PRA Group: what a letter means and what to do

A letter from PRA Group is a request to pay, not a court document. Before you pay anything, check the debt is yours, the balance is right, and the debt is not too old to be enforced. You have time to ask questions and get free advice. This guide covers England and Wales, with notes for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Who are PRA Group, and why are they contacting you?

PRA Group is a trading name of PRA Group (UK) Limited, company number 04267803, incorporated in 2001 and active, with its registered office in London. It was called Aktiv Kapital (UK) Limited until November 2014. Companies House shows it is owned by PRA Group, Inc., a Delaware corporation based in Norfolk, Virginia.

It has been authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority since 21 September 2016, firm reference number 718645. Its permissions include debt collecting, debt administration and exercising a lender’s rights under regulated credit agreements, and it cannot hold client money. PRA says it is a member of the Credit Services Association, the trade body for debt collection and debt purchase, and that PRA Group, Inc. is listed on the Nasdaq exchange.

Despite the initials, PRA Group has no link with the Prudential Regulation Authority, and says so on its website.

Who actually owns your debt?

PRA uses two UK companies:

• PRA Group UK Portfolios Ltd (company number 15236812, set up in October 2023 and owned by PRA Group (UK) Limited) owns the debts.
• PRA Group (UK) Limited manages the accounts on its behalf, including sending letters and taking payments.

PRA says it buys accounts from major banks and finance companies, usually once an account has defaulted.

What a notice of assignment means for you

When a lender sells a debt, the sale only takes full legal effect once you have been told in writing, usually in a notice of assignment. PRA says it sends a welcome letter explaining who it is. Its letters show the original creditor, your reference number and the balance.

After the sale, the original lender is no longer involved in collecting the debt. You pay, negotiate with and complain to PRA. For a regulated credit agreement, the person the lender’s rights have passed to is treated as the creditor, so your Consumer Credit Act rights now apply against PRA. If you were paying the original lender, stop once you are sure the sale is genuine and arrange payments with PRA.

Other companies acting for PRA

PRA may appoint other firms to help manage an account. Its list includes Allied International Credit, Intrum UK, Moorcroft Debt Recovery, Opos and Resolvecall, and law firms including Brodies, Shoosmiths and Wright Hassall. It says that if a company contacting you is not on its list, you should check with PRA. Our guides to Opos and Intrum cover two of them.

Is the debt yours, and is the amount right?

Check before you pay or admit anything.

1. Compare the letter with your own records: the original creditor, account number, your address at the time and the balance.
2. Write to PRA asking for the original account number, the date it bought the debt, the default date and a breakdown of the balance. Firms must give you information on the arrears and the balance. See how to ask a creditor to prove a debt.
3. For a loan, credit card or other regulated credit agreement, ask PRA as the new creditor for a copy of the agreement and a statement, with a £1 fee. It has 12 working days to reply and cannot enforce the agreement while it fails to do so.
4. Check your credit file with Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.
5. If the debt is old, check whether it could be statute-barred. In England and Wales most debts cannot be recovered through the courts once 6 years have passed from when the creditor could first sue, but a payment or signed written acknowledgement before then restarts the clock.

If you dispute the debt, tell PRA in writing and give your reasons; it has a disputes team. Where there are valid grounds, or what appear to be, the firm must suspend collection, investigate and tell you the outcome. It must not keep pursuing someone it believes may not owe the money, or keep demanding payment once you say a debt is statute-barred.

What can PRA Group do, and what can it not do?

These limits come from the FCA’s CONC 7 rules. Harassing someone with payment demands designed to cause alarm, distress or humiliation, or falsely claiming official authority, can also be a criminal offence. PRA itself says it does not add interest or fees while you work with it, and does not try to collect from people who cannot pay.

What should you do at each stage?

When the first letter arrives

Check it as above and reply in writing if anything is wrong. If you are getting debt advice, tell PRA: a firm told that you, or an adviser, are working out a repayment plan must pause active collection for a reasonable period.

