Who is Cavalry SPV?
We’re getting lots of cases from Cavalry SPV. These cases are being filed in District Justice Court and the Court of Common Pleas. In most instances, Cavalry is being represented by the fine attorneys at Apothaker Scian. You’ve never had an account with Cavalry, you’ve never had a contract with them, they’ve never lent you any money or extended any credit to you, yet they are suing you in court for thousands of dollars. How can that be?
Cavalry is what is known as a “junk debt buyer”. They buy a few thousand accounts at a time from creditors like Citibank, Synchrony, Care Credit and others and they purchase these accounts for pennies on the dollar. These transactions are legal, its no different than one person selling a car to another. A credit card account is an “asset” and any asset can be bought or sold.
The key to these Cavalry cases is in consulting with and then hiring a consumer attorney. On many of these Cavalry cases, they lack the proper evidence to beat you in court. In that instance, defending the lawsuit is the way to go. On other cases where it appears that they have a decent amount of evidence, settlement may be the way to go. Each case needs to be looked at on an individual basis with all facts being considered. One issue that stands out on many of the recent Cavalry cases is the age of the debt. As these credit card cases are based upon written contracts they are subject to Pennsylvania’s four (4) year statute of limitations. This means that Cavalry must begin its lawsuit against you within 4 years of the date of your last payment to the original creditor (or any payment made to Cavalry). On most of the recent cases that we’ve seen with this company, the date of the last payment has been in the 3 to 4 year range.
Finding the date of your last payment can be tricky because not many people can remember such isolated events from so many years in the past. Our recommendation is that you obtain a current copy of your credit report from www.annualcreditreport.com. On that report it should list the date of the last payment. If it does not, you can then look to the “date that this information will be removed” from the credit report. The information regarding payments can only be reported for 7.5 years from the date of the last payment. So if your removal date is in 2021, you can safely assume that your last payment was made either in late 2013 or early 2014.
We offer free consultations on all Cavalry related issues. Call our office at 412-348-8600 for a free telephone consultation.
