Having dealt with this before most of what has been said is definitely good advice. I only used my land line phone which I don't even have the ringer on for and never gave any other number.
I broke the only in writing rule and did call to work things out but gave no truly relevant information until I got both validation that the debt was mine and a written agreement with the terms we had discussed on the phone. I also recorded the conversation (this is tricky, in some states you have to get permission to record, I did get permission without any issue). The collection agencies I dealt with were actually ok, they didn't try to pull anything and followed the settlement agreement to the letter. Be warned if you settle with one you are essentially throwing chum in the ocean and other debt collections might surface that hadn't before.
Lastly there is a time limit to how long a debt can be collected on based on the last activity (ie the last time you paid usually) it is important to know this. If you don't mind being essentially a dead beat and they are collecting past this date you can tell them to piss off. If a collection agency is pushing to get a "good faith" payment from you they are basically trying to extend out that date. Either work out a way to pay off entirely or don't bother.
			
			I broke the only in writing rule and did call to work things out but gave no truly relevant information until I got both validation that the debt was mine and a written agreement with the terms we had discussed on the phone. I also recorded the conversation (this is tricky, in some states you have to get permission to record, I did get permission without any issue). The collection agencies I dealt with were actually ok, they didn't try to pull anything and followed the settlement agreement to the letter. Be warned if you settle with one you are essentially throwing chum in the ocean and other debt collections might surface that hadn't before.
Lastly there is a time limit to how long a debt can be collected on based on the last activity (ie the last time you paid usually) it is important to know this. If you don't mind being essentially a dead beat and they are collecting past this date you can tell them to piss off. If a collection agency is pushing to get a "good faith" payment from you they are basically trying to extend out that date. Either work out a way to pay off entirely or don't bother.
				
		
			