Call PRA at 866-293-0076—or perhaps more likely, PRA is calling you at this number. PRA calls from this number because they have an outstanding account they believe belongs to you. They purchased the account from another creditor and are calling you to collect. PRA is a debt collection agency.
Company Name: Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC
Type of Business: Debt buying and debt collection
Parent Company: PRA Group, Inc
Corporate Office: 120 Corporate Boulevard, Norfolk, VA 23502
Business Type: Credit card debt, consumer loans, auto deficiencies, telecommunications, retail, utility, student loans
Business Size: Over 3,000 employees, 18 countries, publicly-traded
Revenue: Over $1.1 billion (2024)
Geographic Location: United States, UK, Nordics, Poland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Australia
Business Reviews: The BBB lists PRA’s current status as “under review.” Before this status, the customer review rating was 1.35 out of 5 stars.
A History of Illegal Debt Collection
Portfolio Recovery Associates is no stranger to CFPB enforcement actions. In 2023, the CFPB labeled PRA a “repeat offender” for continued illegal debt collection practices and ordered the company to pay over $24 million in restitution. This was the second time the CFPB penalized PRA; the first time was in 2015, with an order to pay $27 million. The company also paid $18 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over allegations that it used automatic dialers to call cell phones without consent.
Those repeated calls from 866-293-0076 might be more of the same.
Why is PRA Calling Me?
PRA Calls You When They Buy Your Debt
PRA is calling you because it has purchased a debt that it believes you owe. The entire business model of PRA is built on the purchase of delinquent consumer debt. In 2024, the company collected $1.9 billion in cash and spent a record $1.4 billion acquiring new debt portfolios. PRA is calling you because it owns the debt it’s calling about and wants you to pay it in full, even though the company itself paid only pennies on the dollar for it.
It’s essential to understand this. Just because PRA owns your debt doesn’t mean you need to pay it in full.
PRA May Have Called the Wrong Person
Perhaps the most common complaint about calls from 866-293-0076 is that the caller from PRA is contacting the wrong person. “This number calls from 7:55 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. EST,” reports one consumer on YouMail. “I do not have any debts outstanding. I can’t get this robo caller to stop.”
When debt changes hands multiple times, data integrity suffers. Information about one account might be matched to the wrong person, and phone numbers are recycled and reassigned. If PRA is calling about a debt you do not recognize, it is possible that the debt does not belong to you.
What Do Consumers Say About Calls from 866-293-0076?
They Never Leave a Message
The overwhelming consumer complaint about calls from 866-293-0076 is that they are automated calls that ring and hang up without leaving a message. Nomorobo labels this number as a robocall with “Severe” activity—its highest rating. According to CallerSmart, nearly 58% of the complaints about this number describe the calls as robocalls, with more than a third identifying them as “dropped calls.”
“Have had several of these no message calls over 2 or 3 years,” reports one consumer on 800notes. “I check this site and guess what? It’s always portfolio recovery. I quit answering unknown calls long ago.”
PRA is Calling to Collect an Old Debt
Several consumers report that calls from 866-293-0076 are about debts that are more than a decade old. “They keep calling me for a debt from 11 years ago,” reports one consumer on YouMail. “If they keep buying debts that are expired they are going to get broke.”
Trying to collect debts beyond the statute of limitations is one of the practices that the CFPB specifically called out in its enforcement actions against PRA. Responding to a collector about an expired debt can, in some states, revive the statute of limitations and open you up to the potential for lawsuits that would otherwise not be an option.
Where Does PRA Operate?
PRA Operates Across the Country
Portfolio Recovery Associates operates in all 50 states. In North Carolina, the Pounds v. PRA resulted in a $5.75 million payment and the cancellation of roughly $35 million in default judgments against more than 18,000 consumers. The company has its own in-house legal staff and also uses outside attorneys to pursue consumers through the court system.
Some States Are Worse for PRA Than Others
That said, not every state is created equal when it comes to debt collection. In 2019, Massachusetts AG Maura Healey announced a $4 million settlement with PRA after her office found that the company had specifically targeted low-income, elderly, and disabled consumers whose income consisted entirely of exempt funds such as Social Security. New York AG Eric Schneiderman forced PRA to vacate more than 2,000 improper default judgments totaling $16 million.
If you live in a state with strong consumer protections—such as New York, Massachusetts, California, or Minnesota—PRA has more to lose every time it contacts you improperly. Your state may have additional protections that range from a shorter statute of limitations to more stringent requirements for what collectors must prove before filing a lawsuit.
How Do I Get PRA to Leave Me Alone?
Don’t Pick Up the Phone
If you are getting calls from 866-293-0076, do not call the number back. Do not answer the phone. Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you have the right to request that a debt collector stop contacting you altogether. Simply refusing to answer the phone is a legitimate option that the law protects.
It is ok to ignore calls from a debt collector. In fact, ignoring the calls is one of the most powerful ways you can protect yourself. Every time you speak with a debt collector on the phone, you risk saying something that the collector can use against you. There is no paper trail when you have a phone conversation.
The most important thing you can do when you are getting calls from 866-293-0076 is to dispute the PRA account that is on your credit report. You can do this directly with the credit reporting bureaus. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the credit bureau must investigate your dispute and the collection agency must verify the information it is reporting. In most cases, you will not need to provide any documentation to support your dispute—the burden is on the company making the report.
If PRA cannot verify the debt, the account must come off your credit report. Given that PRA has twice been penalized by the CFPB for attempting to collect debts it cannot verify, it’s anyone’s guess whether the company will be able to successfully verify debts that consumers dispute. If the account comes off your report, PRA loses much of its leverage—and in many cases, consumers never hear from the company again.
Why You Should Not Settle
You Might Not Have to Pay
Many consumers assume that the only way to get a debt collector to leave them alone is to settle the debt. That might not be true. In many cases, consumers can get collection accounts removed from their credit reports without paying a dime. When a credit report dispute is successful and results in the removal of an unverified account, the consumer has resolved the issue without paying the collection agency.
PRA paid pennies on the dollar for your debt. The company’s business model is built around high volume and instant resolution. If disputing the account results in its removal from your report, much of PRA’s leverage against you disappears.
Settling a debt might not be a slam dunk. Depending on how old the debt is and how the settlement is reported, a settlement could help your credit score or hurt it. A settled debt remains on your report, and is typically noted as “settled for less than the full amount,” which might not be viewed favorably by future lenders.
In addition, there are potential tax implications to a settlement. If PRA forgives more than $600 in debt, the IRS may consider that amount taxable income to you. A credit report dispute has none of these risks, and when it succeeds, the account is simply gone.
The Calls from 866-293-0076
The bottom line about calls from 866-293-0076 is that they are from Portfolio Recovery Associates, a billion-dollar debt collection agency with a long history of illegal debt collection practices and robocall harassment. Various regulators have penalized the company more than $75 million, and the CFPB calls it a repeat offender.
You don’t have to answer those calls. You don’t have to negotiate. And you certainly don’t have to pay a debt collector the full amount for a debt it bought for pennies on the dollar—particularly if the company can’t prove the debt even belongs to you.
What’s Next?
If Portfolio Recovery Associates is calling you from 866-293-0076—or if it has placed an account on your credit report—consider disputing that account with the credit bureaus. In some cases, a successful dispute can result in the removal of the entire account, and once it’s removed, the calls typically stop as well.
At FightCollections.com, we specialize in helping consumers like you push back against debt collection harassment through the credit reporting process. Contact us to learn more.