Be careful sending out a check to a collection agency, especially if you don't have an arrangement on the account for payback. A bank account, depending on your state, is an asset that you can obtain a judgement against and put a freeze on any funds in there. I used to work at a collection agency, and we would try to get those debtors that had old judgements to just pay anything with a check so we could go out and hit the bank account for the amount that was in there.
By law (depending on your state), if there's a judgement and a garnishment order against a bank account, the bank has no choice in that matter than to pay the amount of the garnishment if available.
My rule of thumb is - if I'm not paying it off completely, I'm not sending them a check. All money orders. You can get them for .50 cents at most grocery stores if less than $500.00.
You'll also find most CA don't want you to do that - they want your information so they can input it into the system in case you default, they have an asset to collect a judgement against. I just paid off a bunch of my bad debt, and one of the folks (Leading Edge Recovery in Chicago) said they wouldn't accept my payment unless I did it over the phone. I sent a check for the owed amount anyway and wrote "PAID IN FULL" on it, and they accepted it (of course).
