If you answer calls from 800-292-7508, you'll be talking to a representative from LVNV Funding. They're calling you because they claim you owe money on a debt they purchased from a credit card company, retail financing firm, or cellular provider that gave up trying to collect the debt from you months or even years ago.
LVNV Funding is not the company you originally borrowed money from. They are a debt buyer. They buy debts at a tiny fraction of the balance and try to collect the full amount. If you're reading this, you already know how relentless the calls can be.
Who Is LVNV Funding?
Company Name: LVNV Funding LLC
Company Type: Debt buyer (buys debts that other companies have written off)
Parent Company: Sherman Financial Group LLC, which is owned by Sherman Capital LLC
Collection Agency: Resurgent Capital Services L.P. (owns and manages all collection activity for LVNV Funding debts)
Address: 355 S. Main Street, Suite 300-D, Greenville, South Carolina 29601
Industry Specialties: Credit card, retail, cellular, auto, student loan, medical
Service Area: All 50 states
BBB Rating: A+ (accredited since 2017) despite 1,636 complaints in the last 3 years and a 1.15 out of 5 star customer review average
CFPB Complaints: Over 5,500 against LVNV Funding; over 26,000 against Resurgent Capital Services
You Are Not the First Person These Calls Have Pushed Too Far
LVNV Funding has been sued for everything from improper licensing to robocalls. In Maryland, 1,589 consumers were awarded a judgment of $38.6 million because LVNV Funding filed lawsuits against them without a license to collect debts in Maryland. That's still the largest judgment ever entered against a debt collector in the state of Maryland.
The same investigation found that LVNV Funding (and its affiliated company, Resurgent Capital Services) filed over 27,000 lawsuits in Maryland courts, often relying on what regulators called "false affidavits." The state suspended the collection licenses for both companies. A class action in 2020 claimed LVNV Funding was making automated robocalls to consumers' cell phones without their consent.
The calls you're getting from 800-292-7508 are part of a pattern that thousands of consumers have experienced. Here's what we know about why they're calling, what they want, and how to make it stop.
Why Is LVNV Funding Calling Me?
They Bought Your Charged-Off Debt for Pennies on the Dollar
LVNV Funding doesn't lend money, issue credit cards, or offer any consumer financing. It buys debts that other companies have charged off and tries to collect the full amount. According to court records, LVNV Funding typically pays between 2 and 4 percent of the face value of the debts it buys.
If you had a $5,000 balance on a credit card that went to collections, LVNV Funding may have paid as little as $100 to $200 for it. The original creditor that charged off the debt has already written it off as a loss and moved on. The sense of obligation many consumers feel when they owe money to the company they borrowed from doesn't extend to a debt buyer that bought the debt as an investment.
The Debt May Have Changed Hands Multiple Times
Before LVNV Funding purchased your debt, it may have been sold to other collection agencies or debt buyers. Each time a debt changes hands, the risk of error in the balance, account number, or even debtor identity increases. This is one reason so many consumers report calls from 800-292-7508 about debts they don't recognize.
As one consumer explained on Tellows, "Constant calls, listed as debt collection, but WE HAVE NEVER HAD AN ACCOUNT WITH THESE COMPANIES. Never a message, and web site lists no number for non-members to check why getting calls." When debts are bought and sold like commodities, accuracy is often the first casualty.
What They Buy, What They Chase
Credit Cards and Retail Accounts Are the Main Course
LVNV Funding primarily buys charged-off credit card debt. According to court records, the company has purchased receivables from Citibank, Capital One, Credit One Bank, HSBC, Synchrony Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Chase.
But credit cards are just the beginning. LVNV Funding also buys cellular debts, student loan debts, auto loan deficiencies, retail store credit debts, and some medical debts. Most of the calls from 800-292-7508 are about credit card debt because the balances are large enough to justify aggressive collection efforts but small enough that consumers might be able to pay off the balance if they're pushed hard enough.
The Synchrony Bank Connection
Many consumers who report calls from 800-292-7508 identify the caller as Synchrony Bank, which issues store-branded credit cards for Amazon, Lowe's, Ashley Furniture, and CareCredit.
As RoboKiller explains, "This is Synchrony Bank calling about your existing credit card account." That suggests LVNV Funding owns a large portfolio of charged-off Synchrony Bank debts. If you've ever opened a store credit card or financed a retail purchase and fell behind, there's a good chance the debt ended up on LVNV Funding's books.
