Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

Fake Finance/Interest Fees?

I had a 2 year past due account with the phone company. I recently called them up, on my own, and told them that I wish to pay the balance off. When I spoke to the phone company rep. he told me that the balance was $400.00 and that I needed to call their collection agency to pay that amount off.

When I called the collection agency the representative told me that I would have to pay $700.00 dollars because they (the coll.agency) were charging me interest and late fees. I told him that I was not going to pay any more than what the Phone Company instructed me to and that I would contact the phone company to see what they had to say.

In the end....the phone company told me to just pay them directly and they would be satisfied. So, of course, I just sent payment to the Phone Company.

Now, I have this ''jerk'' threatening to take me to court and to keep calling me:

My question(s) are:

1) Can this collection agency really charge fees and/or interest? They never contacted me in 2 years and now they're acting as if this bill is a credit card or something?

2) Wouldn't this debt be considered paid off since the Phone Company now has the money?

1 Answer from Attorneys

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