Midland Credit Management, Inc. (MCM) is the owner of the phone number 800-296-5598.
They are calling you because they believe you owe them money for a debt they purchased from someone else.
MCM is not the company that loaned you the money. They are a debt buyer that buys up charged-off debts for a few cents on the dollar and tries to collect them by making phone calls and sometimes suing you.
Robocall tracking platform Nomorobo classifies this number at the highest threat level, and RoboKiller has registered 36,815 calls from it. You're not the only one getting these calls, and you have more power than you think. This guide tells you what to do next.
Company Information
Name: Midland Credit Management, Inc. (MCM)
Type: Debt buying (charged-off consumer debt portfolios)
Parent Company: Encore Capital Group, Inc. (largest publicly traded debt buyer in the U.S.)
Location: San Diego, California
Debt Types: Primarily credit card debt, but also auto loan, telecom, personal loan, retail credit, and utility debts
Revenue: Over $1.3 billion in annual revenue
Employees: Approximately 7,300 employees worldwide
BBB Rating: A (not accredited)
Locations: Licensed in all 50 states with offices in San Diego, California; St. Cloud, Minnesota; Roanoke, Virginia; and a 3,000-employee call center in India
Known Original Creditors: Chase, Citibank, Capital One, Bank of America, Discover, American Express, Synchrony Bank, Comenity Bank
A History of Aggressive Debt Collection
The company behind 800-296-5598 has been assessed over $200 million in penalties, refunds, and debt forgiveness through enforcement actions by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), 42 state attorneys general, and federal court judgments.
In 2015, the CFPB charged MCM with collecting debts it was not entitled to collect because it lacked sufficient documentation or the debts were not collectible. The company paid a $52 million penalty and agreed to stop trying to collect on debts that it should have known were inaccurate, which totaled $125 million.
In 2020, MCM agreed to a $20.5 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit for making robocalls to cell phones without prior consent. The action affected 6.27 million people.
MCM may not have the proof it needs to collect the debt it's calling you about.
Why Is Midland Credit Management Calling Me?
They Bought Your Debt from Someone Else
MCM is not a lender. Through its subsidiary Midland Funding, LLC, it purchases charged-off consumer debts from original creditors (OCs) like Chase, Capital One, and Citibank. It buys the debts in bundles of 15,000 to 25,000 accounts at a cost of about 3 percent of face value.
That means if you supposedly owe $5,000, Midland Credit Management actually paid something like $150 for it.
If a debt collector is willing to settle, that's a sign that the amount they say you owe is arbitrary. All the money they collect from you is pure profit.
The Lack of Documentation Is Your Ally
When Midland Funding buys debts, it typically receives only electronic spreadsheets with the names and addresses of debtors and the amounts they supposedly owe. It does not receive copies of the original credit agreement, monthly statements, or signed loan applications. As debts are sold and resold, paperwork often gets lost or becomes incomplete.
One consumer reviewed MCM on Trustpilot and said the company pays only 2 percent to 3 percent of face value for debts through something called forward flow agreements. That creates opportunities for removal.
Step 1: Verify the Debt Before You Do Anything Else
Get Your Credit Reports
Before you respond to a call or a letter, request your credit reports from all three major credit reporting bureaus (CRBs): Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You can do this for free once a year at AnnualCreditReport.com.
Check to see if there's a tradeline (account) for Midland Credit Management or Midland Funding on any of your reports. If so, make a note of the balance, date of first delinquency (DOFD), and whether the account shows as open or closed.
Many people who get calls from 800-296-5598 have no idea why Midland Credit Management is calling them. As one consumer posted on RoboKiller:
I keep getting calls from this number in the middle of the night demanding I pay a debt I do not owe. I have a perfect credit score and do not owe anyone any money.
Don't Call the Number Back
Your initial reaction may be to call the phone number to clear things up. Don't do that. Anything you say on the phone can be used to reset the statute of limitations (SOL) on a debt or to confirm that the caller has reached the right person. It's always better to communicate in writing because it leaves a paper trail.
