One time we had this huge credit card debt that we just let sliiiiiiiiiiide. When we finally owned up to it, the debt collector told us that the credit card company said we could just pay 85% of it if we paid it all at once.

We took out a loan through school and told him that we were ready to pay up. He then came back and said he checked with the credit card company and they had changed their mind and we would in fact have to pay in full. Not knowing our ass from our elbow, we shrugged and agreed.

Now we know that this was a complete lie. After a debt collector buys your debt, the credit card company doesn’t have any more contact with him regarding that amount. It’s his. This guy just saw how comparatively easy it was to get us to come up with the cash and figured that if we could come up with 85%, he could easily squeeze us for the full 100%.

A lot of debt collectors are full of shit. Learn your rights and how the process works or just do what we do now nearly without fail: pay our bills on time — BEN POPKEN

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