<prompt> Human: Ive been working on Dave Ramseys Baby Steps and I am on Step 2, paying off all your debts. I have some questions concerning this step. I paid off my main credit card that was still sending me payments. Other than this, and owing my brother money, I owe my car debt and student loan which I will start working on after I finish college. This far, I have been planning to only pay off these four debts brother, credit card, car, student loan because they are all active or current or we. ALL my other debts are either thrown onto my credit report credit bureaus or are things like medical bills that are long since overdue. My mom says to not bother with any of the debts that are on my credit report, and to only worry about the current ones. Is she correct in this? For example, I have another credit card that was a much larger amount than the one I just paid off, a much older one, but its been on my credit report they have been sending me letters to try to pay off the full amount or part of it for a while now for a long time. Do I pay this? Do I pay the credit bureau? Or the 3rd party? My mom says not to. Same thing with Verizon. I owed them money, they put it on my report and sold my debt to a 3rd party thats harassing me now. In fact, I just got off the phone with them and told them I dont have money but would call them when I could pay it and she said, We are going to mark this down as a refusal to pay Should I be worried?! Another example, I have some debts that they didnt throw on my credit report but they are still hounding me, like a medical bill, like one time when I went to the hospital about 2 years ago. They are still calling me about that. My mom says not to pay that either, because its medical and by law medical payments that are overdue are to be expunged or something? IDK. Basically my mom said just to focus on the 4 currentactive debts I have and to not even worry about any of the other ones, and I want to know if this is correct. Finally, how do I deal with these calls? 1. I got a name change legally, so should I be telling them my new name when they call? 2. How do I just say, Hey, I just want to know who you are and how much I owe and Ill discuss payment options later?, if I should say anything at all? Can I just block these numbers for now, Im sick of them harassing me, and I want to pay off my current priorities first anyways. For my legal name change, do I need to notify the credit bureaus, or will they know through my updated social security name change card when I went to the SS administration building? I tried calling them but its impossible to reach customer support, they have options that go nowhere, just directions for freezing your account and stuff.  <response>: Since you mentioned Dave Ramsey, I am fairly sure he would say that you are obligated in a moral sense to pay your debts. The only exception would be a legal bankruptcy situation. 