Well, I know little about these situations because I've never been in one myself. However, I do know one thing for sure: if debt collectors are after you, they do it for a reason. Which is, they get paid, with all or part of the money you give to them.
The bank or lender you owe money to has 2 options: they either make a deal with the debt collection company, so that they will go after you, get the money and the lender will get its money back, paying the debt collectors a fee OR they will simply sell your debt to the debt collectors' agency. In which case, the money will stay with the debt collectors.
Things are, of course WAY more complicated than what I've just tried to explain, but in short, this is pretty much what happens.
