<prompt> Human: I apologise if Im in the wrong place and Im typing this on mobile, Im so distraught and unsure of what to do.Added tl;dr to bottom of postLast year I dropped out of college due to severe emotionalfinancial issues...I meant to withdraw and it was a mess. I tried to set up a payment plan for the 3500 I owed them and was told to try back after the semester due to my situation couldnt afford their payments. I tried back a few months later and got the same answer. Apparently I forgot about it because I started getting letters and calls in May this year to set up a payment plan. I played phone tag for 3 months when a debt collector started calling every hour. About... 2mo ago I finally got a hold of someone in the schools billing debt and was told that I had 3yrs from the time the debt incurred to pay it off 2019. Also that I could pay whatever I could afford directly to the school each month to keep it out of collections. In exchange she said theyd tell the debt collector to leave me alone and it shouldnt go into collections.At that time I explained I couldnt start payments right away due to a financial emergency and could start in a month or two I have a check ready to go now. I just got an email from credit karma saying I have something new in collections and it impacted my score.Im panicking because Ive been trying to pay down debt and improve my credit and this was like a punch in the gut. I didnt get anything in writing from the woman at the school so I dont have proof of what was discussed. Is there anything I can do? Im still going to send them payments starting tomorrow. I had to use all of my savings and borrow from family on back to back car repairs and Ive just paid them back. I was planning to pay the school whatever I have left each month once bills are paid. Should I just pay it and accept whats happened or do I have any option to get it out of collections while I make payments?I know 3500 isnt a lot to some, but I havent been able to save much money in a long time and my DTI is totally out of whack.tl;dr made payment plan with school, said it wouldnt go to collections. Charged off anyway and I dont have proof of agreement. Can it be pulled from collections while payments are made or did I learn a hard lesson?  <response>: Did you get any of this in writing? If not, I think youre basically stuck dealing with the collector unless the school is nice enough to make another deal with you, but get it in WRITING. 