I do not understand how this company truly does business.
If you read the complaint boards about this collector vs most collectors, there's a difference. All collectors have some "oh, I don't want to pay double digit interest, my dog got sick and I had to pay for his operation wahhhhh" complaints and some "I owe the debt but they shouldn't be calling my rich aunt to get her to pay it" complaints and some "they called me even though I haven't had a credit card in 20 years and never had the one they're talking about" complaints. There's "I owe but can't they be nice since they bought the debt for a fraction of the price," there's "I owe but they aren't following FDCPA" and then there's "I don't owe and they keep calling me saying I do." Usually it's 33%, 33%, 33%.
In this case, there are a lot of messages in category C.
Of course then there are the ones obviously filed by managers at the company, saying "I was late on a debt and I admitted it, called these guys and paid up, and now my credit score is better - you should all pay your debts!"
Right - if they're your debts. That seems to be in question a lot of the time. I mean - it does not help a debtor to post anonymous lies on a message board. It's not like hundreds of debtors doing that would somehow render the debts invalid if they went to court. So there's no motivation to make such a complaint if it's not true.
I've experienced this myself - - twice in the last 20 years. Card I did have but paid like 7-8 years ago - - and confirmed that it's paid - - and never got a call from the card company - - but PRA said - - after calling my parents first, even though they're old, retired and were never on either account and I never lived with them when I had the accounts, and even though my contact info is listed and was the same contact info that I had when I had the cards - that, in each case, they had bought the card 4 years ago and are just calling me 2-4 years after THAT - which would bring the matter past the SOL even if there WERE a debt, which there was NOT. And of course the info they have is wrong - spelling of the name, address, date the card was taken out, etc... - - which is what caused me to check out the complaints.
So, if at least some of the complaints are accurate, what exactly is the quality of what these guys buy? What exactly do they buy, and from whom? Honestly if I had to guess based on my experiences, there are some shady characters out there going on to Lex-Nex, doing searches on people, putting together limited files that show that Mr. X once had cards with companies A, B and C, and making up some balance and charge-off date and selling a spreadsheet of those to PRA. Unless THEY'RE doing that - - but wouldn't it be easier to just buy actual debt from firms that keep good info? In my case, at least one of the firms does - BofA - - I called them both after I'd paid the card and when PRA called and they said I didn't owe them anything, I had no open balance with them, and their records would show that even if they'd sold the debt. Very nice people actually. Since it's so easy to check - why claim that the person owes BofA???
And who - whether they don't owe or whether they do owe but suspect that the qualify of the records is such that no court would grant a judgment other than a default judgment - voluntarily pays these guys???!?!?!
Obviously somebody does because their cash flow statement shows that they collect.
Can someone tell me who those people are so I can sell them the Brooklyn Bridge?
