Collection Company adding to orig. amt owed

[kids123]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? IL.

I have a bill that has recently been turned over to a collection agency. I do not dispute this bill, but the letter I recieved from the original creditor has a bal. of $518.94 and the letter I recieved from the collection agency says I owe $612.34. Not sure what the extra $93.40 is for. This collection agency is National Enterprise and after googling them I am kinda afraid to talk to them. I've not heard very good things about them. I have recently become unemployed and have no stable income right now. I am all for paying this debt but am afraid of being bullied into a payment I cannot afford. (This has happened b4) This company calls several times a day, sometimes leaving msgs and it is always a different person and a different #. I have not yet returned their call, and am about to , but I just wanted some advice on how to deal with this company incase they become rude. And can they add to the original balance if I have a statement saying what the balance is from the original creditor?
Thank You

[Some Random Guy]

In your agreement with the original creditor, did you agree to pay interest or collection fees?

For such a small amount owed, I would expect that you would need to pay the amount due in full rather than have a payment plan. If you can get the money to pay them with, make sure to get a written statement from them on the amount owed before paying them anything.

[cosine]

You can ask the collector to itemize the amount due. It is legitimate to add interest and collections fees when your contract allows this (and in many cases even when it is silent on the issue). Consider yourself lucky that it was such a small amount.

You failed to pay the original creditor because of your unemployment?

Call back and ask them to make you a written offer that you can actually afford if they want to be paid. If they actually ask you what you can afford, tell "I can afford monthly payments after my first paycheck after I become employed again".

Like Some Random Guy says, absolutely get any offer in writing before you agree to it. You can avoid a lot of the hassles from the bad collection agencies (I have no info on this one right now) by insisting that all communications must be in writing.