<prompt> Human: Hi everyone, first things first I was a stupid kid and when my girlfriend and I lost our jobs I resorted to credit cards and now am paying the price.Long story short I maxed out a credit card to 2000 and couldnt pay it back so I cancelled it. Not trying to escape from it just wanted to cancel all my cards to stop making stupid moves. I couldnt make any payments on it so it went to collectors.Its been about a year and a half and Im in a much better place financially and want to get rid of these old debts and start to rebuild my credit. The problem is the collection agency is applying the interest rate to the amount owed, are they allowed to do this or is this a scare tactic to try and get more money out of me?Tl;dr: Want to pay off my debt owed to collection agency but theyve been applying the interest rate, is this allowed or just them trying to get more money? Should I just offer the original amount of 2000 and thats it?  <response>: Pay it off aggressively. That would be your smartest move right now. 