<prompt> Human: So I have pretty specific circumstances here and my research hasnt really given me a good answer, hoping someone here can help.I have a private student loan through Sallie Mae totaling about 17k. It defaulted and went to collections a few years ago, credit sucked for awhile but once I found work I started paying it off.. I was on a payment plan for about a year with that agency during which time the loan went to Navient. While I was on this plan, the collection agency changed names and then went to an entirely different agency in the middle of the payment plan. The terms of the plan ran up while I was abroad for a few months and when I got back I realized it was with this whole new company. At this point my credit is about 665.. not completely awful, but not great and on my report the loans are listed as CLOSED - charged off.I am considering taking out a personal loan for 6k and using 3k in savings to settle the loan for 9k, which I have been offered by the agency to do. The 6k loan will have outrageous interest, but even if I let that go the full term, it would still be way less than the 17k. It would pay it off and record the account as settled. Seems like a decent option.However, at this point I do not even know if I need to pay this at all. No one has ever mentioned suing me or wage garnishment, it is listed as closed on my report, and my credit has been slowly climbing even with this in default for 19 months now. I got a car loan at a decent rate, got approved for an apartment and I have 2 credit cards with decent available credit. The agency has changed so many times I dont even know if they can do anything to me.If I settle this debt, will that actually NEGATIVELY impact my credit from this point?Any insight I could get here would be appreciated!  <response>: Ugh. If you are in debt, pay it.If the 6k loan is coming from the collection agency, hell no. Get everything in writing and write a check. Do not give collection companies the opportunity to make automatic withdrawals. 