I don't think this is true if the debt was fraudulent or otherwise incorrect. My girlfriend had an issue with this once with a debt collection agency (debt wasn't hers, her ex-boyfriend got turned over to collections b/c of vet bills, she had picked up the dog at the vet once before so somehow her name also got on the account).


The collections agency acted like a bunch of assholes whenever she tried to take to them, so I sent a nasty little letter letting them know that this was b.s. and we planned to sue for all possible remedies allowed by law and set forth a few of those grounds and they called her the next day kissing her ass. It was all removed from the report and she never paid anything, so they can get that stuff off of the report.