Hello,
Going back about a year, I took a pay cut and ran into some extreme financial difficulties. My home depot card was sent to collections after it was delinquent for 120+ days. The 3rd party collection agency has been harrassing me for about 4 months. Going back to the beginning of the 4 months, I was threatened by the collection agency to be served with a summons at my place of work. I called citibank who originallly held the card and they advised that they cannot legally do that and that it was a scare tactic. Unfortunately they told me that I needed to deal with the 3rd party on payments, or I could mail my payments to Home depot and they would be applied. The 3rd party collection agency offered me an "open ended settlement for 70% of the debt. The told me that if I could make a $2,000 payment and then pay the other 2600 (70%) of the total debt within 60 days, they would settle the account. I told them that I may not be able to settle, could I leave this as an open ended settlement and try to gather the money. If not, could I make a minimum monthly payment rather than settle. The rep told me yes, try and pay off the 70% within 60 days. If you cannot, you can make $100 payments per month. after the initial $2,000 payment I was not able to come up with the additional 2600 to settle the account, so I made 2 monthly payments of $100 as we had agreed. The rep also told me that if I was ever in danger of not making a payment to call him and he gave me his direct extension.
Today I called them back today (time for the scheduled $100 payment) to advise I could only pay $50, but wanted to make a payment. Conveniently enough the rep is no longer with them. They told me that they gave me a hardship agreement and my balance was $4600 or so. They would settle for 50% if I could pay it now. I advised that I could not and explained that I made an agreement with the rep to make monthly payments of $100. However I could only make a $50 payment at this time. They told me that was not sufficient. They asked me what family members I could turn to. I informed them that was not possible as that was how I came up with the $2000 for the first payment.
They were increasingly hostile. I informed them that when I spoke with the original debt holder (Citibank) the advised that I could make my payments to Home Depot. I told this to the hostile rep and she said, fine you do that and we'll do what we have to do in a very threatening tone.
Can anyone give me advise as to how to best handle this situation. I don't want to keep making payments to them and would rather pay Home Depot. However, I don't know what the minimum is because it was handed over to the 3rd party.
These people are nasty and won't accept anything other than their terms. Is there any hope for me. Or is it proable that I will be sued. Im a resident of CT, what are the statute of limitations and what do I need to know pertaining this debt.

