here's mine.

I always DV a CA or JDB. Whether the debt is owed or not, whether it's time barred or not. DV is just too powerful of a weapon to discard. A lot of these bottom feeding JDBs are drilling drier and drier wells. They are buying ancient debts at pennies on the dollar, consumers are becoming more and more aware, and I expect CAs and JDBs to step even further outside the law.

A C&D will make they FOAD, but if they stick something on your CRs, time barred or not, then you may be in for a fight. Since you already C&Ded them, DV is effectively off the table.

DV is good right jab and it pays to use it.

[Boswd]

On that note,  try and get all your paperwork together, try to get all the proof that the last payment was 14 years ago.   Even though they may have been decent to me, doesn't mean they'll be decent to everyone and Collection Agency's are notorious for trying to sneak in Judgments even on accounts that are well passed the SOL.   So in the future if you happen to get a summons,  answer it, and don't ignore it.   Use SOL as your defense and plan on showing up to court no matter what, even if they say they'll drop the case, plan on showing up NO matter what.  If you don't they can win by getting a default Judgment, even if the account is well passed the SOL.   They do this because they prey on people's lack of knowledge of how the system works and that allot of people don't realize there are such a thing as a SOL and that is what they are hoping for.   Portfolio is one of the larger ones so to them sending an attorney in your district is not that big of a deal to them.

I'm not saying this to scare you.  They probably won't try to sue, but just have everything in order just in case they try to sneak one in. 

[Boswd]

also check out this article I found last week and posted on here.  

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/04/Business/_Buyers__give_old_deb.shtml

[weezie]

Many thanks, folks!

I did consider DV as one of my options and ultimately decided that, for me, a "cease communications" was the better route. But I only chose that road because I have the ability to handle things like answering a complaint and/or vacating a judgment if it comes to that. So if they act up as far as banking on a default judgment is concerned, I'll shut them down. In the meantime, I made the decision that "go away" was a better posture for me than "proove it". If they act with total disregard for the law, they'll make something up no matter what. If they comport themselves with relative professionalism, this'll be over in 30 days as opposed to 60.

But I totally agree that people should consider all options and make a decision specific to their situation.

[Boswd]

Good luck and let us know how you made out.

[nettie]

Back in 2004, One of my account was turned over to Portfolio Recovery Associates. They were pretty nice with the dealing, as long as you keep your payment arrangements. They wanted 20% down, in which I did not have but they took two payments for the 2 months and we made monthly payment arrangements for the balance. Once my account was paid out, they sent me a letter stating a 0 blance and they also reported it to the credit bureau. nettie