Ask Your Creditor Which Collection Agency You Owe
If you know your debt has been sent to a collection agency, you can find out which collection agency you owe by calling the original creditor. Often, they won’t take payment from you or discuss the account from you once the account has been sent to a collection agency, but they can tell you which collection agency you owe.Check Your Credit Report
A second way to find out which collection agency you owe is to check your credit reports. Most collection agencies report debts to the credit bureaus, so you may find the name and phone number of the collection agency on your credit report. There’s no way to know if the collector reported your debt to one credit bureau or all three, so you’ll have to check all three of your credit reports.
Check Your Voicemail and Caller ID
If you’ve been getting phone calls from a debt collector, you may have been left a voice mail. This message would give the name or phone number of the collection agency. If you only have a phone number from your caller ID or voice mail, you can type the number into a search engine to see if anyone else has gotten a call from this collection agency. Or, you could call the number, but be careful about calling collection agencies unprepared.
Wait for Them to Call You
When you can’t find out anything from the original creditor, the debt’s not listed on your credit report, and you haven’t received phone calls about the debt, you can only wait for the debt collector to contact you. Old debts often switch to another collection agency within several months, so eventually the debt will move to a collection agency that can be found using one of the methods listed above.
