Posted on December 23, 2009 at 2:35 pm Hi, I'm a little confused about creditors and collection agencies and those junk debt agencies? What are those? I mean - how do they all get my accounts?

Posted on December 23, 2009 at 2:38 pm Your accounts are with your 1) Original Creditors - they would try to collect on the full amount of your debt for 5-6 months and then pass it on to -2) A Third Party Collection Agency (which they perhaps own too) - the agency would try to collect a portion of that debt, typically more or less 50% of it.

Posted on December 23, 2009 at 2:55 pm To add to that:There are two types of collection agencies:  1) The ones that damon and graham has mentioned - your accounts are assigned to them.   2) The other one is the JUNK DEBT buyers or agencies.  They buy your debt in a huge portfolio (with thousands of other delinquent accounts) for between 1 to 15 cents on the dollars

Posted on December 23, 2009 at 2:58 pm I agree, and that means if you have a debt that's been sold a few times and if your account has been delinquent for over a year, you can settle it for very little.  It means that the longer the debt is uncollected, the higher the chances of you saving on it...there are even cases in which the statute of limitations on it expires.

Posted on December 23, 2009 at 3:23 pm I see..How to settle with junk debt agencies then?

Posted on December 23, 2009 at 3:32 pm Review the collection letter.Remember to have everything in writing.Should you decide to settle with them, start with a very low amount, some would say 25%If they refuse, wait it out a couple of months, and make another offer - slightly higher.If they refuse again, tell them you'd settle with the original creditors. They'd say that it's bad for your credit report. Don't listen to them - they are required to remove debts paid to the original creditors within 30 days.Contact your original creditors and try to settle.If you can't do this, professional help is available, but it depends on your debt amount. Incidentally, destroydebt.com offers a free initial debt consultation, just fill out  a form.

Posted on April 4, 2010 at 11:40 pm Junk debt agencies - remember that the longer your debt is unpaid, the more change of hands (more collection agencies your account is assigned to), the lesser your account value should be.

Posted on April 4, 2010 at 11:42 pm A question - what are the some of the really underhanded practices that junk debt agencies employ?

Posted on April 5, 2010 at 2:40 am -"time barred" or "Expired Statute of Limitations" accounts. -misreporting the "open date" and "date of last activity" -violations of certain codes like, consumers should be informed that the call is being monitored, etc. -multiple reporting of the same debt -threatening consumers about lawsuits or collectors pretending to be lawyers. --- you can read more here, http://www.fair-debt-collection.com/junk-debt-buyers.html