When you are drowning in debt, sometimes it seems easier to just allow the accounts to go into default with your financial fate flowing where it must. Attempts on your behalf must be made or the debt collector will take the helm in ways that it shouldn’t, perhaps costing you more money and distress in the end. Here are five reasons to snap to and take control before a collector does.

Debts payments are delinquent. The radio silence that follows when you first default on a debt due is short lived. In as little as 60 days a delinquent account can be sold to a debt collection agency. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) protects the collector just as it does the consumer, legally inviting a barrage of aggressive third-party collectors to pester you in a variety of ways for payment.

Puts pressure on family and employer. Just the thought of a collector calling grandma or the boss can get anyone to fold, which is why calls to family and employers about debts are made. This tactic is legal, yet limited: collectors are prohibited from contacting third parties more than once; they cannot discuss the actual debt; and must head any warning to stop calling your third parties. But it only takes one call to up your stress level with debts owed.

Decides to sue and garnish your wages. It is perfectly legal for a debt collector to sue you for unpaid debts, taking you to court and garnishing your wages or filing a lien against your property once a judgment is issued. However, keep two important things in mind: it is illegal for a debt collector to threaten to sue you; and in most cases the original creditor must do the suing and have written proof you said you’d pay the debt.

Gets you to pay on an old debt. If you don’t keep your wits and paperwork about you, there’s a chance you could be bullied into paying a debt soon to pass its statute of limitations. What this means is every defaulted debt is like a ticking bomb that instead of blowing up fizzles out – and off your credit report – after a length of time according to your state laws. If you pay anything on an old debt, you start the repayment clock all over again. Know how the collector aims to win.