My brother tried to do a debt settlement with this company late Feb 2010. They said they would settle so he asked for a fax stating the terms of the agreement. They dated the letter Feb 25, but in the letter they said if the debt wasn't paid by Feb 16, the deal was null and void. Had I not looked at the letter and caught that, they would have taken his money and still owed all the debt. They have tried several times to take money out of his account (yes he stupidly gave them his account number)even before Feb 25. Luckily I had told him to empty the account as soon as I found out he was dealing with them. DO NOT EVER GIVE YOUR BANK ACCOUNT NUMBERS TO A COLLECTION AGENCY. TELL THEM YOU WILL PAY WITH A MONEY ORDER OR GO THROUGH PAYPAL. My brother now has to close all his bank accounts.

I had a payment agreement with American Express and agreed to the payment plan and was making the payments. All of the sudden I start receiving calls from Collect Corp and they tell me my account was turned over to them and there's nothing I can do about it. I called American Express and they said my account was sent to them a day after I made the agreement with AMEX. How can this be?? If I'm on a pmt agreement how can they turn my account over the day after I made the agreement with them?

Another issue I have is that Collect Corp called my phone a total of 4 times today, three of the calls were from their number and they must have a programmable caller id because the other was from BOA who I do have my mortgage through but I'm not late on any payments. I was told that this is illegal. Any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You

Originally Posted by Collections-DONT pay them

I used to be in the bsuiness. I bought tens of millions of dollars of debt and collected on a small fraction of it. Its a very togh business. Now that I am not in the business, I will tell you this. Once your credit card, or any debt for that matter as gone to collections, DONT PAY IT - EVER. Once you have a "Charge Off" on your credit report, the only thing tat will make it go away is time. There is ZERO difference between a "PAID CHARGOFF" and a "CHARGEOFF". Once the creditor has charged it off, your credit score will suffer until time heals the bad mark. So, despite what the Collection agency tells you, it will remain on your report and be reflected in your FICO score. Negotiate DIRECLY with the Company that you owe the debt too. Have them send you a notorized letter stipulating that if you pay off he debt, that they will remove all negative information from all THREE credit reporting bureaus, and that they will not post any additional information concerning te specific debt. This is the ONLY way to repair your credit. Period.

I had a payment agreement with American Express and agreed to the payment plan and was making the payments. All of the sudden I start receiving calls from Collect Corp and they tell me my account was turned over to them and there's nothing I can do about it. I called American Express and they said my account was sent to them a day after I made the agreement with AMEX. How can this be?? If I'm on a pmt agreement how can they turn my account over the day after I made the agreement with them?

Another issue I have is that Collect Corp called my phone a total of 4 times today, three of the calls were from their number and they must have a programmable caller id because the other was from BOA who I do have my mortgage through but I'm not late on any payments. I was told that this is illegal. Any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You

If you're going through the trouble of finding out ways to avoid a debt, bashing debt collectors and filing complaints isn't the solution. You borrowed the funds, now its time to pay it back -- what would you be if you didn't? A thief? Pretty much. If you don't want to pay it back - fine, deal with the concequences of being in collections and find ways to resolve it.
Removed, personal attacks not tolerated!