What Consumers Are Reporting About These Calls
Relentless Call Frequency at All Hours of the Day and Night
RoboKiller reports that it has received nearly 1 million calls from 800-292-7508, with more than 5,400 consumer reports about the calls. As one consumer reports on Tellows, "3 calls in one morning! Get behind on one payment just a few days and they hound you like you've owed them a million bucks for a year."
Another consumer reports on 800notes, "They keep calling at the most unwanted times, middle of the night, during work. It doesn't stop calling and doesn't leave voicemails." Consumers also report that LVNV Funding calls as early as 7:00 a.m. and as late as 9:00 p.m., and calls on Sundays. Consumers who are already experiencing financial difficulties are more likely to make rash decisions when they're under that kind of pressure, and that's exactly what debt buyers are counting on.
Wrong Numbers, Robodialers, and Foreign Call Centers
A lot of the complaints are from consumers who don't owe the debt. As one consumer explains on RoboKiller, "im literally a minor, why would a bank be calling me." Another consumer reports on 800notes, "These folks call looking for someone I don't know. I explain that they have the wrong number, and they say they won't call again. Then they proceed to call 8 more times in a single day!!"
Consumers also report experiencing robodialing, offshore call centers (where the customer service representatives can be difficult to understand), and caller ID spoofing (where the caller ID displays a local phone number instead of the toll-free number).
Your Rights When Dealing with Debt Buyer Calls
Blocking These Calls Is a Right, Not a Sin
A lot of consumers feel guilty for ignoring collection calls. In fact, the opposite is true. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act says that if you send a cease-and-desist letter to a debt collector, the company must stop contacting you (except to tell you that it's stopping contact or to notify you of a pending legal action).
It's not rude or irresponsible to ignore calls from 800-292-7508. It's a perfectly legal way to end the harassment. It's a lot harder to enforce promises a debt collector makes over the phone than it is to enforce promises the company puts in writing.
Debt Buyers Work on a Budget
LVNV Funding only paid pennies on the dollar for your debt. Every time the company calls you or sends you a letter or files a lawsuit, it costs money. Debt buyers decide which accounts are worth pursuing and which ones aren't. When you demand documentation or file a dispute, you raise the cost of pursuing you.
When consumers assert their rights under the FDCPA and FCRA, debt buyers often decide it isn't worth the cost and trouble to validate the debt. Written communication gives you a paper trail that helps protect you and forces the debt collector to put its claims in writing, where any inaccuracies can become a legal liability.
How to Protect Yourself from LVNV Funding
Dispute Inaccurate Information on Your Credit Report
The single most important document in this process is your credit report. If LVNV Funding or its collection agency, Resurgent Capital Services, has made an entry on your credit report, you have the right under the FCRA to dispute any information that you believe is inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable. The credit bureau must investigate and respond within 30 days, and if the debt buyer cannot verify the debt, the credit bureau must delete it from your report.
Credit report disputes are a powerful tool you can use offensively to force the debt buyer to prove that it owns the debt, that the balance is accurate, and that the debt belongs to you. Many debt buyers cannot provide the documentation to validate a debt because so many records are lost when debts change hands multiple times.
Put Everything in Writing
Never trust a phone call with a debt collector. The FDCPA says you have the right to request debt validation in writing within 30 days of initial contact. The debt collector must provide written proof that the debt is yours and that the balance is accurate.
A written debt validation request will bring all collection activity to a halt until the debt collector responds. And if the debt collector cannot validate the debt, it cannot legally continue to pursue you.
Take the First Step Right Now
The calls from 800-292-7508 won't stop unless you make them. LVNV Funding is using an automated dialing system that will continue to call until someone answers or pays up. But you have the law on your side.
Start with your credit report. Order your reports from all three bureaus and review them to see whether LVNV Funding or Resurgent Capital Services has placed a listing on your report. If you find any information that's inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable, disputing the information is the fastest way to regain control of your credit profile.
At FightCollections.com, we help consumers like you push back against debt collectors and clean up their credit reports. If you're getting unwanted calls from 800-292-7508, we can help you get the process started to remove any erroneous information from your report and end the harassment once and for all.