[poorgrl]

I was delinquent a little over three months on my credit card and it was sent to collections. The collections company called today and I paid $175 to send my balance back to the credit card company. (It's a store account, and I live in Washington State.) I've had a very good credit score, but I ended up in some debt problems with hospital bills. So now I'm looking at this being reported as going to collections. However, I'm confused as I thought being sent to collections meant the account couldn't go back to the credit card company. Should I have dealt with the collections company... is that the right thing to do, or did they just make things worse for me and my credit record? Thank you! I'm probably more upset about this than I should be.

[Betty3]

I was delinquent a little over three months on my credit card and it was sent to collections. The collections company called today and I paid $175 to send my balance back to the credit card company. (It's a store account, and I live in Washington State.) I've had a very good credit score, but I ended up in some debt problems with hospital bills. So now I'm looking at this being reported as going to collections. However, I'm confused as I thought being sent to collections meant the account couldn't go back to the credit card company. Should I have dealt with the collections company... is that the right thing to do, or did they just make things worse for me and my credit record? Thank you! I'm probably more upset about this than I should be.

Collection of credit card debt is handled in a variety of ways. Credit card cos. initially try to collect the outstanding bal. through its in-house coll. dept. or through a 3rd party firm that collects the debt under the name of the creditor. If the creditor is unable to collect the debt, the debt is either handed over to an outside agcy. that makes a % on collections or the debt is sold outright for pennies on the dollar. The sold debt is then written off against the amt. of outstanding debt.

[poorgrl]

I understand now. The collection agency was a 3rd party agency that they exclusively use to collect money. I wasn't aware that was a standard practice. Thank you!