<prompt> Human: not including car. Ive received a letter from a collection agency regarding a 14,000 outstanding balance. I missed that 30 day 1692 reply option. What do I do immediately? I dont want to pay a small debt and have that start affecting everything else... We earn 100k a year. Im at a loss. Especially with what to do on the letter from the lawyer since i missed the 30 day response date. Can anyone help? I am a long term redditor, throw away for obvious reasons. I do want to use this handle as a future resource for others as well. I plan to only be writing about my debt and journey out of it with this handle.Assistant: Do you think this is a valid debt?You have a lot of income. Do you plan to pay this off? How long will that take?Human: Its valid. Assistant: Its hard to give any advice without knowing more about what just happened, and what your goals and options are. If you dont pay this, it will be a pretty big adverse impact on your credit report for seven years or so. If the creditor obtained a judgment against you, then that will be reflected on your credit report and will extend the seven year period to start at that time. If you have the money and its a legitimate debt, you should just pay it off, and negotiate with the collection agent to see what they can do about minimizing the impact to your credit history at this point.Human: Its hard to give any advice without knowing more about what just happened, and what your goals and options are. If you dont pay this, it will be a pretty big adverse impact on your credit report for seven years or so. If the creditor obtained a judgment against you, then that will be reflected on your credit report and will extend the seven year period to start at that time. If you have the money and its a legitimate debt, you should just pay it off, and negotiate with the collection agent to see what they can do about minimizing the impact to your credit history at this point.Makes sense, it tore me up inside to see. Just wondering how screwed I am at this juncture as well.  <response>: By screwed, do you mean have to pay back what I owe?Because someone who makes 100k should not be screwed by a 14k debt. 