If Portfolio Recovery Associates has filed a lawsuit against you, respond in writing before your court deadline — usually 20 to 30 days in state court and 21 days in federal court from the day you were served. That single step is what separates the roughly 30 percent of consumer-debt defendants who preserve their defenses from the majority who lose by default without PRA ever having to prove anything. A Portfolio Recovery Associates lawsuit is winnable more often than people expect, because PRA is a debt buyer, not the original lender, and it frequently lacks the documents a court requires to enforce the debt.
Respond Before Your Deadline
You’ll be served with a summons and a complaint. The complaint names the original creditor, the account number, and the amount PRA claims you owe. Your clock starts the day those papers reach you.
Miss the deadline and the court will almost certainly enter a default judgment. That gives PRA the power to garnish wages, levy bank accounts, and place liens on property. You can sometimes undo a default later, but the work of vacating a judgment is far greater than the work of filing an answer on time.
If you genuinely cannot meet the deadline, file a motion for an extension before it expires. Courts routinely grant short extensions for self-represented defendants, and in some jurisdictions PRA’s attorney will agree informally, which the court usually approves.
Filing Your Answer
An answer is a written response to every numbered paragraph in PRA’s complaint. For each one, you admit, deny, or state that you lack enough information to admit or deny. When in doubt, deny. You are not lying by saying you cannot confirm a balance or the details of a debt that has changed hands several times.
The answer is also where you raise affirmative defenses — legal reasons the case should fail even if PRA’s facts were correct. The ones that most often matter in a debt buyer case:
- Statute of limitations: the debt is too old to sue on.
- Lack of standing: PRA cannot prove it owns this debt.
- Improper service: you were not served according to the rules.
- Incorrect amount: the balance PRA claims does not match reality.
- Wrong venue: federal law requires a debt collector to sue where you signed the original contract or where you live when the suit is filed.
Check venue first, because it is easy to verify and it is a federal violation. Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, a debt collector who files suit in the wrong judicial district has broken the law.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1692i – Legal Actions by Debt Collectors
Most states do not charge a filing fee for a consumer-debt answer. A few charge up to several hundred dollars. If that is a barrier, ask the clerk about an income-based fee waiver.
The Statute of Limitations
Every state sets a deadline for suing over unpaid debt. For credit cards, the window is most commonly three to six years, though some states allow longer.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Can Debt Collectors Collect a Debt That’s Several Years Old? If PRA sued after that period ran out, raise it in your answer. Suing on a time-barred debt can also violate the FDCPA and support a counterclaim.
One warning: in many states, a small payment or a written acknowledgment can restart the clock.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Can Debt Collectors Collect a Debt That’s Several Years Old? If PRA calls before filing and you send $20 “in good faith,” you may have handed them a fresh statute of limitations. Do not pay or put anything in writing about the debt until you know whether it is time-barred where you live.
Make PRA Prove the Debt
This is where debt buyer cases most often fall apart. PRA did not lend you money. It bought a spreadsheet of account data, usually for pennies on the dollar. To win, it has to prove a clean chain of ownership from the original creditor to itself and show that you owe the specific amount claimed. That takes real documents.
The evidence PRA needs includes the original signed credit agreement, account statements from the original creditor, and every assignment or bill of sale in the chain from the original lender through any intermediaries to PRA. Gaps in the chain of title can sink the case. In 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered PRA to stop filing lawsuits without an intent to prove the underlying debt, after finding it had filed misleading affidavits.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC
Use Discovery
Discovery is your right to force PRA to hand over documents and answer questions under oath before trial. It is the strongest tool you have. Request:
- The original signed credit agreement.
- Complete account statements from the original creditor.
- Every bill of sale or assignment document in the chain of ownership.
- The price PRA paid for the debt.
- How the claimed balance was calculated, including any post-charge-off interest or fees.
- The charge-off date and the date of last payment.
If PRA cannot produce the original agreement or a complete chain of assignment, the case usually settles or gets dismissed.
Your FDCPA Rights
PRA is a debt collector under federal law. Within five days of first contact, it must send a written validation notice with the amount, the original creditor’s name, and your right to dispute within 30 days.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1692g – Validation of Debts A written dispute inside that window requires PRA to stop collecting until it verifies the debt.
The FDCPA also forbids misrepresenting the balance, threatening actions PRA cannot legally take, or suing on a debt it knows is time-barred.5Federal Trade Commission. Fair Debt Collection Practices Act Text A winning FDCPA claim gets you your actual damages plus up to $1,000 in statutory damages, and PRA pays your attorney’s fees.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1692k That fee-shifting provision is why consumer attorneys will sometimes take these cases without charging you upfront.
