Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Missouri

In a word, I think you're right.

You certainly don't have to (and I would not if I were you!) authorize them to use your credit card number.

I also wonder whether the old bill being added suddenly like that was really fair, but it does appear that you acknowledge that you incurred the charge legitimately. (Did you?)Standard billing procedures are to make you aware of a bill, (usually around the time you incur the charge!) and to give you a chance to contest it if it happens to be in error, before starting to send it off for collection.

Then when the collection agency first gets the bill and makes you aware of it, I believe you have another chance to deny it's validity before they start trying to collect it from you, but that opportunity may be gone by now.

By the way, I'm not very sure of the advice I've given you, especially since this area of law varies from one state to another and I have no knowledge of your state's laws at all.So take it with a grain of salt.

For a few hundred dollars, practically speaking, no legal actions are likely to be instituted against you except perhaps an informal "small claims" type of procedure if your state has that, but I'm not sure why they'd do that -- you seem already to admit you owe the money, so they don't need a judgment, and you're paying it off, too, so they don't need to force you to start paying within your budget.

They're under no obligation to negotiate a higher payment nor to accept your offer of a higher payment, but they'll probably accept anything you'll give them as long as you keep sending that check in; that's my personal opinion, not legal advice.

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