Portfolio Recovery Associates Announces Opening Of New Office in Hampton, Virginia

NORFOLK, VA — Portfolio Recovery Associates, Inc., (Nasdaq: PRAA), a leading provider of outsourced receivables management, announced today that it has opened its third call center in NetCenter, on Mercury Boulevard, Hampton, Virginia. The new 21,000 square foot center opened today with a staff of 72 employees, including numerous collectors and members of management that have transferred from the Company’s home office and primary call center in Norfolk, Virginia. The NetCenter facility is expected to expand to more than 250 employees over time. The company employed 581 employees as of December 31, 2002. The company also has a call center in Hutchinson, Kansas.

About Portfolio Recovery Associates
Portfolio Recovery Associates was founded in 1996. Portfolio Recovery Associates purchases, collects and manages portfolios of defaulted consumer receivables. Defaulted consumer receivables are the unpaid obligations of individuals to credit originators, including banks, credit unions, consumer and auto finance companies, retail merchants and other service providers. The defaulted consumer receivables Portfolio Recovery Associates collects are either purchased from the credit originator or are collected on behalf of clients on a commission basis. More information concerning the company may be found at its web site: www.portfoliorecovery.com.

Statements in this press release, other than historical data and information constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The forward looking statements in this press release are based upon management’s beliefs, assumptions and expectations of the company’s future operations and economic performance, taking into account currently available information. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, some of which are not currently known to us. Accordingly, a number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements to be very different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Information in this press release may be superseded by more recent information or statements which may be disclosed in later press releases, subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or otherwise.