LVNV Funding Settlement

What is LVNV Funding LLC?

LVNV Funding is a long-established buyer of defaulted or delinquent credit card or other unsecured debt accounts. Numerous major banks and lenders sell their accounts to LVNV Funding LLC, including Citibank, Capital One, Best Egg, SoFi, and many more.

Who Owns LVNV Funding LLC?

LVNV Funding LLC is owned by Sherman Financial Group LLC, founded in 1998 and based in New York. Sherman Financial Group is a large privately held company that specializes in investment of non-performing consumer debt that was originally issued by financial institutions, credit card companies, retailers, and others.

Note: Consumers are sometimes confused by which entity has acquired their debt balance from the original creditor. Please be aware that Portfolio Recovery Associates has no connection with Sherman Financial and/or LVNV Funding.

Who is Resurgent Capital Services LP?

Resurgent Capital Services LP is the company that services and collects on debts acquired by LVNV Funding LLC. Based in Greenville, South Carolina, Resurgent Capital Services LP is also a part of the parent company, Sherman Financial Group. If one of your debt accounts was acquired by LVNV Funding LLC, then most likely it is Resurgent Capital Services LP that will be initially attempting to collect on the balance. This is one of the companies that debtors can speak with to work out payment plans or settlement arrangements on accounts sold to LVNV Funding LLC.

LVNV Funding Debt Collection

Collection efforts on debts bought by LVNV Funding LLC are typically handled initially by Resurgent Capital Services LP. An initial notice is usually sent by the original creditor indicating the account has been sold to LVNV Funding LLC, and then Resurgent Capital Services LP will start collection efforts quickly thereafter. It is also the case that Resurgent Capital Services LP will routinely assign the account to a third-party debt collection agency. If too much time goes by with no response from the debtor, then it is common for Resurgent/LVNV to assign the account to debt collectors, or a lawyer/ attorney, for legal action.

Negotiation Tip #1, ZipDebt.com Recommendation for Avoiding Collection Lawsuits & Lawyers from LVNV Funding LLC

If you have been researching how to deal with debt purchasers, you have probably come across discussions online about an outdated tactic, namely, Debt Validation, also known as “disputing the debt.”  I STRONGLY RECOMMEND AGAINST USING DEBT VALIDATION with LVNV Funding LLC and/or Resurgent Capital Services LP. The original idea behind this practice was to rely on a provision of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to demand formal documentation proving the buyer had correct information for the account. In previous times, it was commonly the case that debt buyers did not actually have strong documentation, and it was therefore possible to stall for time by requesting validation, or even cause the buyer to give up attempting to collect.

Those days are long gone! For a variety of reasons, the debt buying industry has become much more sophisticated and savvy over the past 10 years. Today most purchasers, including LVNV Funding LLC, actually do have access to the documentation needed to verify their claim against you. So today this is actually a counter-productive and potentially dangerous technique that can easily backfire. I’ve heard from consumers who used this approach, only to be provided with their requested validation in the form of a lawsuit, with a very thick stack of documentation attached to it! It’s far better to take an amicable “let’s work things out” approach with LVNV Funding LLC than using this outdated and risky tactic.

Negotiation Tip #2

If your priority is to fully repay your debt and not try to settle for a reduced payoff amount, then the best approach is to simply work with Resurgent Capital or the assigned third-party collection agency assigned to collect the debt on behalf of LVLV Funding LLC. It’s often possible to pay off the full amount over longer periods of time than would normally be expected in a collections environment. Since there are no fees or interest typically being added after the sale of the debt has taken place, this means that 100% of your payments go toward paying off the debt itself, and virtually nothing toward newly added fees or interest.

Bear in mind that it’s not necessary to make equal sized payments. Let’s say, for example, that you’re in a cashflow crunch but looking out ahead 6-12 months you think things will improve. It would be possible to set up payment arrangements over time, starting with smaller payments that you can handle, and then increasing to larger payments later on. Further, it’s usually possible to make adjustments to these arrangements along the way. The bottom line here is that LVNV Funding LLC is very flexible in working with consumers and will assist with setting up payment arrangements on the full balance that work for your budget.

Negotiation Tip #3

Negotiating a reduced payoff, known as a “settlement,” is definitely possible with accounts purchased by LVNV Funding LLC. It’s important that you frame your expectations realistically though. Often, consumers find very obsolete information online about “beating the debt purchaser at their game,” and this adversarial approach is just not going to work nowadays with most debt purchasers. An amicable approach works much better for most consumers, where your approach is to explain your financial difficulty and ask for assistance in resolving the debt for terms you are able to handle.

