collection agencies

[threevees]

I was told to never pay any money to collection agencies alot of them are not legitimate and they just take your money and run.

[nitemarecooper]

I cannot give you a definite answer for sure, but that wouldn't surprise me. I've been warned too if I ever had to deal with them don't take their word for it. If I were you I'd contact the creditor and find out from them the name of the collection agency it was sold to. In theory someone should be able to tell you.

[SnoopyCool]

If there's any question, you should send them a letter (certified mail), verifying the debt.

[Gary Barzel]

There are two types of collection agencies, one is 1st party collector, and the other one is 3rd party collector. A first party acts on behalf of the lender, whereas a 3rd party buys off your debt and hopes to make a profit. Third party collectors are the ones that turn nasty and harass you. There are laws with regard to them harassing you, be sure to look into the laws if you are being harassed.

[seen]

I worked for an agency when I was in university, and I can tell you this:

Whoever is calling you absolutely should be able to provide you with verification before you decide to do anything. If mail verification isn't enough, as suggested earlier you can call your creditor as well to find out what is going on. If you're avoiding your creditor however, that's a different story.

If things are the same now as they were 7-8 yrs ago, a creditor can send your debt to a 3rd party agency after as low as 3 months of delinquency. Personally I've never heard of debt scams since personal debt isn't public information, nor did any co-workers make any mention of it back then.

That said, I believe there could be scams out there trying to take your money sourced on info that was either obtained illegally or is incorrect all together, but assuming they're all fraudulent and doing nothing at all on your part is even more dangerous if you care about your credit at all.

[snafu]

Your credit rating is too important long term to ignore debt or collection agencies. Many employers are checking credit ratings of prospective and current employees. Insurance companies likewise check out clients credit before accepting for auto and house insurance.

[GrimJack]

Another warning about working with the 3rd party collections is "NEVER SEND THEM A CHECK" - all the information necessary for them to direct debit your account is on the check. One of the tricks I heard about was the collector saying "Look just send us a check for 10% and we will call it even" and then take the rest out of the checking account using direct debit routing.

This might be another reason to stop using checks.