I'm not saying don't pay your bills but sometimes you get behind and it helps if you know your rights when dealing with a debt collectors. Here is an article that talks about dealing with this sort of problem and has some great tips. Rogue debt collectors -- how to fight them - CNN.com

About, the same weekend we found out I was pregnant, we were getting ready to apply for a loan to buy a house. I pulled our credit reports and on mine their was a collections for $1400.00 to a tow truck company in Seattle. I called the collections agent and it turned out that a car we had sold (4 years before) and in turn had been sold again had been abandoned in the Seattle area and my name was still on it! It wasn't our car anymore and I didn't have any paperwork and I actually was thinking about paying for the debt so it wouldn't affect our credit rating going in for the house loan. The collections woman was thrilled that I actually was thinking about picking this up -- luckily I never agreed to it though she kept trying to get me to admit it was my debt. In the end I was able to go to our local DMV and prove that the car wasn't mine and hadn't been for some time. In turn I had to fax everyone and their dog this proof and I know the collection lady wasn't very pleased with me. But whatever .... $1400.00 is a lot to me!

Where I'm going with this story is I realized then that this woman was willing to get money from wherever and it didn't matter if the debt was really mine or not.