Alternatives to a Straight Answer
Motion to Dismiss
If the complaint is legally deficient on its face — no standing, wrong venue, not enough facts to state a claim — you can file a motion to dismiss instead of or alongside your answer. The bar is higher than raising the same points as defenses, but a granted motion ends the case fast.
Compel Arbitration
Most original credit card agreements contain mandatory arbitration clauses, and courts generally treat a debt buyer as stepping into the original creditor’s shoes, bound by the same clause. You can flip that around and force PRA out of court and into arbitration.
Why do it? PRA’s business model runs on cheap, high-volume lawsuits where most defendants never appear. Arbitration filing fees can reach thousands of dollars for the business side, plus the arbitrator’s hourly rate. On a $2,000 debt, the math often does not work for the debt buyer, and many cases settle or get dropped once arbitration is compelled. File the motion early; extensive litigation in court first can waive the right.
Negotiate a Settlement
If you accept that you owe something and want it done, settlement is always available. Because PRA bought the debt at a deep discount, it has room to move. Settlements at 40 to 60 percent of the claimed balance are common, though the exact figure depends on the strength of PRA’s evidence, the age of the debt, and your circumstances.
Get the deal in writing before paying a cent. The written agreement should state the exact amount, confirm that payment resolves the debt in full, and say what PRA will report to the credit bureaus. On that last point, PRA’s own policy is to request deletion of its tradeline within roughly 30 days after your final payment posts.7Portfolio Recovery Associates. Credit Reporting That is better than the “paid collection” mark most collectors leave behind, so make sure the deletion commitment is spelled out in the agreement.
If You Already Missed the Deadline
A default judgment against you is not always final. You can file a motion to vacate it. In federal court, Rule 60(b) allows relief for reasons including mistake, excusable neglect, or fraud by the opposing party, with a filing window generally described as a reasonable time and no more than one year for most grounds.8Cornell Law Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 60 – Relief From a Judgment or Order State courts have similar rules with their own deadlines.
Improper service is a stronger ground still. A judgment entered without valid service can be void rather than merely voidable, and a void judgment can sometimes be challenged with no time limit.8Cornell Law Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 60 – Relief From a Judgment or Order To win a motion to vacate you generally have to show both a valid reason you did not respond and a meritorious defense to the underlying claim.
What a Judgment Can and Cannot Reach
If PRA wins — by default or after trial — it can pursue wage garnishment, bank levies, and property liens. Each of those has limits.
Federal law caps consumer-debt wage garnishment at the lesser of 25 percent of your disposable weekly earnings or the amount by which weekly earnings exceed $217.50 (30 times the $7.25 federal minimum wage).9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment Below $217.50 a week in disposable income, wages cannot be garnished at all. Many states cap it lower.
Social Security benefits are protected. Federal law shields them from garnishment, levy, or attachment by private creditors.10Social Security Administration. Social Security Act Section 207 The protection follows the money into your bank account, though if PRA attempts a levy you may need to show the bank which funds came from Social Security. SSI is protected the same way.
Every state also has exemption laws for judgment creditors. Homestead exemptions run from modest amounts to unlimited depending on the state. Basic personal property — clothing, household goods, tools of your trade — is typically exempt too. You often have to claim these exemptions actively by filing paperwork with the court.
Judgments accrue interest. Post-judgment rates vary by state, but 8 to 12 percent annually is common, so an unpaid judgment grows the longer it sits.
Tax Consequences of Settling for Less
If PRA forgives part of the balance, the forgiven amount can count as taxable income. A creditor or collector that cancels $600 or more must file a Form 1099-C with the IRS.11Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-C, Cancellation of Debt Settle a claimed $5,000 for $2,000 and you could see a 1099-C for the $3,000 difference.
The important exception is insolvency. If your total debts exceeded the fair market value of everything you owned at the time of the settlement, you can exclude the canceled debt from income up to the amount of your insolvency.12Internal Revenue Service. Publication 4681 – Canceled Debts, Foreclosures, Repossessions, and Abandonments Someone being sued over an old credit card is often insolvent by that definition. The IRS Insolvency Worksheet in Publication 4681 walks through the calculation. Include retirement accounts and pension interests on the asset side, and include all your debts on the liability side, not just the one being settled.
When Bankruptcy Is on the Table
Filing bankruptcy triggers an automatic stay that immediately halts PRA’s lawsuit and all other collection activity, including wage garnishments, bank levies, and enforcement of existing judgments.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 362 – Automatic Stay Credit card debt bought by a debt buyer is unsecured and generally dischargeable in both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.
Bankruptcy is a serious step with long credit consequences, and it does not make sense if the PRA suit is your only financial problem. If you are also behind on medical bills, other credit cards, or facing multiple garnishments, it may be the practical option. A bankruptcy attorney can weigh the protection against the cost and credit impact.