- Portfolio Recovery Associates is a subsidiary of PRA Group, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia. The nation's second-largest debt buyer, operating internationally — it purchases and collects charged-off consumer debt.
- In 2015, the CFPB found Portfolio Recovery Associates had collected on unsubstantiated debt, filed misleading court affidavits, and misrepresented the enforceability of debts past the statute of limitations. The company was ordered to vacate hundreds of judgments obtained past the statute of limitations, pay $19 million in consumer relief, and pay an $8 million civil penalty.
- In 2023, the CFPB brought a follow-up action alleging continued violations of that 2015 order, proposing an additional $12 million penalty and $12 million in consumer redress.
- 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
Portfolio Recovery Associates is a subsidiary of PRA Group, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia. The nation's second-largest debt buyer, operating internationally — it purchases and collects charged-off consumer debt. If a letter or call references an account you don't recognize, that's common with debt buyers — the original creditor sold the account, and Portfolio Recovery Associates is now the one trying to collect on it.
Their regulatory record
In 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau settled an investigation into Portfolio Recovery Associates alongside a separate action against a different major debt buyer. The CFPB found Portfolio Recovery Associates had collected on unsubstantiated debt, filed misleading affidavits in debt-collection court cases, and misrepresented that it had legally enforceable claims to debts outside the applicable statute of limitations. The company was ordered to vacate 837 judgments obtained past the statute of limitations, refund the related payments, pay $19 million in consumer relief, and pay an $8 million civil penalty.
In 2023, the CFPB filed a further action alleging Portfolio Recovery Associates had violated the terms of that 2015 order, proposing an additional $12 million civil penalty along with $12 million owed to affected consumers.
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 Portfolio Recovery Associates 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.