Answer: Typically, your delinquent account will be turned over to a collection agency. Not only will your credit scores take a hit, but you may be subject to nasty collection calls as well.

If your time share is paid for, you might consider giving it away. Some people have successfully gotten rid of time shares by listing them for $1 or so on Craigslist or eBay.

If you still owe money on the loan you used to buy the time share, though, giving it away is probably not an option unless you’re able to pay off the loan first.

But a Facebook fan pointed out that not all debt collection calls are based on a legitimate debt:

After my father died, my mother was contacted by someone falsely claiming he owed a medical bill, offering to process the payment over the phone. She knew it was false [because] she handled the bills, so she told them not to call again.

Survivors also should beware of calls from purported charities, claiming that the deceased promised them a donation of some kind.

When it comes to claims against an estate, you’ll want to see proof that the deceased owed the debt or made any kind of financial promise. Don’t take a caller’s word for it.

Answer: The chances are slim the carrier continued to bill you after turning this account over to collections. So your first assignment is to pull your head out of the sand and see whether this collection account has appeared on your credit reports. Torturing yourself with worry about what’s happening to your credit is worse than simply knowing. Go find out.

Once you do, and you realize you’re still breathing, you can get started on the next steps.

Understand that you may well not owe this debt. Plenty of people have been dunned for accounts that were properly closed and paid in full. That’s why it’s so important to hang on to your last statement, showing a zero balance, from any creditor, utility or other biller — it can quickly short-circuit bogus debt collection efforts.

You’re not out of ammunition because you don’t have your last statement, however. Federal law requires the collector to provide proof, once you ask for it, that this is actually your debt. Make your request in writing and send it certified mail, return receipt requested. If the collector can’t provide such proof, it’s supposed to stop collection attempts and delete any mention of the debt from your credit reports.

If the debt is yours, you can begin negotiations to either delete it from your credit reports or prevent it from showing up, if the collector has yet to report it. Get the collector’s promise in writing before you send any money.

Answer: The clock on reporting most negative marks begins when the account first goes delinquent and isn’t reset when a creditor or collection agency updates or sells the debt. If the collection agency continues to report the debt after seven years and 180 days passes, you should be able to dispute the entry with the credit bureaus and get it removed from your credit reports.

You also may need to be concerned about your state’s statute of limitations for this debt. This statute affects how long you can be sued over a debt, which can vary from three to 15 years. In some states, the statute can be extended if you make a payment on the debt or even acknowledge it as your own.

If you’re at risk of being sued, you may want an attorney’s advice about how to proceed and whether you should try to settle this account. You can get a referral from the National Assn. of Consumer Advocates at http://www.naca.net. Even if you aren’t at risk of a lawsuit, it could pay to get this debt resolved. As you’ve learned, mortgage lenders typically aren’t willing to lend money to people with open collection accounts on their reports.

Answer: You’re not quite done yet. If you’re contacted by a debt collection agency, you need to send a copy of the proof you paid the bill to the agency, along with a letter saying that you don’t owe the debt and that reporting the debt to the credit bureaus would be a violation of fair credit reporting and debt collecting laws.

If the debt collector insists on reporting the debt to the credit bureaus, it could affect your scores. Continue monitoring your credit reports and be ready to dispute the bogus collection account if it appears. You may be able to sue the debt collector if it persists in reporting a false debt. You can find more information at DebtCollectionAnswers.com.

Answer: Your brother’s bills are the responsibility of his estate, not your parents. His creditors would have to be paid if he had any assets, but in this case they’re out of luck.

That doesn’t mean they won’t keep trying, however. Your parents could opt to ignore the calls, letters and guilt trips the collectors try to inflict. Or your parents could talk to a probate attorney who is familiar with the laws of the state where your brother died. The state probably has some kind of simplified probate that would allow your parents to legally resolve these bills and put an end to collection activities.

Answer: So you’re surprised that a “very aggressive and threatening” collector suddenly changed the rules on you? It’s time to wise up and realize you’re not dealing with an ethical company.

You need to make an appointment immediately with an attorney who is familiar with the credit and collection laws of your state. You can find a referral through the National Assn. of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys at http://www.nacba.org. Many of these attorneys offer free or discounted initial sessions.

All too often, rogue collection agents violate federal and state fair debt collection practices by threatening to sue when they have no intention of doing so or when they are legally barred from filing lawsuits. Your state’s statute of limitations limits how long a creditor can sue over a debt. In some states, people who lose homes to foreclosure also are protected against lawsuits over any remaining mortgage debt.

But your payments may well have extended the statute of limitations under which the collector would be allowed to sue you. That’s why you need an attorney to advise you. You also might want to consult DebtCollectionAnswers.com, a site run by debt expert and consumer advocate Gerri Detweiler, for more help in dealing with collectors.

You were smart not to send the financial information they demanded, because none of that is necessary for a settlement discussion and because the data could easily be used against you. If they’re unethical enough, they could use the bank account information to raid your accounts.

Answer: The collection agencies are violating federal credit reporting laws. Negative information such as charged-off accounts and collections are supposed to be removed from your credit reports seven years and 180 days after the account first goes delinquent (typically when you miss your first payment). Collection agencies are not allowed to “reset the clock” when an account is sold.

You can dispute these accounts with the credit bureaus, but the reselling and illegal reporting may continue. If it does, you will need to contact the collection agencies directly and tell them to stop. If they refuse, you may need an attorney’s help to get them to mend their ways. You can find a lawyer familiar with credit reporting laws through the National Assn. of Consumer Advocates at http://www.naca.net.

You might think that paying the bills would help, but you really don’t want to deal with a collector so unethical that it would change the date on a debt. Such a company is unlikely to deal in good faith, and you don’t want to give it any ammunition to do you further harm, such as access to your bank account (which it could have if you wrote it a check) or even your phone number, since it may start harassing you.

Answer: If the collection agency is pretending the debt is new, it’s breaking the law. It should be reporting the date when the account first went delinquent, and the black mark should fall off your reports seven years and 180 days after that first delinquency. If you want to speed things up, you could try negotiating to have the collection agency delete the account in return for payment, but make sure you get its promise to do so in writing before you send any money.

Capital One was recently sued by West Virginia’s attorney general for a variety of alleged misdeeds, including sending customers a debt repayment plan disguised as an offer of new credit. (Hat tip to Bill Hardekopf at LowCards.com for bringing the suit to my attention.)

Capital One sent the solicitations to people whose balances had already been charged off as bad debt, West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw alleged in his complaint. Although it looked like a new credit card offer, what Capital One was really offering was $1 of new credit in exchange for the customer agreeing to have the charged-off balance transferred to the new card, McGraw said.

The agreement allowed Capital One to charge interest, late fees and over-the-limit fees on debt that otherwise would have been beyond its reach, the complaint alleges. The agreement also allowed Capital One to re-age the debt, restarting the statute of limitations.

According to a Legal Newsline article by Nick Rees:

“Capital One’s practice of offering nominal extension of credit, if and only if, the consumer agreed to pay off a debt too old to be sued on is tantamount to loan sharking,” McGraw said.

The complaint alleges Capital One also:

• issued multiple low-limit credit cards, each charging exorbitant fees, rather than raising credit limits on consumers’ existing accounts
• unconscionably imposed over-the-limit fees on consumers’ accounts
• sold services to consumers who could not benefit from the services
• billed and attempted to collect for credit card accounts that were never activated.

I’ve made a big fuss about the difference between fair play and foul play, and how often credit card companies crossed the line. But this little scheme may have crossed another line: the one between foul play and pure evil.