If you can pay something

Budget first so priority bills such as rent or mortgage, council tax and energy come first. The firm must consider a reasonable offer and explain clearly if it refuses. Get any settlement agreed in writing before you pay. Paying does not remove a default, which stays on your credit file for 6 years from the default date.

If you get a letter from the Investigations and Litigation Team

PRA says its investigations and litigation team deals with customers and the courts during legal proceedings, and that a letter before claim means court proceedings may start if you do not respond, which could lead to a CCJ and fees and charges being added. In England and Wales a letter before claim (Letter of Claim) should come with an information sheet, reply form and financial statement. You have 30 days from the date on it to reply. Saying you are getting debt advice should hold off court action for at least 30 days after PRA receives your reply form.

If a court claim form arrives

Respond by the date on it. You can pay, admit the debt and ask to pay by instalments, or defend all or part of it, and if you are not paying in full you can ask for another 14 days. See a Money Claim Online claim form. A county court judgment is removed from the register if you pay in full within one calendar month; otherwise it stays for 6 years from the judgment date.

PRA lists a warrant of control (bailiffs), an attachment of earnings order and a charging order as ways it may enforce a judgment in a small number of cases. Judgments on regulated consumer credit agreements can only be enforced in the County Court.

In Scotland or Northern Ireland

PRA says that in Scotland, if you do not respond to a letter before claim, a claim is raised in the Sheriff Court and the court can grant a decree; in Northern Ireland the claim is a civil bill. In both you can admit or defend once you receive the court papers.

How do debt solutions affect PRA Group?

PRA is an unsecured creditor, so the usual options apply:

• Breathing Space: creditors cannot contact you about included debts, add interest or charges, or take enforcement action, for up to 60 days (England and Wales only).
• A debt management plan: informal, so creditors do not have to agree, freeze interest or stop action.
• An IVA: a legally binding agreement under the Insolvency Act 1986. Creditors bound by it cannot take further action to recover the debts included in it. Protocol IVAs usually last 5 or 6 years, fees come out of your payments, and it usually stays on your credit file for 6 years from the start. See does an IVA stop debt collectors?
• A debt relief order: for debts under £50,000, less than £75 a month spare, assets under £2,000 and a vehicle worth less than £4,000.
• Bankruptcy: creditors owed debts in the bankruptcy have no remedy against your property or you personally for those debts.

If your debt is already in an IVA, trust deed or bankruptcy

PRA says that if it buys an account already included in your IVA, trust deed or bankruptcy, it writes only where legally required, deals with your supervisor or trustee to record the new owner, and the sale does not change the terms of your arrangement. Keep paying your insolvency practitioner as usual. If PRA contacts you about an account included in an IVA or trust deed that has already been completed, it asks you to tell it so it can correct its records and your credit file.

Each solution has costs and long-term effects, and none suits everyone. The debt solutions comparison sets them side by side. IVAs, debt relief orders and Breathing Space are not available in Scotland.

How do you complain about PRA Group?

1. Complain to PRA using the complaints details on its website or your letter. Say what happened, with dates, and what you want done.
2. If you are unhappy with the final response, or 8 weeks have passed, you can take a complaint about a credit debt to the Financial Ombudsman Service. You normally have 6 months from the final response.
3. If your complaint is about another company acting for PRA, complain to that company, and tell PRA as well.

Our guide to dealing with debt collectors explains your wider rights.

Is this letter really from PRA Group?

• Genuine letters show the original creditor, a PRA reference number and the balance.
• Check the name against PRA’s list of companies it uses, and check PRA Group (UK) Limited on the FCA register (firm reference number 718645).
• Use the contact details on your letter or PRA’s official website, not a number or link in an unexpected message.
• Be wary of anyone who rushes you to pay into an account you do not recognise.

What to do next

1. Check the letter against your records and ask PRA in writing for anything you need.
2. If you cannot pay, tell PRA you are getting debt advice.
3. Get free, impartial debt advice from MoneyHelper, StepChange, Citizens Advice or National Debtline. See where to get free debt advice.
4. If a letter before claim or court claim arrives, reply by the deadline and keep copies.