Collection companies are businesses just like any other, most buy unpaid debt from the original creditor for a fraction of the original amount owed and then try and collect as much as possible from you collection agency harassment.
For example, If you had an unpaid credit card balance of $2000, a collection company may buy it from the creditor for $400 and will attempt to collect the full amount from you. This is sometimes the reason for the continuous harassment from collection agencies.
It is important to understand that you have personal rights in reference to how collection agencies communicate with you in reference to any debt. They must follow these laws and you also have the right to sue them if they don’t.
A collection agency by law cannot call you before 8.00am and after 9.00pm and must also stop calling you once you instruct them to by putting it in writing. It is also possible to remove collection accounts from your credit report.
In order to do this it depends on the stage of the collection account, if its older than 7 years then you can have it removed with a simple letter to the credit bureaus. If its an account where the collector is still calling you, you can negotiate a lower payment in exchange for them deleting it from your report.
