I've never heard of this before. Tell me more! How do you sign p, what do you need to do to get the points, etc...
And collections can so easily get away from you once they start getting sold from one agency to another. DH had one credit card account from his late teens that we've paid off (settled in full) three times - the first time before we met in '99, the second time when we were cleaning up our credit to buy a house in '03, and the third time when they sought an order to attach our bank accounts in 2014. Each time the collection agency that currently had the debt had no record of the settlement with the previous agency, the previous agency was no longer in business/bought out and couldn't be reached, and like idiots neither of us held on to the payoff paperwork long enough. Fortunately it was a relatively small debt (~ $700) but still a shock and general pain in the *** to have it come back like that. Moral of the story... If at all possible, deal with past due accounts before they reach the point of being sold to a third party, and if you are stuck dealing with a collection agency keep your paperwork FOREVER! In hindsight there was all sorts of shady/illegal maneuvering at play - the account was years past our state's limit on collectability, the agency made no attempt to ascertain our current address even though it had been legally changed years before and is a matter of public record, the paperwork was all sent to a previous address so they were able to get a default judgment before we received any notice at all, etc. but when you get a notice from your bank that a collection agency is going to take money you need to pay for food and utilities, you settle rather than fight.