Some considerations: 1. AGE OF DEBT: If the debt is over 3 years old, consider ignoring it. Bad marks remain on your credit history for 7 years after the LAST

Some considerations: 1. AGE OF DEBT: If the debt is over 3 years old, consider ignoring it. Bad marks remain on your credit history for 7 years after the LAST payment. By making any payment, even for $0.01 you reset the 7 year clock. If the debt is over 7 years old - definitely ignore the debt collectors. 2. IMPACT: Is if the bad debt is impacting your life: are you having a hard time renting, or doing anything critical? From your post it sounds like you only "noticed" the debt when you started getting calls. 3. LAWS: The process servers are in many cases doing the minimum necessary. Their ideal case is that you do not show up to court and then they get a default judgment against you. Simply by showing up to court to object, you raise the cost of them pursuing your case. 4. DO THEY OWN THE DEBT? Just because some company says they own your debt does not mean that they really do. For example, do they have clear documentation about how much you owe, including interest calculations, and complete documentation about your account. The banks have gotten very, very sloppy about following the law when it comes to documenting payments, interest calculations, and transferring of debt. A starter website to look at is : http://4closurefraud.org/ http://4closurefraud.org/