New to debt - questions regarding collection agencies

All -

I am trying to help my boyfriend eliminate his debts. Recently he went to purchase a new car and found that there were 3 accounts showing as delinquent on his cridt report that he didn't remember anything about - one from Chase, one from Caiptal One, and one for his college.

After calling Chase and Capital One, it appears that both accounts have been turned over to collection agencies - NAFS for one, and someplace else for the other. I think both debts are around $800 according to his credit report. As I've never dealt with collection agencies before, I have no idea of where to even start with this or what is an accepatable/feasible amount that these collection agencies would be willing to settle for. Can anyone offer any help as to what to expect/accept as reasonable? He'd like to get these paid off and off of his credit report ASAP.

Any help is appreciated!

As you've got a small debt amount i would request you to contact your creditors and negotiate with them,work out some settlement plans with them in order to get that account settled.

Please don't stress over this, it's small potatoes!!! Call and offer a settlement and once they have received it and return the settlement letter, you can yourself report it to the credit bureau's.
For now you can even show the letter to creditors showing you have paid!