Decide ahead of time whether you are able to settle the debt balance in one large payment (i.e., the lump sum approach). If not, then decide in advance how long of a period of time you will need to fund a settlement, with arrangements over 6 months, 12 months, or even 24 months often being doable. Be realistic with your settlement percentage goal. It’s common for people to make a false assumption that a purchased account can be settled for 10-15 cents on the dollar, because the buyer “paid only pennies” for it, when this is simply not true in most cases.

Also, be aware that negotiating with Resurgent Capital LP on an LVNV Funding LLC account is a different situation compared to haggling with a law firm that is already authorized to bring a collection lawsuit.

Timeline for Negotiating Settlements with LVNV Funding LLC

As a general observation, the longer an account purchased by LVNV Funding LLC goes without being resolved (either via payment arrangements or a settlement), the higher the risk that the account will shift to a law firm for collection litigation. Don’t wait around expecting this creditor to simply forget about the account!

Usually, within the first 30-60 days of acquiring your account from the original creditor, you will receive a notice from Resurgent Capital LP indicating they are collecting on behalf of LVNV Funding Inc. (Again, these two entities are part of the same parent company.) The notice will contain their contact information, required disclosures about the account, and instructions for how to make payments.

Bear in mind that it’s often the case you won’t hear from Resurgent Capital LP but will instead start receiving phone calls and notices from an outside collection agency that is representing LVNV Funding LLC.

Within a few months of the purchase, some accounts are selected by LVNV Funding LLC for legal escalation, meaning that they view the account as being eligible for assignment to a law firm that is empowered to file a civil suit against you to recover the balance.

You will have much better results working out a negotiated debt settlement with LVNV Funding LLC before they move the account to a law firm. Therefore it’s best not to wait around but to respond quickly to their initial notices so you can work out arrangements that prevent the situation from deteriorating to legal status.

If it’s too late to catch the account before it has been assigned out to a law firm, please do not panic! It’s still possible to work out a settlement arrangement you can live with. Ideally, you will work out a settlement prior to a lawsuit being actually filed against you, but it’s still possible to achieve a settlement resolution even when active litigation is in play. Please be aware, however, then deep discounts are usually not possible once an account has shifted to legal status, so sooner is better than later in terms of trying to shave more off of the balance via settlement negotiations.

Does LVNV Show Up to Court?

This is not a creditor who tries to bluff consumers into thinking a lawsuit is imminent if they do not actually intend to file suit. I strongly recommend against ignoring legal threats associated with LVNV Funding LLC accounts, simply because it is normal and routine for them to eventually send their unresolved accounts to law firms. Please do not assume that you can easily “beat the debt buyer” in court by requesting validation of the debt per the FDCPA guidelines. Nowadays, sophisticated purchasers like this one do have the supporting documentation necessary to prove their claims in court.

How Can I Avoid Being Sued by LVNV Funding LLC?

The best way to avoid being sued by LVNV Funding is to engage with them soon after the purchase of your account, instead of simply ignoring their calls and notices for many months in the vain hope that the matter will simply disappear on its own. Get on the phone with them, candidly explain your situation, and then offer to do what you can in order to show good faith. Even if you can only pay $20 to $30 per month for a while, it’s often the case that this simple offer of cooperation will go a long way to securing you the precious time needed for your situation to improve to the point where you are in a better position to work things out.

How Do I Remove a LVNV Funding Entry on my Credit Report?

It’s normal for a debt buyer to add their own tradeline entry on your personal credit file after purchasing a debt from one of your original creditors. I hear from many consumers who are very frustrated by this and think it’s unfair; however, this practice is in line with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The good news is that today it’s no longer necessary to be so concerned about long term credit score damage due to a debt buyer adding their own notation to your file. The reason is because within 30-60 days of your completion of a payment arrangement or a settlement, LVNV Funding LLC will take action to voluntarily delete their tradeline from your credit file/ the credit bureau. This is automatic and therefore no action need be taken by consumers to dispute the entry or even request its deletion.

SUMMARY

LVNV Funding LLC is a professional debt purchasing organization that has a large presence in the marketplace. While they are obviously in business to generate a return on dollars invested in purchased accounts, my experience with them has been that they do try to work with consumers who are willing to work with them in return. The flexibility they offer in payment arrangements or settlement structures can be a real boon to consumers seeking to resolve delinquent accounts. While it’s normal for many debtors to feel anger toward a debt buyer, leading them to go online for information on how to “beat LVNV Funding,” the truth is that it’s far better to take a cooperative approach than a contentious one.

Consumer Reports is a well-known reporting organization respected for its impartial and thorough analysis of products, services, and companies, and has used ZipDebt as a source for its informative articles on Debt Relief. See the ZipDebt Consumer Reports article here.