Im Uk and this is whats happening here..if you found yourself say in a financial situation with something you was struggling you could telephone the company and they would be more helpful..it seems as if this is not the case so much now..what they do youre being put through to a collection agency..which can put some people into a panic and find the money and pay it all off or you might just make a payment agreement which youve not thought about..you pay more than you could realistically thought about.next month comes along and then you default and thats what they like..they then like sending you to court and usually pick one not near where you live..you dont attend because they do it so quick and the judge stamps it..then some companies are selling youre debt to others to get rid of you ..fair enough they want to claw in their money and they dont want to be burnt by people who can pay but dont..but you get interest added on by the court and also by the company..you then have a county court Judgement against you and youre credit is not looking so good..you then have to deal with some collection companies which can be awlful.

I'm in the US so I'm not sure if the process is the same, but I thought that they "worked" with the people they would contact. I don't think my friend has been contacted by a collector, but has received a letter from the school saying she was being sent to one. I can't ask about it more in depth, but I'm curious what the ramifications of this are because I'm wanting to protect myself.

I got sent to collections, on accident lol. We moved, and I changed my mailing address with a store credit card, but something happened and they didn't save the change. They were sending my bill to my old address, I wasn't getting a bill so I thought I was paid up. They sent me to collections over less then $100.

The collections guy was actually nice. And I was given X amount of days to pay my debt to collections before it went to court. If need be they were willing to work out a payment plan.

I do believe it shows up that you have been sent to collections on your credit (not sure about that) but that you resolved it. I was the victim of identity theft and such and my credit is destroyed until the investigation is done....which could be years, so I didn't even notice if it went on my record or not for sure.

I'm in Canada.

JoleneLS: I don't even know if my friend will get on top of this to take ownership and talk to the school/collection agency. I never saw the letter they got but supposedly they talked to their current school and their parent is contacting people. I think it's around $2,000 in debt because they dropped out and still owed tuition.

They never found out what they owed when they dropped out so I'm not feeling very sympathetic in this situation but want to know more so I can be empowered if it's brought up to me.

I never got a letter, they called me directly and left a message. If they don't own up they will go to court and thier credit will take a beating and a half. At a young age (not that I'm that old lol) you don't want that on you.

I've been to collections more then I'd like to admit... my own personal experience is that first the creditor will try and collect the debt first, if they can't do it, they will get a collection service involved...

To me, that is when the nightmare begins. I always would get a letter from a lawyer saying how this bill can affect me and how they will take me to court.... then the phone calls and more letters... a lot of the times I ignored them until I would be served papers at home or work saying I was going to court.

If a person can handle all that pressure is when a deal can be made before the actual court hearing happens. Collection agencies just want money. Lets say they "buy" your debt for 50 cents on the dollar.

They try to collect it all but if they see that can't be done, they can offer a settlement for 60 cents to 75 cents on the dollar, they make money and you save some money, though the next year you will receive a 1099 for taxes on the unpaid balance...

In the past, I have gone this route and also in the past I couldn't even come up with this kind of money and had my wages garnished...

Incognita: Make your payments on time and it won't happen to you. Also, if you are in a forbearance program, make sure you apply every year. This happened to my best friend (who also went to our alma mater). She didn't realize you had to apply every year and she got a year behind in payments. Now, she's making expensive monthly payments to get caught up but she was already reported to the credit bureaus and will be dinged for a while. But, she won't be in default so if she ever went back to school, she could get financial aid.