800-860-0644: What This Number Wants From You

Who Is Calling You from 800-860-0644?

800-860-0644 is a phone number associated with Portfolio Recovery Associates. The reason you’re getting calls from this number is because PRA likely purchased an old debt attached to your name, your phone number, or the previous owner of your phone number, and their dialer is calling every number in the file.

Portfolio Recovery Associates isn’t a traditional debt collection agency hired by a creditor to dun you for an overdue bill. They’re a debt buyer, which means they purchase batches of charged-off consumer debts from original creditors like banks and credit card companies for a few pennies on the dollar and then attempt to collect the balance from consumers. That’s an important distinction, because it goes a long way toward explaining why many of the calls you receive seem to have no connection to any transaction you remember.

Why Is Portfolio Recovery Associates Calling You?

The Business Model of a Debt-Buying Giant

PRA buys charged-off debt from banks and credit card companies like Capital One, Citibank, Synchrony Bank, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, and others. When a bank determines that it is unlikely to collect an account, generally after 180 days of non-payment, it bundles the debt with other similar debts and sells them to debt buyers like PRA for pennies on the dollar. PRA then owns the debt and has the legal right to collect it.

The issue arises when you consider that PRA buys very old debt information. Phone numbers get recycled. Consumers move. Account holders die. But PRA’s dialer doesn’t distinguish between the current owner of a phone number and the person who had it three years after the original account holder moved to another state. The dialer calls every number on the file because the debt collection business is structured to favor the quantity of attempts over the quality of the information that attempts are based on, and that creates systemic vulnerabilities that affect thousands of people who don’t owe anything.

You May Not Actually Owe Anything

Many consumers who report getting calls from 800-860-0644 have no connection whatsoever to the debt PRA is trying to collect. A consumer posted on Everycaller that PRA repeatedly called looking for a person who never lived there and that when they informed the rep of that fact the rep “got nasty with me and told me that I was lying, and demanded to speak to this person.”

Another consumer who posted on WhoCallsMe described being told that he was the person they were looking for, despite the address on file being in a different state altogether. When the consumer challenged the rep on the obvious mismatch, the rep flip-flopped and said that the consumer was not actually the person they were looking for. That kind of contradiction is typical of a volume-over-accuracy model where reps work from bad data and rigid scripts that don’t leave much room for nuance.

What to Expect When You Answer a Call from 800-860-0644

The Robocall Gauntlet

The majority of consumers who answer calls from 800-860-0644 are greeted by an automated message. The automated message identifies the caller as Portfolio Recovery Associates and indicates that the call is an attempt to collect a debt. The consumer is asked to please hold for a representative. Many consumers report never actually being connected with a live person, or that the system hangs up.

RoboKiller has tracked over 106,000 calls from this number alone, with nearly 800 user reports identifying it as a robocall. Nomorobo classifies the number at the highest threat level, “Severe,” and has been actively blocking it since December 2014. CallerSmart data indicates that about 59 percent of the complaints consumers have registered about this number describe the calls as robocalls, with another 26 percent identifying the calls as hang-ups where no message was left.

When a Live Representative Finally Answers

When consumers do connect with a live representative, the conversation tends to follow a fairly predictable script. The rep reads from a script, attempts to verify identifying information, and immediately steers the conversation toward a payment arrangement. Consumers who push back are met with resistance. Consumers who tell reps they have the wrong person are frequently accused of lying. Consumers who request documentation are often issued vague promises that rarely deliver.

A consumer who posted on 800notes described calling PRA back to request removal from the company’s dialer. After being on hold for more than 17 minutes, the consumer was hung up on. Another consumer described how PRA reps attempted to guilt trip them when trying to collect a debt that belonged to a deceased relative, saying “that’s what your dad would have wanted you to do,” when the consumer was pressed to pay a debt that they had no legal obligation to pay. These examples illustrate a system that prioritizes getting the script right and making the maximum number of calls over actually resolving the right accounts.

The Credit Reporting Dimension

How Collection Accounts Affect Your Credit Score

When PRA purchases a debt attached to your name, the company typically reports it to the three major credit reporting agencies as a collection account. If you have a collection account on your credit report, it is likely hurting your credit score by at least 100 points, depending on what your score was before the account appeared.

Unfortunately, paying the collection does not undo the damage. A paid collection remains a collection in the eyes of most scoring models and continues to affect your score almost identically. The collection account itself can remain on your credit report for up to seven years from the date of the original delinquency, making it harder for you to qualify for interest rates, rentals, and even employment opportunities that involve a credit check.

