Collection agencies and lies

whoops, that post took off on me, I had another question..
do I also negotiate the same way? I mean by sticking to my guns of I have $5000 only (debt is 18k) and not $7700 like they want.
I ask this cause when I talk to the big banks we seem to actually negotiate but with the CA they don't seem to ever leave any room for that, making it like I must take that or nothing.
How long do CA keep acounts or keep trying to negotiate?
thanks

The CA paid a lot less than they want, and they are pushing for a higher amount to earn a bigger commission. You can call them on the lie, or even sue or threaten to sue to get leverage in the settlement because they misrepresented ownership of the account. Record your calls if legal in your state. If they want to break the law while you are trying to pay them, the cost to you will go down. Tell them you want their "blanket" offer. That is supposed to be the lowest, but remember the economy sucks for them too so if you work on them, you should be able to get the offer to an amount you can afford.
They will keep the account for as long as they think there is a possibility of getting money out of you.

'They keep saying that they have to take my offer back to the client (in this case citi) and I found out that is not true since citi sold it to them. Citi told me this so I know it is true.' - So, they're misrepresenting the debt. That's a 1 rules. Follow what Joe Smith has written in his post. And stick to your offer. More often than not, they will agree to your settlement amount. Best of luck and keep us posted.

my question to you is this - are they naming the client as "citi" or are they simply saying theyre taking it back to their client?

Citi doesnt generally sell their accounts which leads me to believe the OP doesnt understand collection terms....Citibank probably assigned the account to the collection agency. Plus the fact that the collector is quoting taking an offer to citibank...makes me believe even more that Citi still owns it.

Citibank has set guidelines for settlements that collectors follow. No call or confernece is required. Only in unusual circumstances will citi accept a lessor offer. Normally the older the paper, the lower they can go on settlement.

Soaplady, I am the op, I follow your posts and know you know your stuff but I do think I am right ....I had 2 accounts with citi for 18k each and one got sent to ucb. they just settled with me on the one that was still with them for 5k, I badly wanted to settle the other one and the woman told me she wanted to but that it had been sold. that is the word she used and I asked if they could get it back and she said no it was sold.
if you can interpret that any other way or think of anything I can say to clarify then I would like it cause would much rather settle with them than deal with these jerks..
thanks

Just to clarify, Soaplady is probably right althought I am right about what was said to me. I still don't know the answer but I did call Citi back and ask them and all I could really tell was they were trying to be careful with their words but I then called back the CA and we got a lower settlement fairly easily (they had been nasty and hardball) and suddenly I told them my other Citi had settled at 25% and that I would give them the person's phone # to verify. Coincidentally both Citi account were for same dollar amount and I said so that is all I have for you also, I must divide my settlement funds among 4 cards and no arguement and they did it. But they did go away from phone saying they had to verify with Citi that client would accept it...they did.
But that is why I say I think SoapLady is correct.