- Midland Credit Management is a subsidiary of Encore Capital Group, headquartered in San Diego, California. The nation's largest debt buyer — it purchases charged-off consumer debt (credit card, retail, and personal loan accounts) from original creditors and collects on it.
- In 2015, the CFPB found Encore Capital Group (Midland's parent company) had collected on debts that were potentially inaccurate or lacking documentation, and had misrepresented to consumers that the burden of proof was on them to disprove a debt. Encore was ordered to pay up to $42 million in consumer refunds and a $10 million civil penalty.
- In 2020, the CFPB brought a follow-up action alleging Encore had continued violating the terms of that 2015 order, resulting in an additional $15 million penalty.
- Regardless of a collector's history, you have the same FDCPA rights with any of them: 30 days from first contact to request validation in writing, during which they must stop collecting until they prove the debt.
Who they are
Midland Credit Management is a subsidiary of Encore Capital Group, headquartered in San Diego, California. The nation's largest debt buyer — it purchases charged-off consumer debt (credit card, retail, and personal loan accounts) from original creditors and collects on it. If a letter or call references an account you don't recognize, that's common with debt buyers — the original creditor (a credit card company, retailer, or lender) sold the account, and Midland Credit Management is now the one trying to collect on it.
Their regulatory record
In 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau settled an investigation into Encore Capital Group (Midland Credit Management's parent company) and its subsidiaries. The CFPB found the companies had collected on debts that were potentially inaccurate or lacking documentation, pressured consumers with misrepresentations — including falsely stating that the burden of proof was on the consumer to disprove a debt — and, in some cases, sued or threatened to sue on debts past the statute of limitations. Encore was ordered to pay up to $42 million in consumer refunds and a $10 million civil penalty, and to halt collection on more than $125 million in disputed debt.
In 2020, the CFPB filed a follow-up action alleging Encore had violated the terms of that 2015 order, which resulted in an additional $15 million civil penalty.
This is public regulatory history, not a claim about any specific account — it's cited here because it's directly relevant to why confirming a debt before paying is worth doing.
Your rights if they've contacted you
Whichever collector you're dealing with, the same federal law applies. You have 30 days from their first written contact to request validation — a written request asking them to prove the debt is real and yours. Once you do, they're required to stop collection activity until they've provided that proof.
If Midland Credit Management has contacted you about a debt, PUSHBACK reads the notice you received and drafts that request from the specific details on it — you review it before you pay anything.