LVNV Funding LLC: What It Is and What Federal Law Lets You Do

This page is for a reader who has a letter, a call, court papers or a credit-report entry that names LVNV Funding LLC. When a company collects a consumer debt, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act may set the rules. Those rules cover how it may contact the consumer, what it must disclose, and how the consumer may dispute the debt.

A reader with a letter or a lawsuit naming LVNV Funding may want to know whether the company is real, why it has their name, and what the law lets a consumer do. This page explains the federal rules on debt collection and credit reporting that apply to a company of its type. Those rules come from the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The page also covers the agencies that take complaints.

What LVNV Funding LLC Is

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau describes one kind of business that may contact a consumer about a debt: companies that "buy past-due debts from creditors or other businesses and then try to collect them." The CFPB adds that these are "often called debt collection agencies, debt collection companies, or debt buyers" (CFPB). According to the CFPB, a debt buyer may collect "themselves or by using other debt collectors."

This page does not confirm LVNV Funding's corporate details, affiliates, addresses or phone numbers. Details about a specific account appear in the validation information the law requires a collector to provide. That information is covered below.

Whether federal debt-collection law applies depends on one definition. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692a(6), a "debt collector" is "any person who uses any instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails in any business the principal purpose of which is the collection of any debts, or who regularly collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another."

Whether LVNV Funding, or any company acting for it, meets that definition for a particular account depends on the facts of that account and how it is being collected.

What Federal Law Requires of Debt Collectors

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is the main federal law for debt collectors. It is codified at 15 U.S.C. §§ 1692–1692p. It protects a "consumer," which the statute defines as a natural person obligated or allegedly obligated to pay a debt. It covers debts arising from transactions "primarily for personal, family, or household purposes."

Its core rules include these:

• Timing and place. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(a), a collector generally may not contact a consumer "at any unusual time or place or a time or place known or which should be known to be inconvenient." Without knowing otherwise, the collector must assume that 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., local time at the consumer's location, is convenient. This rule does not apply where the consumer has given prior consent directly to the collector or a court has expressly permitted the contact.
• Third parties. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(b), a collector generally may not discuss the debt with people other than the consumer, the consumer's attorney and a few others the statute names. The limits on debt collectors calling family follow from this rule.
• Harassment. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692d, a collector "may not engage in any conduct the natural consequence of which is to harass, oppress, or abuse any person." Examples in the statute include repeated calls made with intent to annoy and calls made without saying who is calling.
• False statements. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692e, a collector "may not use any false, deceptive, or misleading representation or means." That includes misstating the amount or legal status of a debt.
• Unfair means. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692f, a collector "may not use unfair or unconscionable means." That includes collecting any amount that the agreement creating the debt or the law does not authorize.

A consumer may also stop most contact. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(c), if a consumer notifies a collector in writing that the consumer refuses to pay or wants communication to stop, the collector "shall not communicate further" about that debt. The statute allows three exceptions. The collector may still advise that its efforts are ending, notify the consumer that it or the creditor may invoke remedies it ordinarily uses, or notify the consumer that it intends to invoke a specified remedy. The CFPB notes that a request to stop contact "will not necessarily stop them from suing you or reporting the debt."

Conduct described above may violate the FDCPA only if the company is a debt collector under the statute. Whether a particular situation violates the law depends on its facts.

Debt Validation: What a Consumer May Request

Debt validation is the consumer's right to have a debt collector confirm the debt it is trying to collect. For someone who doesn't recognize an account, this is often the first concrete tool the law provides.

Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(a), within five days after first contacting the consumer, a collector must send a written notice. It must do so unless that information was in the first contact or the consumer has already paid. The notice must contain:

1. the amount of the debt;
2. the name of the creditor to whom it is owed;
3. a statement that unless the consumer disputes it within thirty days after receiving the notice, the collector will assume it is valid;
4. a statement that if the consumer disputes it in writing within that period, the collector will obtain verification or a copy of a judgment and mail it to the consumer; and
5. a statement that, on written request within that period, the collector will provide the original creditor's name and address, if different from the current creditor.

