888-469-4520 connects you to Consumer Portfolio Services Inc’s call center. They’re calling because they think you owe them money on a subprime auto loan, or because someone who owes them money once gave your phone number as a reference. Either way, it’s getting annoying.
You’re not alone. RoboKiller identified over 426,000 calls from this single number, with more than 5,200 complaints submitted against it. Nomorobo flagged it as a robocall and has been blocking it since December 2014. This article will provide you with everything you need to know about who is calling you from 888-469-4520 and exactly what you need to do to stop them.
Who Is Consumer Portfolio Services Inc?
Everything you need to know about the company behind 888-469-4520:
Company Name: Consumer Portfolio Services Inc (CPS)
Company Type: First-party creditor and subprime auto lender
Industry: Subprime automobile financing
Headquarters: Las Vegas, Nevada (corporate); Irvine, California (operations)
Company Size: Publicly traded on NASDAQ, approximately 918 employees
Portfolio: Approximately $3.9 billion in managed auto loans across 48 states
BBB Rating: A+ (accredited since 2018), but average customer review rating is 1.24 out of 5 stars
Dealership Network: More than 5,000 auto dealer relationships nationwide
CPS is not a scam. Most debt collectors are legitimate companies, and CPS is a publicly traded company with almost $1 billion in annual revenue. But legitimate does not mean friendly, and it definitely does not mean accurate.
A Company the FTC Already Caught Breaking the Rules
In May 2014, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled charges against CPS for engaging in widespread illegal debt collection practices. The settlement totaled more than $5.5 million, including $3.5 million in refunds to 128,000 consumer accounts and $2 million in civil penalties.
The FTC charged CPS with disclosing consumers’ debts to friends, family members, and employers. The company was calling consumers at work when they were not permitted to do so, debiting consumers’ bank accounts without authorization, making false threats about repossession, and manipulating Caller ID so that consumers could not identify who was calling. As a result of the settlement, CPS is under a 10-year compliance monitoring period through approximately 2024.
Why Is Consumer Portfolio Services Inc Calling Me?
The Subprime Auto Loan Connection
CPS purchases auto loan contracts from car dealerships all over the country. When someone with bad credit finances a car, the dealership sells that loan to CPS, which then becomes the lender and is responsible for collecting the monthly payments.
The average FICO score of a borrower in CPS’s portfolio is approximately 570. Those loans come with interest rates ranging from 18 to 29 percent, and because CPS calculates interest using the simple interest method, even one missed payment causes the principal balance to increase. One consumer reported that she financed a car for $21,155 and made nearly $19,000 in payments over several years, only to be informed that she still owed $18,000 because $14,000 of her payments had gone entirely toward interest.
When the Calls Aren’t Even About You
Many of the complaints about CPS come from consumers with no connection to the company at all. CPS uses skip tracing in an effort to locate borrowers, which means calling anyone who might know where they are.
One consumer captured this phenomenon perfectly in a review on WhoCallsMe: “These idiots call every day. I’ve called and spoke to them about the person they are trying to reach has changed their number and I just happen to be the unlucky soul that got it. They apologized for the inconvenience. Happy ending? No. They still call every day.” This is what happens when a debt collection operation emphasizes quantity of contact attempts over quality of information.
Why You Should Never Answer or Call Back
Phone Calls Are Designed to Work Against You
Every phone call that you receive from a debt collector is a negotiating tactic in which they control all of the terms. A phone call leaves no paper trail, invites miscommunication, and provides a trained collector with an opportunity to get you to say something that can be used against you later.
The collector wants to confirm your identity, your address, your place of employment, and your willingness to pay. A casual conversation can be construed as admitting that you owe a debt. The best course of action is to allow every call from 888-469-4520 to go to voicemail and never call back.
What Consumers Report When They Do Engage
One consumer described the full scope of CPS’s tactics in a review on ShouldIAnswer: “Consumer Portfolio Services. These people are RIDICULOUS!! Spoke with rep and explained we were victims of ID theft. All of our banking was hacked and payment would be made as soon as new info was available...they STILL called everyday, texted and emailed 4 times a day!!”
