Question Portfolio Recovery Collections

[alexis520]

Hi! I am a long time lurker, but this is my first post. I am in the process of rebuilding my credit as well as my husband's. So far we are making good progress but I have an issue with one of the collections accounts on my husband's report. 

It is with Portfolio and they say we owe about 2k for a credit card that according to the statement they have from may, 2015. But on my end it shows a balance of about $400 and last payment date was 4/2014. 

They tried to sue 4/2017, but did not serve any papers and dismissed it voluntarily with out predujice 7/2017. We haven't recieved any correspondance from them regarding this account. And they own two other accounts of ours as well. One they have sent collections letters, the other they have not. They both also have a date of last activity from april 2014.

I really could use some advice on this one, the original account holder doesn't show up on his report.

I was prepared to send a settlement offer to them, but I was questioning if that amount was correct so I'm glad I double checked!

Should I send a dispute to validate the amount, or send them a settlement offer letter with my last statement? It is still in the SOL, and I would like to avoid them filing another suit. Since they can since it was dismissed without predujice, correct?

Thanks for any advice!!!

[bass_playr]

Hi, In every dealing I ever had with PRA, they were scum. They lied. They made wildly false claims. They once tried to claim that I was responsible for a 13 year old phone bill from an ex girlfriend---she had it well after she was no longer in my life, at an address I had never even heard of. They threatened to sue until I backed them down by telling them how SOL works. My name was not on the account. They told me that since I could not provide for them her current contact info, they would just sue me for the balance and get their money from my wallet....like I said, scum. I don't trust a word PRA says. OK, there are some questions on this one. First, who tried to sue you? Was it PRA or the original creditor? Second, the balance can increase over time, but to jump from $400 up to over $2K in a couple years time seems a bit excessive to me....I would definitely want to dispute their claim. Might be a good idea to go back to the court clerk's office and review the dismissed lawsuit papers...see what they were claiming at that time to the court that you owed. I would not send them any settlement offers just yet, because if you catch them doing wrong---and it's PRA, so you stand a pretty good chance of catching them doing something wrong---you can use that as leverage to either get a better settlement, or, if they do enough things wrong, make them go away entirely. I would also want to know if PRA owns this account or if they are collecting on behalf of someone else.

[alexis520]

Wow, your story unfortunately is not surprising! The more I read about them, the worse it gets! 

To anser your questions, Portfolio is the ones who tried to sue, they never served any papers and they voluntarily dismissed the case.

I have the copies of the paperwork from the clerk, and they are stating that they own the debt, and the original creditor is not involved.  

I find it hard to believe we racked up that much in fees! The statement from the original creditor that they included says the balance is 1966, and the original credit limit was $1400. But I know that the original limit was $670. 

Also the timing is off, due to certain circumstances all of our accounts had a last date of activity of around april 2104, not may 2015 like they are stating.

If I submited a claim with the credit bureaus should i include any copies of statements that i have to prove the information they are reporting is incorrect?

thanks!!

[bass_playr]

OK, did they provide to the court any paperwork showing any assignment or transfer from the OC to them?  My guess is no.

I tend to want to check out everything---including whatever statement they say came from the OC.