Penn Credit Corporation (800-900-1370) calls consumers in the United States. They’re calling you because they believe you have a debt with them.
Their business is to collect the debt. Whether the debt is legitimate, past the statute of limitations, or is even yours, they just want to get paid. But you can fight back. We outline the who, why, what, and how below.
Who Is Penn Credit Corporation?
Penn Credit Corporation is a third-party debt collection agency. The company was founded in 1987 and is based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They also maintain offices in State College, Pennsylvania; Mount Laurel, New Jersey; and Phoenix, Arizona.
The company’s revenue is estimated to be between $25–52 million per year, and they employ between 100–200 people. Penn Credit’s clients include government agencies (taxes, fines, tolls), healthcare providers, institutions of higher education, utilities companies, and telecommunications firms.
They have an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB), where they have been accredited since 2017, and an average rating of 1.5 out of 5 stars, based on 227 customer reviews in the last three years. Ninety percent of those complaints concerned billing or collections issues.
Some of Penn Credit’s known clients include various municipal governments, toll authorities, several utilities companies, including Delmarva Power, NJ American Water, and Pennsylvania American Water, and at least one traffic camera operator, RedFlex.
What Are Their Calling Practices Like?
Penn Credit agreed to a $4.675 million class action settlement in the case of Guidry v. Penn Credit Corporation. In that case, consumers alleged the company left prerecorded voicemail messages on their cell phones without their consent using ringless voicemail technology. In a related case, Gurzi v. Penn Credit, the court found that such voicemails were, in fact, considered a “call” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
RoboKiller reports more than 65,000 calls from the 800-900-1370 number, and Nomorobo has blacklisted that number as a robocaller since December 2014.
Why Is Penn Credit Calling Me?
Penn Credit is a third-party debt collection agency. That means they didn’t originate the debt they’re calling you about; rather, they’ve been hired by another company to collect money from you on their behalf.
Their clients include municipal governments attempting to collect unpaid taxes and fines, toll road authorities, utility companies, hospitals, and colleges trying to collect unpaid tuition.
So, the call from 800-900-1370 might be about any of those types of accounts. Consumers have reported the company pursuing debts as diverse as traffic camera citations from RedFlex, utility bills from NationGrid and West Penn Power, and money allegedly owed to the Virginia Department of Taxation.
Why Don’t I Recognize the Debt?
Many of the consumers who have reported calls from this number have said they have no idea what debt Penn Credit is talking about. It’s possible the original creditor only assigned the account to a collection agency months or even years after the bill was due, and the amount they’re asking you to pay may include additional fees or charges you never agreed to pay. In some cases, the debt in question simply isn’t yours.
One consumer posting on EveryCaller reported having a credit score of more than 800 and carrying no debt on their credit report but still being aggressively called by Penn Credit. Others have reported calls about debts in the names of people who have never lived in their household, deceased relatives, and even former spouses from divorces that were finalized decades ago.
What Do They Want from Me?
They’re Hoping You’ll Panic and Pay
When a debt collector calls you over and over, that’s the idea. They’re hoping the intimidation of being called by a “collection agency” will be enough to get you to pay them before you have time to investigate whether the debt is legitimate, whether you actually owe it, or whether the amount is accurate.
Don’t play along. Before you agree to pay anything or provide them with your financial information, make sure you’ve verified the debt independently.
One consumer reported receiving an automated message saying they owed a specific amount — $970.81 — but providing no further context or identification. What a debt collector tells you on the phone is just that until they’ve confirmed it in writing.
They’re Hoping You’ll Call Them Back and Negotiate
The second thing Penn Credit is hoping for when they call you from 800-900-1370 is that you’ll call them back and negotiate with them directly. Based on the consumer reviews, we can see how that works out for people who take the bait.
“I had an experience with Penn Credit where the agent was completely abrupt, rude, and creepy,” reports one consumer on the ShouldIAnswer website. “She called to ask for my address, and I asked who it was. She said my name and the name of the company. I said ok, that’s fine, but now you know who I am, so how about you tell me what this is about? She said I need to confirm your address. I told her I needed her to confirm what the call was about first, and she hung up on me.”
Another consumer posting on the website 800notes reported that when he called Penn Credit back, the representative asked for his phone number. When he asked her to tell him what company she worked for first, she hung up the phone. When he called again, a different representative asked him the same thing, with the same result.
You should never initiate contact with a debt collector. Before you talk to them, talk to a credit repair expert who can help you avoid inadvertently validating a debt or restarting a statute of limitations clock.
