Consumer complaint received 2024-10-16
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem — Investigation took more than 30 days
Company: PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES INC (CA)

In XXXX of XXXX I had 4 collection accounts that were being reflected by Portfolio Recovery that kept on increasing and decreasing by a dollar each month. I did not recognize these accounts so I submitted a dispute to the credit bureaus to validate. I only heard back from XXXX and XXXX and nothing from PRA. I was disheartened but I tried again and in XXXX of XXXX, through smart credit I requested copies of the debt validation. I heard nothing back. A few months later I noticed a comment, " debt verified - customer disagrees ''. I was very frustrated because I was educating myself at this point and knew that PRA had to provide documentation if it was requested and had to respond to my dispute per the original stipulated agreement, so I was patient. I tried again in XXXX of that same year utilizing XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX feature and continued to be patient, believing that any second now it would all be taken care of. 

About a month later they called me on the phone, and I thought, this was it, but it was not to discuss the documentation I requested ; it was just a cold call. I told them I did not assume responsibility for these debts and that I had requested the XXXX that was my right but that these debts were being disputed by me until I saw them. At that time, they were not even able to tell me who the original creditors on two of the accounts were! I told them I would like to get the complete original creditor documents and bill of sale etc., asap. They agreed to email it to me. About an hour later I got 3 not 4 emails, that basically was a one sheet statement that gave basic information the same as what was on the report. At that time, I submitted a letter to the credit bureaus and cc 'd XXXX requesting the documentation and thought it would come now for sure. However, crickets. 

Meanwhile, my mom had to sell our house in XXXX of XXXX because we were sued by one of the old companies ' creditors, and I needed to secure housing for myself and my 4 kids and 2 dogs as soon as possible. I quickly realized the hurdle that became evident. I was getting denial after denial after denial and all based on my credit score. Despite having the funds to move in and guarantee rent for the following 6 months, I kept getting denied. Now my kids were XXXX XXXX on the floor in their grandmas one bedroom condo and at friends ' houses, and i had to move into a room with my husband to work actively on getting these inaccuracies addressed. I called and called and sent letter after letter and email after email and got nothing!!! Not a peep from them, or a word from ANY Of the credit bureaus. Then, as if it couldn't get any worse, I opened up the reports again last month and saw that there was another IDENTICAL comment about how again the " debts verified - costumer disagrees! '' As if I'm a petulant child. I am not disputing anything more than simply requesting the original creditor documents as is my right. 

All of the accounts on my report, almost every one of the negative accounts have serious errors. I am being kept apart from my kids, my family is falling apart and now I've had to go back to school to get my developer certificate in the hopes of landing a job asap, as the company I started a year ago failed because I couldn't secure any business lending, or find investors and I couldn't keep up funding the startup with supplies etc. off of county assistance. All because of that stupid 3-digit number. 

That number does NOT reflect who I am. We had a thriving business of 19 years that was run by my sister and I and founded by my father, a XXXX and worked in million-dollar contracts with clients like the XXXX Company and XXXX, XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, and in one foul swoop Covid took everything .... including my dad. I fought like XXXX to save the company we all worked so hard for, and ALL my families ' livelihoods were wrapped up in - being a family business, but it was a sinking ship, and it took us all down. 3 digits does not tell the accurate story. it doesn't talk about the 4 teenagers who lived with their poppy and who was the most active Irish man at the young age of 72 just robbed from us in a second with no warning. It doesn't tell of the fallout of losing our Finanancial security is like and watching my 4 kids all involved heavily in competitive sports and enrolled in private schools all their lives have to give up everything after losing their poppy, one thing after the other after the other. it doesn't tell of a husband, who never had a father of his own, and whose family had XXXX in it on the men 's side, who had a psychotic break a week after the funeral and leave us. The 2 men in my children 's lives gone within a month. It doesn't tell of the XXXX eldest daughter who tried to take her life because she was losing everything, and it was too much for her to handle. It certainly doesn't tell of the mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt who quietly worked her XXXX off to plan a funeral, help her sick husband who didn't know he was sick, be there for the kids for every therapy, group, feeling, breakdown, cutting, lash outs, etc. that they were each going through, while trying to apply for food stamps and county assistance just so that everyone could eat and desperatly doing everything she could to keep them in their school, XXXX XXXX. I was going to be dammed if i let that be taken from them too. A decision that would prove to be my demise as it sucked every penny i had out of me. It was the hardest 3 1/2 years of my life and my families lives and just when we think we're through the worst of it, XXXX! Something else, a Lawsuit, or a XXXX, or too old to be hired, or have to sell the house, or cars XXXX XXXX, or on and on and on. I have been resilient and I will continue to be resilient and I will fight and do whatever the next indicated step is and i will not give up because I will get housing and i will get my family back and i will finish school and I will get a well-paying job like we had and i will get off county assistance and I will be able to pay for food and for gas and get my cars fixed and contribute to my girls college experiences and I will contribute to my sons high schools and their soccer 's, and be able to pay for their college id camps, and I will be able to take care of my mother so she doesn't have to take care of us and especially my kids anymore and i will be a leader again and be there for my sister and her littles and i will earn peoples respect back, especially my children and I will lead this family again. We have come through the fire and these stupid 3 digits will not stand in my way. Portfolio recovery is breaking the law. they don't care. they realized early on that they weren't going to get a XXXX from me because the XXXX had long run out so they are messing with me and they are ignoring my requests over and over and lying to me saying they will do this and will do that and nothing ever happens, but they are unbelievably good at being bad. They are ruining families, and I will not let them do this to another person. They are despicable. And the bureaus are no better. nobody responds to me. Nobody! I just sent in one last dispute to all 4 of them and told them i was filing this complaint and one with the FT C and one with the State and I am hiring a Lawyer. They need to be stopped. The bureaus too. I had SOOO many errors on my report. So many that I could prove and still I wasn't even allowed to get that far because they are all powerful and mighty and call it frivolous and that's that. 

THESE ARE PEOPLES LIVES THEY ARE MESSING WITH??? GOOD HONEST PEOPLE!! THIS IS POST XXXX FOR CHRISTS SAKE. TIMES NEED TO CHANGE. YOU NEED TO CHANGE IT. FAMILIES ARE BEING DESTROYED BECAUSE OF 3 COMPANIES THAT HOLD THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM AND THEIR XXXX XXXX XXXX AKA, THE CREDITORS LINING THEIR POCKETS. IT'S UNBELIVABLE THE DAMAGE THAT CAN OCCUR FROM XXXX NUMBERS AND XXXX REPORTS. PLEASE. DO SOMETHING. CHANGE IT SO THAT NOBODY EVER HAS TO GO THROUGH WHAT MY FAMILY IS GOING THROUGH AT THE HANDS OF A CREDIT SCORE AND REPORT. IT IS NOT AN ACCURATE REFLECTION OF MY PERSON. IT IS NOT. Please help me in getting the bureaus and Portfolio to respond to me and get these accounts off my report, or at the very least look and see that they are not mine. Heck, they are so old they are all about to fall off in a few months but at this point it's the principal. They have to be stopped. Please help me and help stop them. It's criminal!