[cercis]

It's common practice. For the above listed reasons. Plus, the person you talked to will get the commission if you pay through him but may not if you don't. And if he doesn't get the minimum number of payers, he will be fired. It was a major problem at the collection agency I worked for (I was not on commission and was there as a paralegal not a collector so it didn't apply to me) the supervisors would apply many payments mailed in to their collector number and collect the commission and use it to bump up their numbers.

I saw massive turnover and most of it was firing. Collectors are a dime a dozen (and not paid well, minimum wage with commission).