UsedBranFlakes:

Thanks for your reply. Got no issues with paying the principal and interest, but hoped I might find some way to decrease the collection fee. I will do some reading and see if I can develop some negotiation skills in order to talk them down on the collection fee, but I fear I'll be negotiating from a position of weakness, since as you mentioned the law allows them to charge the full 25% even if they just had to mail a single reminder.

Again, thanks for your response -- I was starting to come to the conclusion that we'll be stuck paying the 25%, but I don't know much about debt and worried I might be missing some angle. Reading your message helps me come to terms with it.