When we decided to pay off our credit cards we contacted FCNB to lower the interest rate and let us pay higher monthly payments to pay off our overdue balance. They refused so we entered into a payoff arrangement through a credit counseling agency.
When we checked our credit report we found they had written off our debt and reported it to the credit reporting agencies as a bad debt. Even so we paid on time for 2 years and asked for some kind of statement so we would know what the balance was. Never received any information written or verbal. We continued to pay for a total of 5 years and would ask for a payoff balance occassionally. No response. I stopped paying in 2/06 after our records indicated we had paid over $5,000.00 of a $6,300.00 debt.
Now we have been contacted by a collection agency trying to collect the balance. Their figure is higher than ours by about $200.00. I do not mind paying what I owe but our concern is how do we know they are authorized to collect the debt? FCNB has also been dropped from our credit report so it will not affect us financially. The collection agency is threatening to turn in a bad report on us in an effort to force us to pay them the balance. We have heard of others who paid and still had collection agencies coming after them. Can anyone offer some advice? How can we find out if this collection agency is authorized to collect for FCNB?
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