Multiple consumers have reported that MCM rotates through different toll-free numbers to reach the same person. As one 800Notes user described:
I got a call from 800-296-5598 [and] the next day, I got a call from 800-351-4262. Neither time did they leave a message.
The strategy is to dial your number repeatedly without leaving voicemails until you answer.
Step 2: Dispute Inaccurate Information on Your Credit Report
Challenging a Tradeline with the CRBs
If MCM is reporting a tradeline on one of your credit reports that contains any inaccuracy, you have the right under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to dispute it with the CRB directly. Inaccuracies can include an incorrect balance, incorrect DOFD, or an account that does not belong to you.
You don't have to prove that a debt is invalid. You only have to force the debt collector to verify it.
If you find an inaccuracy, file a dispute in writing with each CRB that is reporting the tradeline. The CRB then has 30 days to investigate your dispute. It does so by contacting MCM and asking it to verify every detail of the debt. This is where the lack of documentation becomes your best friend.
Why Debt Buying Creates Removal Opportunities
When a CRB requests verification of a debt, MCM must respond with the correct information. If it cannot, the CRB is obligated to delete the tradeline from your report. That's the dirty secret of the debt collection industry. Consumers rarely understand this.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB's) own enforcement actions demonstrate this. In 2015, the CFPB penalized MCM $52 million for collecting debts it should have known were inaccurate. The action included an order for MCM to stop collection activities on $125 million in debts.
Step 3: Understand the Statute of Limitations That Is on Your Side
The 7-Year Credit Reporting Clock
Under the FCRA, most negative information can stay on your credit report for only seven years. The clock starts from the DOFD, which is the first month you missed a payment with the OC. No action MCM takes can legally restart that clock. Time is on your side.
If the DOFD is already a few years in the past, the item may drop off your credit report before MCM takes any action. MCM is calling you as part of a volume game. The company manages millions of accounts and cannot file lawsuits in all of them.
Why Paying a Collection Does Not Help Your Credit
This is one of the biggest misconceptions in the consumer credit industry. Paying a collection account does not remove it from your credit report. The tradeline will remain for the full seven years, regardless of whether you pay it or not. A paid collection and an unpaid collection both show up the same way.
Paying MCM does not provide you with any practical benefit for your credit score. The damage was already done when the collection tradeline was placed on your report. If the item is near the end of its seven-year reporting period, paying it accomplishes nothing that waiting would not. Your time is better spent challenging the accuracy of the information.
Step 4: What to Expect After You Dispute
MCM's Potential Reactions
Once you dispute a debt, one of three things can happen:
MCM verifies the debt correctly and the tradeline remains.
MCM fails to verify the debt within 30 days and the tradeline gets deleted.
MCM attempts to verify the debt with incomplete information and the tradeline gets deleted or corrected.
Given MCM's record-keeping issues, the latter two scenarios happen more often than most people realize. The 42-state attorney general settlement targeted MCM's use of robo-signed affidavits, meaning the company submitted verification documents nobody had actually reviewed.
If the Calls Keep Coming
If MCM continues to call you after you dispute a debt, you have the right under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) to send the company a cease-and-desist letter telling it to stop. Once MCM receives your letter, it must stop calling you.
One RoboKiller user said he received a call from 800-296-5598 at 9:23 p.m. and ripped into the representative for calling so late. Debt collection calls before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the debtor's time zone are prohibited under the FDCPA. If MCM is calling you outside those hours, that's a separate violation.
Conclusion
Calls from 800-296-5598 are not random, but they can stop. The company making them has a history of collecting debts it cannot verify. The debt buying business model that's driving these calls is also the weakness that gives you power.
Don't play along on the phone. Get your credit reports. File disputes with the bureaus. Let the documentation deficiencies do the heavy lifting. The people calling you are counting on you not to understand this process. Start now.
Help Is Here
If Midland Credit Management is reporting an inaccurate collection account on your credit report, FightCollections.com can help. Our team specializes in removing bogus collection accounts and holding debt collectors to the letter of federal consumer protection laws. Contact us now for a free consultation.
