We have been with a consumer counseling agency for the last two months, which they have been making payments to our creditors. We have one creditor Sears, which has been handed over to a collection agency. The collection agency has been calling our home and telling us they do not work with consumer counseling agency and will not accept any proposals at all and demand that we settle in full now. Is this legal?? When speaking with our consumer counseling agency the proposal has not been denied and payments have been made the last two months and another payment to be released this week. Can this creditor keep demanding that we pay?

Of course they can, there is no law that they have to work with a credit counseling company, and some companies will work with some credit couselling companies better than others.

They can refuse to accept the agreements of the credit counseling company and continue to court and get a judgement if they would like.

The credit counseling company did not say they agreed or accepted the plan, merely they did not deny or respond I will assume, that does not mean they accept any terms or agreements.

I've heard of this sort of thing happening.

Another trend is that they'll have you go delinquent on accounts that were actually current to gain some leverage... which really helps the 'ol credit score!

You may be able to do better on your own...

Debt Relief - Why Most Programs Have A 75% Failure Rate


This is not an endorsement of the product, as I haven't reviewed it... but it does sound plausible.

The website mentions that some creditors refuse to cooperate with debt negotiation companies, so you may end up having to handle this one on your own.

If you can handle this account, maybe you can handle the others?