It is my understanding that any time a company "charges off" a debt they sell it to the debt collection agency. The terms of the initial loan stipulate you can be charged exorbitant fees for missed payments. The collection agency buys the debt with the rights to charge up to and including the original fees declared on the contract for missed/late payments.

We recently got a "Final Notice" from a collection agency for a medical bill for my wife from a place we'd never used. When my wife called the "original" medical establishment she was told the charge was for them reading an EKG but admitted that their records indicated no bill was ever submitted by them in the first place. We're still trying to backtrack to find out how they have any claim as we never used them or any other agency outside of an ER or military care facility. We're bringing our insurance (TriCare) into it as well. Looks to us to be medical billing fraud.