CA calls starting - what now?

I would call Zwicker back, confirm your name and address and ask them to send you a letter of collection. I would also ask them if they have been assigned your debt or if they purchased your debt. If they're working on behalf of Citi or Chase, any settlement you work out with them would be fine. Do you know if you've been charged off yet? How behind are you? I've heard Citi is pretty agressive.

If Zwicker has been assigned your account, you will have to work with them as they are assigned the account under contract.

Using a cease and desist is not always a wise move....it could portray you a difficult debtor and they could move to filing against you in court immediately.

What would the difference be if they are assigned vs purchased?

We are somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 days late.

I've never dealt with any sort of collection agency before and this scares the crap out of me!

Assigned means your original creditor has hired them to collect the debt on their behalf. Purchased means your original creditor wrote it off as a loss and sold it to the collection agency. If you're at 100 days, Zwicker is probably assigned. Call them and see what kind of settlement offer they will give you. I wouldn't cease and desist, as Soap said. That may only hurt your chances of settling and speed up the litigation process. Do you have the funds to settle the accounts if you get a good offer? You usually have to pay it off in 90 days and your first payment will be due within 10 days.

We have funds to settle - but since we are trying to settle others can't do more than 35%.
I've read some bad things on this forum about Zwicker and, of course, do not want to go to litigation.

Just keep the lines of communication open and keep countering their offers with an offer you can afford. Hang in there. 35% is not unreasonable.

Thanks! I am hopeful that the end of the month approaching will work in our favor.

We have done our best to take calls once every 2 weeks - but I guess we better talk to them weekly.

Ok - got the info - it is Chase and they have been assigned. Spoke to the original collector who called, who was very polite and informative. He transferred me to his "collection manager" when I mentioned that the most we could maybe come up with was around 25%. The CM, again very polite, is telling me that the lowest he has seen them go is 40%, no installments. They have only had the debt 2 days, so I am wondering if this an accurate statment or if we should expect to be able to negotiate to an amount closer our goal of 30-35% in installments.

They always try to get as much as they possibly can from you. I think you may be able to get closer to that 30-35% mark as you approach 120 days. Is he going to get back to you regarding your offer of 25%?

He felt the 25% was way too low and completely unlikely, but left if up to me to if I wanted him to "take it to Chase" We left it as I would take a day or two to talk things over with my spouse and see what a realistic number for us to come up with was and touch base again before he takes an offer to Chase. He said that if he took something too low, they were apt to come back higher than the 50% he "felt sure" they would take. To me, this seemed like a line, but I'm playing the game a little here.
They also said that if it is not settled out in 30 days, that the litigation process will begin.