Inaccurate Information Exacerbates the Issue

PRA’s volume-driven collection model means that much of the information the company reports to the credit bureaus is wrong. Consumers describe debts appearing on their credit reports that they never owed. They describe balances that don’t match debts they recognize. They describe accounts that should have fallen off their reports years ago. In fact, the CFPB’s recent enforcement action determined that PRA made tens of thousands of representations about debts without reviewing the documentation the company was required to review.

Those inaccuracies are not just an annoyance. They’re actually a strategy. When PRA cannot validate the information it has reported to the credit bureaus, the bureaus are required to delete the account from your report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The nearly 4,000 complaints filed with the BBB against PRA are not just a warning to other consumers about the company’s business practices. They’re evidence of systemic problems that can be used to support disputes filed today.

How to Defend Yourself

Step 1: Get Your Credit Reports

Before you do anything else, you need to know what PRA has reported about you. You are entitled to a free copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies every 12 months through AnnualCreditReport.com. Request your reports and look for any account listing Portfolio Recovery Associates or PRA Group. Make a note of the account number, balance, and date of first delinquency listed for the account.

Your credit report is reconnaissance. It tells you exactly what PRA is claiming about you, which is exactly what you need to challenge. Many consumers are surprised to find when they pull their reports that the balance PRA is reporting does not match any debt they actually owe, or that the account is too old to still be collectible under their state’s statute of limitations.

Step 2: Wield the FCRA and FDCPA as Swords

The Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act are not just shields to deflect bad actors. They are offensive instruments that place the burden of proof squarely on the debt collector. When you dispute a PRA account through the credit bureaus, PRA is required to verify every element of the debt it’s reporting. Requesting debt validation isn’t just about getting documentation. It’s a strategic maneuver that often results in the collector being unable to respond adequately because the documentation it purchased with the debt portfolio is incomplete or out of date.

Debt collectors operate on thin margins. The aggressive tactics and high-volume approach you experience when you’re on the phone with them exist because companies like PRA need a high success rate on individual debts in order to remain profitable. When a consumer formally disputes an account through the credit bureaus and requests validation, that calculation changes. In many cases, the cost of validating a single disputed debt exceeds what PRA paid for it. Debts that cannot be validated must be deleted.

Step 3: Do Not Engage with PRA Directly

The temptation to call PRA back, explain your situation, and ask the company to stop calling is understandable. But engaging directly with a debt collector provides them with more information than they need to know and starts timelines that may be working in your favor. Every piece of information about you that you confirm on a call becomes part of their file. Every conversation is recorded and may be referenced later if the company decides to pursue legal action against you.

A senior citizen named Jean who posted on AlabamaConsumer.com described what happened when she attempted to deal with PRA on her own. She said she received 75 calls in a 30-day period and ultimately closed her phone account altogether to get away from the harassment despite owing no money and having been debt-free for over 20 years. Direct engagement didn’t help her. A structured credit report dispute through the proper channels is a far more effective strategy.

You’re Not Powerless Here

Portfolio Recovery Associates is a billion-dollar company that buys up old debts and attempts to collect them by blasting millions of phone numbers with robocalls in the hopes of getting a few live consumers to pay up. The company’s representatives are incentivized to follow a script that pressures consumers into making payments as quickly as possible and discourages them from asking questions or pushing back. Regulators have penalized PRA twice for illegal debt collection practices and describe the company as a “repeat offender.” Consumers across every platform describe calls from PRA the same way: wrong numbers, expired debts, and an absolute refusal to stop calling despite consumer requests.

But the same laws PRA has twice been caught violating also give you the tools to fight back. The FCRA requires PRA to prove what it’s reporting about you. The FDCPA limits the ways in which PRA can contact you. And when PRA cannot prove what it’s reporting about you, the credit bureaus are required to remove the account from your report altogether.

Let FightCollections.com Help

You don’t have to navigate this process on your own. At FightCollections.com, we specialize in disputing invalid collection accounts on behalf of consumers. We understand the business models of debt buyers like Portfolio Recovery Associates and the types of documentation they’re likely missing. We understand how to wield federal consumer protection laws as offensive instruments to challenge what’s being reported about you.

If you keep getting calls from 800-860-0644, or if Portfolio Recovery Associates has already reported something to your credit report, visit FightCollections.com today to find out how we can help.