Once the agency receives your letter (which you should send through registered mail and always keep a copy for yourself), then they must cease all communication with you except to notify you of:

• The fact that they will cease communication
  
  
• Any actions that they are about to take

 

When they cease communication with you, it can make your life seem less stressful, but it is important to remember that just because they aren’t calling you every day, does not mean that the debt has disappeared. 

You will still owe the same amount of debt and the collection agency may be able to sue to in order to obtain their money.  However, the frequent calls and pestering will stop, and that will make your life easier while you figure out how to get your finances back in order.

Steps to Negotiating a Reduced Payment

If you owe a debt and are not able to pay it off in full, you may want to consider negotiating with the collection agencies or creditors for a debt reduction. 

Depending on the situation, you can sometimes reduce your debt by more than 50%. 

When you owe a debt that you have not been making payments on, sometimes the creditors become worried that you will never pay the balance.  Because they would rather get some of their money back than not get anything, they are willing to negotiate with you.