Portfolio Recovery Associates (PRA): error on a credit report
Dispute the PRA entry with each credit bureau and directly with PRA at the address on your credit report.
What does this mean?
Grade C (use with care: check the source of each value before relying on it). 100% of 35 sources are the organization's own pages or government sites; 2 value(s) were read from a search snippet or an archive copy.
Collect
- credit report page with the PRA entry
- proof of payment
- bankruptcy discharge or identity theft report
Steps
Dispute the entry with each credit bureau that shows it.
Also send a direct dispute to PRA at the address on your credit report or the address PRA gives for disputes.
If the entry is not fixed, file a CFPB complaint.
More contacts for this issue
Facts you can cite
- Process
A furnisher must investigate a direct dispute sent to the address on your credit report or the address it gives for disputes, and finish within the same time a credit bureau has (Regulation V, 12 CFR 1022.43).
Source: consumerfinance.gov, verified 2026-10-13
The CFPB received 20,723 complaints about Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 (debt collection 16,518; credit reporting 3,989). 11,471 were closed with non-monetary relief and 9,250 with explanation; none show monetary relief. 155 responses were not timely.
Source: consumerfinance.gov, verified 2026-10-13
The most common CFPB issue for PRA in that period was "Attempts to collect debt not owed" (6,709), including 4,504 "Debt is not yours" and 1,830 "Debt was result of identity theft".
Source: consumerfinance.gov, verified 2026-10-13
- Policy
On April 13, 2023 a federal court (E.D. Va.) entered a CFPB order against PRA. The CFPB alleged that PRA violated a 2015 order and federal law, including by collecting unsubstantiated debt, suing on time-barred debt and mishandling credit reporting disputes. PRA must pay at least $12.18 million in redress and a $12 million civil penalty.
Source: consumerfinance.gov, verified 2026-10-13
If that fails, escalate
Go up one step at a time. Keep the reference numbers and dates from each contact.
Written complaint
MailPRA mailing address on its consumer contact page Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, 120 Corporate Blvd, Norfolk, VA 23502Dispute in writing within the validation period in the notice; use the address on the notice.
Federal regulator
Federal regulator
State agency
Your state’s attorney general. Find it in the list of state agencies (also as JSON:
states/<code>.json, for example states/ny.json).Small claims court
Watch out
- portfoliorecovery.com failed automated fetches (certificate error); hand the browser to the person.
- Phone lines verify the account holder by voice.
Let your AI agent handle this
Escalate Anything is a free, open-source MCP server for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI, Codex and other AI apps. Your agent gets this playbook, keeps a case log with reference numbers and follow-up dates, and drafts each message for you to approve.
1. Set it up (needs uv):
uvx escalate-anything setup2. Ask your agent:
My Portfolio Recovery Associates (PRA) credit report shows [wrong item]. Use Escalate Anything to get it corrected.Source code, other install options and the Claude Code plugin