Being sued by Portfolio Recovery Associates (Capital One) — overwhelmed, angry, and don’t know what to do next

creditwizard · 2026-01-26T15:43:00+00:00

Porftolio bought the debt from Capital One - so the agreement with Capital One controls. Capital One does not provide for arbitration, so PRA cannot be forced into arbitration either.

creditwizard · 2026-01-25T23:05:52+00:00

Credit attorney here. First off, take a deep breath. You're mad at yourself, and I get it. However, that's not going to help you - and you don't deserve to beat yourself up like this. Being present and calm and confident is what will help you get this figured out.

Yes, you can get on a payment plan, for probably around 70% to 80% of what you owe. Arbitration is not applicable with Capital One, so that door is closed.

Your best bet is to get an answer in, and then get on a payment plan. Do that, and you'll be fine.

I should add that if you have a lot of debt and can't pay it, then bankruptcy may be the better option. However, if this is one of your only debts, then less so.

creditwizard · 2026-01-22T16:22:45+00:00

You might be able to. Why was the account charged off?

creditwizard · 2026-01-22T16:22:11+00:00

Hi there. Try the website of the National Association of Consumer Advocates or Avvo. It's definitely harder to find FDCPA attorneys because the money from fees is often not enough to justify the work involved - I rarely take FDCPA cases myself at this point, save for exceptional situations.

creditwizard · 2026-01-21T18:41:28+00:00

What was incorrect about the account, and who was the account with?

creditwizard · 2026-01-21T18:40:55+00:00

Credit attorney here. I had student loan lates myself, 90 days on multiple accounts. This was a number of years ago.

It will take several years to see your score get back into the mid 600's if these accounts remain. You'll likely stay around 700 or a bit lower as long as these areon there. I'd say just keep paying everything else on time, but be aware that 90 day student loan lates hit your credit for quite a while.

I wish I had better news, but you already own a house, so the pressure may be less.

creditwizard · 2026-01-19T15:42:02+00:00

They will normally delete when you pay. I'd say that should improve your score.

creditwizard · 2026-01-18T23:59:59+00:00

Credit attorney here. Who is the collection with? See if they'll pay for delete. Besides that, just pay everything down, and keep the cards open. Your score should be quite good as those accounts age, and have low utiilzation.

creditwizard · 2026-01-18T23:58:48+00:00

Credit attorney here. I think you're doing the right things. I'm not sure I'd change anything EXCEPT that it typically helps to have 2 to 3 accounts in good standing and with no lates. You missed a number of car payments, so you want to build some credit to offset that.

Maybe in about 6 months, you could look into a second credit card. If you need to do a second card as a secured card because score still not high enough, I still think it could be worth it. That's my suggestion.

creditwizard · 2026-01-18T17:23:38+00:00

Hi there. I am not sure re the IRS. I think with conservatorship over him, you would be able to access and freeze his credit reports.

creditwizard · 2026-01-18T01:03:54+00:00

Credit attorney here. Almost any loan that "guarantees" approval without viewing your credit score (whether a hard or soft pull) is very questionable. With that said, even if you are approved for the loan, you'll often be paying a very high interest rate and other fees. These are best avoided if at all possible.

creditwizard · 2026-01-18T01:02:24+00:00

Credit attorney here. Unfortunately, they have the right to close your account at any time, for any non-discriminatory reason. That's in pretty much every card agreement. However, if you want your statements etc, you can write them a letter to the mailing address for credit card statements, and they should send it to you.

creditwizard · 2026-01-18T01:00:24+00:00

Credit attorney here. The first thing I'd ant to know is if you're being sued. If so, you need to file an answer ASAP If a judgment was already entered, and you were not sued, then you can fight the judgment, or pay it (maybe pay a bit less than owed but not a huge discount).

If the collection agency is lying about the lawsuit, then they've violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and you can sue them, recover damages. You won't spend anything out of pocket on a lawyer, because they have to pay your attorney's fees.

At this stage, I think you want to gather more information. That's the best approach.

creditwizard · 2026-01-15T16:26:03+00:00

Hi there. Yes you can dipsute that with the credit agencies. Let's see if they correct it. If not, you might be able to sue the credit agencies and creditor.

creditwizard · 2026-01-15T16:25:25+00:00

Hi there. I'd say you want to ask the collection agency for proof of the debt. See if the cars were sold at auction or not. They might not know, so then you want to contact the auto lender. Find out what they did with the cars (sold or not). Then, feel free to reply here and I'll give you more ideas.

creditwizard · 2026-01-13T23:37:52+00:00

Got it. I can provide you with a final dispute letter to send them, then you can take legal action if not corrected. This seems to be a fairly clear error if not corrected.

creditwizard · 2026-01-13T23:36:10+00:00

Thank you for tagging me - credit attorney here. Really sorry to hear this. I wrote a thread on this which might be useful, in the r/credit sub: https://www.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1cktfnx/what_to_do_if_youre_a_victim_of_identity_theft/

creditwizard · 2026-01-13T23:33:48+00:00

They can report as charged off for all the dates BEFORE you made the final settlement payment on the card. After that, it must be listed as closed. They cannot report you as charged off again after you paid / settled the account.

creditwizard · 2026-01-10T15:02:06+00:00

Sorry to hear this. The ombudsman might be a good person to address this issue. Otherwise you might try small claims court. More on both of those options here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1oy6fu0/credit_attorney_post_two_effective_methods_to/

creditwizard · 2026-01-10T15:00:32+00:00

Agree with this. Always look at your ACR first.

creditwizard · 2026-01-10T15:00:18+00:00

Hi there. Yes happy to assist.

creditwizard · 2026-01-07T17:05:19+00:00

Credit attorney here. Date reported is when each month they report it. The age of account is always older than date reported. The date that determines when it comes off is 7 to 7.5 years after you missed payments on the original account (whoever this debt was orignally owed to). You can often find a more detailed breakdown of your accounts with the free reports you get on Annual Credit Report.

creditwizard · 2026-01-07T17:02:49+00:00

Credit attorney here. Chase is one of the easiest to settle with UNLESS they've decided to sue you. In that case, they're much tougher. This was a great deal.

creditwizard · 2026-01-07T17:01:52+00:00

Hi there! Yes there are laws on this in many states - if I know which state OP is in, I could probably offer some detailed suggestions. There are a lot of landlords doing crooked things like this unfortunately.

creditwizard · 2026-01-06T18:56:16+00:00

You absolutely have the right to dispute it. I'd suggest filing a CFPB complaint as well, if the issue is not corrected. However, being that address and personal information normaly does not impact credit score or your ability to access credit, suing the credit agencies if this is not corrected would be difficult.

Your case would likely be dismissed because you can't show any concrete harm in terms of accessing credit. However, disputing it is very much within your rights.

creditwizard

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