Never pay collections??

**james.hendrickson** · 03-05-2018, 06:39 PM

Sun - its going to run your credit for years. Pay them.

**bjl584** · 03-06-2018, 04:34 AM

If you're asking if it's criminal to not pay them, then no it's not. No one is going to haul you off to jail. But, student loan debt is not forgivable in bankruptcy, so that debt will sit on your credit report until you pay it. If you are looking for a way to weasel out of paying for your education, then you are going to have to deal with a lifetime of being denied credit for everything you can think of. I'd work on paying them if I were you. Good luck.

**disneysteve** · 03-06-2018, 05:12 AM

Why would someone who does debt collection for a living tell you there's no need to pay debts that are in collection?

You signed a legally binding contract when you borrowed that money. You are legally obligated to repay it as agreed. If you don't, your credit will be trashed and you can and will be sued to recover that money.

**snafu** · 03-06-2018, 05:32 AM

What is your credit score? As part of vetting procedure, a lot of employers will eliminate potential candidates or those being considered for promotion if they have an unacceptably low credit score. Credit grantors in the future will charge you the highest interest rate making you pay more for any and all future credit purchases. When you see 'on Approved Credit,' you are eliminated.

**msomnipotent** · 03-06-2018, 07:19 AM

I'm 99.9% sure that buried within the paperwork you signed for the loan is a paragraph that states you agree to pay Discover and/or any subsidiary or collection agency that Discover chooses to collect through.

Who are these people in the industry you speak of? Are they actual people you know or just some internet "article" you read? If it was a random article, take it with a grain of salt. I worked in hospital billing for years. You would be surprised at what kind of "laws" people cite as to why we couldn't send their bills to agencies. None of which were true. If you know the person, ask them if they have ever decided not to pay a bill in collections because they didn't agree to pay the collector. Chances are very good that they will say no, but if they say yes, ask them how that is working out for them.

**dczech09** · 03-08-2018, 02:23 PM

When a collection agency (even an outside one) purchases a debt from another company, they purchase the rights to collect, and the legal ownership of that debt.

The people telling you that you do not legally owe that debt are dead WRONG! I am sorry if they are your friends, but they are wrong and gave you bad information.

By their logic, no creditor could sell their debt to another company. But of course, we know that happens all the time, especially in the student loan industry. Debts are constantly being bought and sold be lenders, and it is not just for write-off purposes.

You owe the debt. Plain and simple. Student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, and there is no statute of limitations. As long as you continue to not pay that debt, the more your credit will be (negatively) impacted. Also, you open yourself up to lawsuit, judgment, garnishment, interception, etc.

While your credit score really only matters if you borrow money, your credit report is VERY important and will be looked at by insurance companies, landlords, utility companies, employers, etc. If your credit history shows derogatory remarks, it could affect your ability to obtain not only credit, but insurance, phone service, utility service, internet, a job, a promotion, etc. Your world revolves around your credit history.

Do you really think debt collection agencies have set up an entire industry predicated on the inability to legally collect debts? If they did, someone would have exposed it by now and those companies would not exist.

**Gailete** · 03-08-2018, 07:34 PM

Originally posted by sunshxne View Post

Hi guys!

My Discover student loan has recently been charged off and sent to Discover Student Loans collections. Many people who work in the debt-collection industry say that legally there is no need to pay collections agencies because you never agreed to pay them anything, you only agreed to pay the company who sold your debt to them. My question is, does this rule still apply if the collections agency is within the parent company, like in my case?

I just read your other post about being laid off. If you were just laid off, then your studnet loans shouldn't have gone to collections that fast. It sounds like you weren't paying it when you were making more than enough money.

Yes, you still owe it. I don't know if you were told this 'secret' about collection companies not leggally having the ability to collect, so you decided to let it go into collections purposefully, but if you were making more than enough, I don't know why you weren't paying a bill you were legally obligated to pay.

Hate to tell you this, in your current lay off, you need to be budgeting money to be paying the collection agency as well.

**todaywithoutmistakes** · 04-02-2018, 05:26 AM

Nice.

Never pay collections??