Morning.

I have a 4 yr old hospital bill for $283.00 back when I got sick Texas. I came back to NY where I live and went through a bad time. I was a victim of identity theft. When I finally got back on my feet, I pulled my reports and started to slowly fix things and get my life back. I noticed the hospital bill went into collections but there was no number for me to reach them. A year later, I am in a better position where I can pay them and finally on a recent report, there was a number for the collection agency. Service Bureau Inc in Texas. I called. No voice mail. No machine. No answer. A couple of days later, someone calls me back and explains that I owe 283. I was so happy to hear from them as I am almost financially free!! I want to pay this small amount and get on with life. My credit report is something to smile at now. I told the lady I would be paying shortly, she gave me the address and we hung up. A week later, I get a letter. No real letterhead. Looked so fake. Like any one could have typed it up. It was basically threatening me telling me that an attorney was going to go into my credit report, look into all of my bank accounts and verify employment. I called the lady who was very rude when I simply asked if they were accredited and allowed to collect by law. She hung up on me shortly thereafter. I want to pay my debt but I feel uneasy about these people and I'm really not sure if they have the right to collect. How do I proceed?

Contact the original provider, tell them you are willing to pay, but you will only pay them and that they need to cancel the debt with the collection agency. Once that is done, you will pay the balance in full directly to them.

While they may have a contract with this agency, they can deal with that on their end, your concern is in getting the debt paid, and from the sounds of it, this agency is just some fly by night group with very little in the ethics department.