I was contacted by Midland Credit Management , Inc ( MCM ) regarding XXXX accounts that were charged off from XXXX accounts I 'd held. After some negotiating we settled on XXXX dollars to settle XXXX account and XXXX to settle the other. The collector wanted me to pay right away of course but I was more comfortable paying with a money order, so as not to give away my banking information. While that was not his preference and he tried to deter me by telling about saving money on MY end in not a buying a pre-paid card etc, after researching and finding that this was a 'legitimate ' debt collection agency, while I still would not send them my banking info, I decided on postal money orders. At NO time did he tell me they would not accept money orders for settlements. I called a few days later to ensure that my money orders were received. At the time they had not been, however, the account rep with whom I 'd negotiated the settlement all of a sudden stated that they could not accept money orders unless they were simply being applied to the outstanding balance on the account. That is NOT what he said on the phone. In addition, the initial letters state that the credit report would show settled for less than the full amount owed. MCM also sent a letter a few days later with the same negotiated settlement spelled out. Nowhere in the paperwork does it state a stipulation regarding type of payment. Finally, I got paperwork from them in the mail today ( XX/XX/XXXX ) showing that they did exactly what the guy ended up saying they would do. They applied my negotiated settlement amounts toward the BALANCE of the accounts. When I called about this, NOW they state that the account has a judgment against it and they do n't know why the account manager made me such a low offer for settlement. Also, the letter received today states that my " payment plan had expired ''. The previous collection letters, which I used to send the money orders ( and received a week later ) did NOT say anything about an expired time period. Though the due date on the letters say XX/XX/XXXX, the letters were sent to me AFTER that and I did not believe that there would be a problem with these people after I sent the payment I negotiated in good faith with them.