What Are Consumers’ Experiences with This Number?
High-Volume Calling
Based on the consumer complaints, it seems safe to say the 800-900-1370 number never stops calling.
One consumer posting on 800notes reported getting 37 calls from the number in a single month, despite never getting a voicemail. Another reported getting 45 calls over the course of two months on EveryCaller. And a third reported being called four times a day every day for a year despite owing money to no one.
Consumers have reported getting calls from this number on weekends and holidays — one reported call on Easter Sunday — and at all hours of the day and night, with calls as early as 6:00 AM and as late as 8:30 PM on Sundays. The number has been flagged or blacklisted as a robocaller on every major caller ID platform, including RoboKiller, Nomorobo, ShouldIAnswer, EveryCaller, 800notes, and YouMail.
Refusal to Identify Themselves and High-Pressure Tactics
Beyond the volume of calls, consumers consistently report that Penn Credit’s representatives refuse to identify the company they’re calling from or explain why they’re calling unless the consumer provides sensitive personal information.
One consumer posting on WhoCallsMe reported that when they answered a call from this number, the agent refused to tell them what company they represented.
Others have reported getting automated messages that say nothing more than, “I’m calling about some important personal business regarding you,” and provide no further information.
“I recently started getting calls from this number from an alleged debt collector trying to find someone who hasn’t had this phone number for 10 years,” reports one consumer on ShouldIAnswer. “I suspect they’re calling anyone associated with the phone number to see if they get lucky.”
This kind of vague, pressure-based contact is, of course, exactly the kind of thing the federal laws protecting consumers from harassment and abuse by debt collectors were written to prevent.
How Can I Make It Stop?
Dispute the Credit Report Listing, If Any
If Penn Credit has placed a collection account on your credit report, you have the right under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to dispute that listing. Simply disputing the item is often enough to get the credit reporting agency to delete it. The burden in such cases is on the collection agency, not on you. If they can’t verify the debt within the allotted time frame, the CRA has to remove it.
Having a professional conduct an investigation on your behalf both protects your credit score and puts the burden where it belongs. You won’t be penalized for multiple inquiries on the same item as long as they’re related to a dispute, so there’s really no downside to disputing anything on your report you believe may be in error.
Get Everything in Writing
When dealing with any debt collector, your strongest possible position is documented. Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), you have the right to request written verification of any debt. The collector must provide the name of the original creditor, the amount you owe, and proof of their authority to collect the debt.
Promises made by a debt collector over the phone are not enforceable. Disputes made over the phone can be denied later. Every communication and every request should be in writing. Written communication creates a paper trail that binds the collector in ways a phone call never can.
This Isn’t Just about Your Credit Score
Dealing with unwanted calls from a debt collection agency isn’t just about protecting your credit score from negative reporting. It’s about something much deeper — your financial sovereignty, or the right to control your own financial destiny without being subjected to pressure, harassment, or deception at the hands of companies whose business model depends on your confusion.
Penn Credit boasts an A+ rating as an accredited company with the Better Business Bureau but an average customer review rating of just 1.5 out of five stars. They’ve had 227 customer complaints in the past three years, 90 percent of them expressions of problems with billing and collections.
One customer reported to the BBB that a Penn Credit representative called them about a medical bill but told them they had to prove it wasn’t their bill, despite their never having received any care from the provider. That’s the kind of burden-shifting debt collectors often engage in when consumers aren’t aware of their rights.
Don’t Give Them the Chance
Every day you wait is one more day Penn Credit is operating on the assumption that you’re not going to do anything. In most cases, the cost of pursuing a collection against someone who disputes the debt and documents the communication is going to be more than the debt is even worth to the collector. That’s a math problem that can work powerfully in your favor if you don’t let it languish.
Make the Calls Stop and Reclaim Your Rights
You Don’t Have to Do This Alone
The pattern of calls from 800-900-1370 is established — thousands of calls every month, all of them from an agency with a history of using ringless voicemail robocalls and facing at least one multimillion-dollar settlement because of it.
If you’re getting calls from this number, you’re not alone, but you do need to take action.
Let FightCollections.com Help You Battle This Agency
At FightCollections.com, we specialize in disputing erroneous collection listings from our clients’ credit reports and helping them battle back against collection agencies like Penn Credit. Our staff of credit repair experts knows all the games collectors play and how to combat them.
If you’re getting calls from 800-900-1370, it’s time to get serious. Contact us at FightCollections.com today for a free consultation. We can make the calls stop. We can dispute the credit report listing. Your financial identity is yours alone.
