Having received a 'bill' for $700+, in the mail, from Portfolio Recovery Associates, dated April 10, 2009, I called them to find out what it was all about. Upon contacting them, a woman explained it was a Verizon Wireless bill, going back to December 6, 1997! I really had to think to remember ever even having done business with Verizon.

It took me a few minutes and then it struck me...that 'bill', I assumed, was for a phone that had been stolen! I can remember immediately contacting Verizon and clearing all this up with them at the time...I thought!

I explained this to to woman and she kept insisting I owed the bill. My question to her was 'are you licensed to do business in State of Arizona'? 'Of course', she said, 'we're licensed to do business in all 50 States. The whole time she was talking, I was looking up licensing thru the Dept. of Financial Institutions for the State of Az., which monitors collection companies. Lo and behold...they were NOT licensed under the name of Portfolio Recovery Associates. They had 'forgotten' to update their information!

She then put a Manager on the phone, and I told him the same thing..you are not licensed to do business in the State of Az. With that, his retoric went more or less like this...'so, when are you paying your bill, you owe this bill and we're going to collect this bill'. I hung up on him!

I contacted the Dept. of Financial Institutions, and they were going to take care of contacting Portfolio to request updated info, as they were NOT licensed in Az.

I have received a call, every night since the 10th of April, and have chosen not to answer my phone...until this evening. Again, a very antagonistic young man called, and I requested any and all documentation that they had to substantiate this bill. He told me it had been sent back in 2004 to an address in Illinois. I informed him I hadn't lived in Illinois in 9 years and repeated my request. I was polite but firm! His response 'I don't like your attitude'! I told him 'if you don't like my attitude, then perhaps you'll like this'..and hung up!

I will take no further calls from Portfolio Recovery Associates!

If you are reading this, then you probably have had an encounter with someone from Portfolio Recovery and you are feeling angry, insulted, humiliated, demeaned and frustrated.

This company’s bad business practices must be stopped. If those of us who have been abused by this company fail to speak up then no one with the authority to stop this company is ever going to pay attention or seek to investigate because we sit by and are quiet.

I am writing to say to everyone that we MUST take the time to record statements against this company here on this site, and also on as many Internet sites or blogs or discussion groups as we can each find.

You don’t have to write a long statement when you post – but you need to at least document in several different places on the Internet that you had a negative experience.

Even if your encounter was several years ago, but you still carry the emotion inside yourself from how the encounter makes you feel years later – then you too need to take the time to record your complaint.

If enough of us will stand up and begin to document on this company, then eventually some responsible entity is going to realize that this company is out of control and needs to be stopped.

My hope is that some local or national television news program which is searching for an investigative piece will choose to expose this company – but that can only happen if we will each take the time to write our experiences down and post on the Internet so that the negative PR against this company can no longer be ignored.

If you are just beginning to enter a situation with this company then you should know that everything you read on this site and other complaint sites regarding this company is true. You cannot believe anything they tell you because they lie, lie, lie! And they will harass you at home and on your job, plus they will do all the things that we are told as consumers that collection agencies cannot do. They will ignore you when you ask them questions or refuse to listen when you notify them in writing to no longer call you on your job. They will disclose your personal business on voice mail messages where others can hear what is being said. They will literally yell at you on the telephone when they call. They will say horrible things to you and accuse of things when you cannot pay.

These are heartless people who will say anything and do anything they can to get money. They are rude and will not hesitate to attack you verbally when talking to you. They are giving collection agencies a very bad name. They will make arrangements and then change their mind without any notice.

Their so-called litigation department is a disgrace and if they really are lawyers (which I don’t believe most of them are) – then they should be disbarred for inappropriate and unprofessional actions. They will try to come after you about debt even after you consult a lawyer who says they are too late. They will report false debt to your credit reports. They will issue judgments against you with increased dollar amounts beyond the debt amount. I’ve not experienced all of these things personally but I know people who are dealing and coping just as I am with these crazy people.

This company needs to be shut down and their employees need to be hit hard by our national Internet campaign to warn others about them and to speak up about how they behave.

Most of us who have dealt with any other collection agencies know that this particular company is the very worst of the bad ones.

Please join me in an effort to get this company exposed for how they operate. EVERY time they call you and harass you, post a complaint somewhere on the Internet – EVERY time! Don’t let them continue to do this to you or to anyone else.

Writing to the Better Business Bureau does no good because they will just turn it all around in their rebuttal – so that’s a waste of time. Instead we need to publicly humiliate them in the same way they do us each time they make contact.

If you are willing, send a letter to the Attorney General for your state telling them about your bad experience with this company.

Stop the madness. Let’s all work together to put in writing enough documentation that will enable a state or national agency to finally put these guys out of business!!! Please share the link to this site so others can learn of my call to action against this company.

About a year ago I received a collection letter from this company which I ignored and did not even open. I went through a divorce 15 years ago and lost everything. I have worked hard to pay my bills and repair my credit by paying ALL my bills on time for the past ten years even in spite of two major illnesses which caused me significant medical expense. I have gotten a free credit report every year for the past three years and nothing that they have claimed I owe shows up on any of my credit reports for the past three years.

About a month after the letter arrived they started calling up to three times a day. They claim that I owe $10, 000 to Capital One Credit. I never had a credit card with a balance over $2, 000, so this is patently false information on their part. I have asked them over and over to send an accounting of the debt. They have refused, saying they will not give an accounting of the debt until I pay!

The SOL in my state is 6 years.

The last time I took a call from them it was because my 10 year old answered the phone. Before they asked my child to put me on the phone, they asked them all kinds of personal information, like who her parent's were, etc..

I have recently filed a complaint with my State's Attorney General's office.

I know what they are doing is against the law. I recently found out that a good friend of mine who is over 80 years old and living on social security paid them on an old account and I am outraged by the tactics these scumbags use. They should be prosecuted.

After going to Experian, and other services, I disputed any and all charges that Portfolio Recovery Associates were attempting to collect on. Apparently, no one there bothered to check with these services, as the charge was deleted from my credit report. My contention, in a nutshell, was that I paid down the debt, before closing the account, and when I went to close it, there was a substantial charge to my account. Since I have disputed the claim on my credit report, I've received a letter telling me that they are going to sue me. I think that is crap, and even illegal.

This company has repeatedly contacted me regarding a debt from 1994 for a company that is no longer in business. The debt was obviously purchased at a low cost in an attempt to get me to pay. The debt belonged to an out of business company and was never valid to begin with. I am in process of filing a complaint to them and the better business bureau to have them end the harassment.

This company is in the business of buying bad debts and makes a habit out of scaring and harassing people into paying for them.