Have you fallen behind on a credit card payment? Run into some unexpected financial difficulty and had to skip paying the credit card bill for a month or two? Are you getting phone calls from a debt collection agency? Those can be seriously annoying, and even unnecessary especially if you have the ability to catch up on your payments.

When we say “unnecessary” we mean that you likely don’t need to be bothered by a debt collection agency unless you are seriously behind in your payments and have a substantial amount of debt. Credit card companies all too often will send a collection off to a debt collector just so they don’t have to bother with the act of collection themselves.

There are a couple of things the debt collection agencies don’t want you to know. First, it is always in their best interest if you believe you have to pay your debt back to the agency instead of the original credit card company. They get a fee for collecting what you owe, and most of the time, you end up paying that fee. A debt collection agency will do whatever it can to make you believe you have to deal with them and only them, but this is not the case. If you are in this kind of situation, call the original credit card company and inform them you want to work with them to pay off your debt. A majority of the time, they will agree to do this, as they get their money back plus the interest owed. If you are able to arrange something with the original creditor, then you can ask the debt collection agency to stop calling you and inform them they can verify with the crediting agency that you are working with them.

If you cannot work something out with the original creditor, then know your rights when it comes to debt. Collections agencies, by law, cannot threaten you with jail time, cannot threaten to seize your property or garnish your wages. Now let’s be clear on this. There are laws that will allow debt collectors to sue you for your property or to garnish your wages. However, they are prohibited from actually threatening to do so (in other words, they are only permitted to inform you that they intend to legally pursue the collection of the debt, and must follow through with this action). Debt collectors also cannot send you any documents that resemble a court order, or that look like official court documents. Nor can they use a false company name in order to coerce you out of money you might otherwise need for necessities like food and shelter.

You can find out a lot more about how to deal with debt collectors here. If you are behind a couple of payments on your credit card, come take a look at the loan programs CASH 1 has available. We’re not recommending taking out a loan to pay off another loan, but if you are able to pay off a payday loan or online title loan or personal loans in a short amount of time and that allows you to catch up on your credit card payments, it could mean the difference between restoring your good credit and losing it.