Regulation F, at 12 C.F.R. § 1006.34, adds more detail to this notice. The required items include:

• the collector's mailing address for disputes;
• for a debt related to a consumer financial product or service, the creditor on the "itemization date," which is a reference date such as the charge-off date or the last payment date;
• an itemization of interest, fees, payments and credits since that date;
• the date the collector treats as the end of the validation period; and
• response prompts such as "This is not my debt."

Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(b), a consumer may dispute the debt in writing within the thirty-day period, or ask for the original creditor in writing. The collector must then stop collecting the debt, or the disputed portion, until it mails verification, a copy of a judgment, or the original creditor's name and address. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(c), not disputing a debt cannot be treated by a court as an admission of liability.

If LVNV Funding Has Filed a Lawsuit

The FTC's debt collection guidance addresses what happens if a debt collection lawsuit is filed.

The FTC's guidance says a consumer may respond "either personally or through your attorney" by the date specified in the court papers. The FTC also warns that ignoring a lawsuit does not preserve a consumer's rights (FTC).

One possible defense involves the statute of limitations. This is the period within which a debt may be sued on. The FTC explains that the period depends on the kind of debt and on state law, or on the state named in the credit agreement. In some states, a payment or a written acknowledgment of the debt restarts the clock. Whether a particular debt is "time-barred" depends on its facts.

That limitations period concerns the collector's ability to sue on the underlying debt. It is a separate question from any time limit on a consumer's own claim against a collector under the FDCPA, which is not set by the state rules for the debt. The two periods run independently, and one does not answer the other.

The FTC also notes that many federal benefits are generally exempt from court-ordered garnishment. A broader overview of a consumer lawsuit under federal law appears elsewhere on this site.

Credit Reporting and LVNV Funding

A different law, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), governs what appears on a credit report. A consumer reporting agency is a company that gathers information about consumers and sells reports on them, such as a credit bureau. A furnisher is a business that sends account information to those agencies. A company that reports a collection account to a credit bureau acts as a furnisher for that information. According to the FTC, a debt collector must take one of several listed actions before reporting a debt to a credit reporting company; one of them is to talk to the consumer about the debt by phone or in person.

A consumer may dispute an entry directly with the bureau. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(1)(A), the agency must, free of charge, conduct a reasonable reinvestigation. A reinvestigation is the bureau's second look at the disputed item to decide whether it is inaccurate. The bureau must then record the item's current status or delete it. It must finish before the end of the 30-day period that begins when it receives the dispute. That period may be extended by up to 15 days if the consumer sends relevant information during the 30 days, unless the item is found inaccurate or incomplete, or cannot be verified, during that period. A bureau may end a reinvestigation if it reasonably determines that the dispute is frivolous or irrelevant. Within 5 business days of receiving the dispute, the bureau must notify any person who provided an item of information in dispute.

Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b), a furnisher that receives notice of a dispute from a bureau under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(2) must:

• investigate;
• review the information the bureau sent;
• report the results to the bureau; and
• if the investigation finds the information incomplete or inaccurate, report those results to the other nationwide bureaus to which it furnished the information.

If the item is inaccurate, incomplete or cannot be verified, the furnisher must modify it, delete it or block it from being reported. Disputes with a specific bureau, such as an Experian credit report dispute, follow these same rules.

Filing a Complaint with the CFPB or FTC

The CFPB's consumer page states that a person "having issues with debt collection" can submit a complaint with the CFPB. The FTC's debt-collection guidance also explains how to report a debt collector and lists the CFPB as a place to do so. The FTC adds that many states have their own debt collection laws that differ from federal law (FTC).

An agency complaint is not a lawsuit. It is separate from any private claim a consumer might bring under the FDCPA or the FCRA, and filing one does not guarantee any particular result. Whether a private claim exists depends on the facts and on the conditions each statute sets. Those statutes are summarized on this site's page about the consumer rights attorney's role.

If LVNV Funding Is Contacting or Reporting About You

This page explains federal rules in general. It does not address a specific state's court procedures or a particular account.

A reader may request a consumer rights case review through Federal Consumer Rights.