One consumer reported on ComplaintsBoard that CPS was calling her at work constantly: “This company calls me on my job no fewer than 6 times a day... they call my co-workers. I have some people coming to my desk that don’t even know me to tell me that my bill collectors are calling about my car.” That same consumer was asked, “What is more important to you, eating or driving to work?”
Another consumer described how CPS uses social media to track down family members: “My Father got a car loan from consumer portfolio services... they then took upon themselves and called all his family... even his son in Hawaii that knew none of his business by going on FB looking his family up.” These incidents are not anomalies. They are part of a clear pattern of behavior.
Your Step-by-Step Playbook for Fighting Back
Step One: Pull Your Credit Reports Immediately
The very first thing you need to do is pull your credit reports from all three bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com. Your free credit reports are a consumer right, but they are also reconnaissance. They tell you exactly what Consumer Portfolio Services is saying about you to the credit reporting bureaus, and where the weaknesses are in what they are saying.
Look for any accounts showing up on your report from Consumer Portfolio Services. Make a note of the reported balance, the payment history, the status of the account, and the dates. If CPS is calling you about a debt, they are almost certainly reporting it to the credit bureaus, and that is where your leverage is.
Step Two: Look for Errors, Because They Are Probably There
Debt collection agencies and aggressive creditors emphasize quantity of contact attempts over quality of information. That emphasis creates systemic weaknesses that you can exploit to your advantage. Look for balances, account numbers, dates of first delinquency, and accounts that do not belong to you at all.
CPS manages approximately 221,000 active loans. At that volume, mistakes are a mathematical certainty. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has received hundreds of complaints about CPS, and credit reporting errors are among the most common issues. If you find one inaccuracy, do not stop. One successfully removed inaccuracy should encourage you to go through your entire credit report with the same level of skepticism, because the sloppiness that produced that inaccuracy probably produced more.
Filing Disputes That Actually Work
Use the FCRA as an Offensive Weapon
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) says that everything on your credit report has to be accurate, complete, and verifiable. When you submit a dispute, the credit bureau has to investigate and Consumer Portfolio Services has to verify the information in question with documentation to support it. If they cannot do so within 30 days, the item has to be deleted.
This is not a defensive strategy. The FCRA puts the burden of proof on the creditor. CPS has to prove that what they are reporting about you is accurate. You do not have to prove that it is inaccurate. Submit disputes in writing, be specific about the errors you found, and keep a copy of everything.
The FDCPA Provides Additional Protection
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) prohibits many of the exact behaviors that consumers consistently report about Consumer Portfolio Services. Calling your workplace when you told them to stop, disclosing your debt to third parties, using threatening language, and repeated calling with the intent to harass are all violations of federal law.
Keep a record of every call you receive, save every voicemail, and screenshot every text message. The Federal Trade Commission already determined that CPS is guilty of these behaviors and made them pay $5.5 million as a result. A well-documented pattern of continued violations gives you and any consumer advocacy firm you partner with tremendous leverage.
Conclusion
You Have More Power Than They Want You to Think
Consumer Portfolio Services has very real regulatory obligations, and those obligations are your single best weapon. They need every item they are reporting about you to be verifiable, every phone call to be compliant with federal law, and every fee they charge to be justified. The instant that any one of those requirements is not met, the leverage shifts to you.
The debt collectors calling from 888-469-4520 are counting on you to feel overwhelmed and engage on their terms. The playbook outlined above turns that script around by using your credit report as a weapon and federal consumer protection law as a sword.
Take the First Step Today
If you are receiving unwanted calls from 888-469-4520 and Consumer Portfolio Services is reporting information about you to the credit bureaus, you do not have to go through this process alone. FightCollections.com specializes in disputing inaccurate and unverifiable information on consumer credit reports under the full force of the FCRA and FDCPA.
Pull your credit reports, figure out what CPS is saying about you, and reach out to our team for a free consultation. Every day that inaccurate information remains on your credit report is another day that it is working against you. The tools are available to fight back.