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How to Beat National Recovery Agency

Dena Standley | February 23, 2023

Dena Standley
Legal Expert, Paralegal
Dena Standley, BA

Dena Standley is a seasoned paralegal with more than 20 years of experience in legal research and writing, having received a certification as a Legal Assistant/Paralegal from Southern Technical College.

Edited by Hannah Locklear

Hannah Locklear
Editor at SoloSuit
Hannah Locklear, BA

Hannah Locklear is SoloSuit’s Marketing and Impact Manager. With an educational background in Linguistics, Spanish, and International Development from Brigham Young University, Hannah has also worked as a legal support specialist for several years.

When you beat National Recovery Agency in court ^^

Summary: An outstanding debt is already stressful, but collection agencies such as the National Recovery Agency can make it more burdensome. SoloSuit offers proven methods to help you stop their calls and win your lawsuit.

“Yay! Another call from a debt collector!” — said no one ever.

Dealing with debt collectors like National Recovery Agency (NRA) is no fun, and if they are coming after you incessantly, you are not alone.

On their website, NRA states that they endeavor to help consumers have a pleasant experience with them. But that is far from the truth for some consumers. NRA aggressively collects debt and sometimes uses methods that go against the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

Knowing your rights means you do not have to endure their harassing calls or emails. You can fight back. Today, SoloSuit will give you several ideas of how to beat the National Recovery Agency in whichever stage of the collection process you are in.

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What is the National Recovery Agency, and how does it work?

National Recovery Agency is a genuine debt collection agency headquartered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1976 and, in 2005, joined with Credit Plus Solutions Group Inc to form NRA Group, LLC. It collects for various businesses, government agencies, and healthcare providers. NRA has grown tremendously to offer multiple services, including:

  • First and third collections
  • Pre-collections
  • Post charge off collections
  • Credit reporting
  • Debt collection consultation
  • Litigation support

NRA nationwide services has enabled it to gain the trust of companies. That’s why NRA goes the extra mile to make its clients happy by persuading, or even forcing, you to make payments. As a result, the company has received multiple complaints on various platforms.

Complaints against National Recovery Agency

National Recovery Agency has received over three hundred complaints on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) complaints database and a hundred on their Better Business Bureau (BBB) page. Complaints range from talking to unprofessional debt agents, having an inaccurate debt entered on their credit report, failing to honor their promise after settling a debt, and contacting consumers several times a day. The following is an example of a consumer complaint from the CFPB database.

“I received a call from National Recovery Agency. The debt collector was rude. I told him that if I were to pay this debt, I would contact the actual company. He told me this debt would be sent to my credit report, and I had to pay them. I ended the call, and then he flooded my text messages with texts from the company.”

Beating NRA is possible, more so if they violate your rights. They assume consumers do not know their consumer rights and sometimes abuse their position to get their way. So, what rights do you need to know and use in your favor?

Exercise your rights when National Recovery Agency Contacts you

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act aims to enlighten you about your rights when dealing with collection agencies. The guidelines protect you from being harassed or taken advantage of by NRA representatives. The FDCPA guidelines state that NRA should not:

  • Call you multiple times a day for the same debt
  • Communicate with your friends, colleagues, and family about your debt
  • Lie to you about your debt or how they’ll report the debt if you pay
  • Threaten to take your driving license and other vital documents
  • Threaten to call the police to have you arrested
  • Fail to respond to a Debt Validation Letter that requests them to verify the debt is yours

If NRA violates any of these guidelines, submit a complaint against them on their BBB profile and CFPB website. You can also report them to the Fair Trade Commission page and your state’s attorney general's office.

Steps to respond to National Recovery Agency Lawsuit

If all methods to collect from you fail, NRA often opens a debt collection case against you. If you have received a lawsuit letter from them, do not despair, you still have a fighting chance by taking the following steps:

1. Answer each claim listed in the Complaint

In the lawsuit, you'll see a Complaint document that contains a list of the allegations NRA has against you. You have three ways of answering these statements:

  • Admit the claim: You agree to the claim against you.
  • Deny the claim: You are challenging NRA to prove that the claim is factual.
  • Deny due of lack of knowledge: You are unsure if the allegation made is true or false unless you investigate further.

The recommendation lawyers give to consumers is to deny some claims so that you let NRA prove their case. They may withdraw the case or ask you to settle the debt if they do not have enough evidence.

Let’s look at an example.

Example: National Recovery Agency is taking Monica to court for a credit card debt. Monica doesn’t recognize the debt they claim she owes, so she uses SoloSuit to respond to the lawsuit, denying all the claims against her. NRA realizes they have inaccurate information and, unable to prove their claims, they drop the case.


2. Assert your affirmative defenses

This section allows you to explain why you are not responsible for the debt or why you shouldn't pay the debt even if it is legitimate. Some of the defenses you can use are:

  • The debt has passed the statute of limitations
  • The name and account details are incorrect
  • NRA violated your consumer rights
  • NRA hasn't proven they received the debt from the original creditor
  • The debt was paid off or canceled

If you are unsure how to write your defenses convincingly, SoloSuit has a customizable Answer document that you can fill out to fit the needs of your case. All you have to do is answer a few simple questions about it.

Let’s consider another example.

Example: Joey is being sued by National Recovery Agency for an old debt in Wisconsin. He does some research online, he finds out that the statute of limitations on debt is six years in Wisconsin. Since Joey hasn’t been active on the debt account for almost seven years, NRA has no legal right to file a lawsuit against him. Joey uses SoloSuit to draft and file his Answer document where he lists the expired statute of limitations as one of his affirmative defenses. This leads to the case being dropped and a big celebratory dinner for Joey.


3. File the Answer in court, and send a copy to National Recovery Agency

If you complete the above steps correctly, you can confidently send your Answer to the court where NRA opened the case against you and mail a copy to NRA’s attorney. Ensure the Answer gets to court before the deadline for filing, or you may lose the case. Deliver the Answer to the courthouse or use certified mail.

Negotiate debt settlement with National Recovery Agency

After you send your answer and do not wish the case to continue in court, you can request NRA to settle the debt out of court. Do this by making a free offer with SoloSettle to NRA and quoting an amount you’re willing to pay to clear the debt. Start at a lower amount than you have because NRA will respond with a counteroffer.

Learn more about debt settlement in this video:

What is SoloSuit?

SoloSuit makes it easy to fight debt collectors.

You can use SoloSuit to respond to a debt lawsuit, to send letters to collectors, and even to settle a debt.

SoloSuit's Answer service is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your Answer. Upon completion, we'll have an attorney review your document and we'll file it for you.

>>Read the FastCompany article: Debt Lawsuits Are Complicated: This Website Makes Them Simpler To Navigate

>>Read the NPR story on SoloSuit. (We can help you in all 50 states.)

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