First, know your foe! By that I mean you must understand who you will be talking to. There are two types of people that creditors will hire to deal with their clients. The first is for customer service, to help handle problems and answer questions for account holders. These folks are nice, kind and patient. That’s why they are hired.
The other type is hired for the collection department. They are hired because they are heartless, don’t care about you in any way and are ruthless in getting the money. Once you fall into a collection account, the creditor doesn’t care if you like then any more… they just want their money back.