They will continue to accept what you give them as long as it is reasonable.
300 was reasonable when you started the payment plan...it still is.

Again all their huffing and puffing means nothing till you have a valid court document in hand.
Till then do what is best for you and your family....not someone looking to make commission faster.

The debt wasn't sold though. I've verified this.

I guess my big question is, how far do you think they would take this push to pay more/pay it off faster? The debt isn't theirs and they only have 16 months left before it's paid off. You mentioned in another person's post recently that if these issues ever go to court, that it takes between a year and a half to two years before both sides see the inside of a court room. If that's the case, 16 months comes up sooner than 18-24 months.

Alas, I'm going to make an educated guess and say that people usually only get sued when they haven't yet started paying back their debt?

First off given that the debt was 4 years old chances are excellent it was sold to this collection agency for pennies on the dollar. They probably payed less than 3000 bucks for this file. You indicated you only had a verbal agreement as they would not do one in writing....that was your first mistake.
Now after already having made a profit on their investment ..they want money quicker and want to negotiate a new payment plan arbitraily.

If you chose to continue payments my suggestion would be not till everything is in writing. Chances are they do not even have the supporting documents that you even owe this money as original lenders are very reluctant to provide these to collection agencies.With out it in writing they will again in a few months demand you speed up the payoff by increasing your payment.

I applaud your decision to pay this debt off....but it is not going to the original lender. This is how these vultures make their money by buying these files for peanuts and then trying to collect full amount from people like yourself who are not aware. You could have negotiated a much lower payout of say 5-6 thousand total. You probably still can. They have already made a nice profit....bet on it.

The debt was about 4 years old when I started making payments. It hasn't been my intent to not repay, as I wanted to rebuild my credit. The debt is a line of credit.

How old was the debt before you started to pay 300/mth...and what kind of debt was it?

I'd surely appreciate some pointers or helpful hints if anyone has any to offer with regards to my current dealings with a collection agency.

I've been paying off a bad debt for 20 months now. The original amount was 27k, and the balance remaining is currently 19k. I've been making monthly payments without fail of $300/month and my repayment agreement was $300/month for 3 years. I recognize that $300 a month won't pay off the amount in full but it was agreed that I would pay off the balance in full at the end of that 3-year term. (Only a verbal agreement because they absolutely refused to put anything in writing 20 months ago).

So, I've been doing this for over a year and a half, and I suddenly get a letter from this collection agency saying the monthly payments need to be renegotiated to something more satisfactory and to contact their office.

So my question is this...why now? I've told them they're getting the amount repaid in full. They just need to sit tight for 16 more months.

I wrote them back saying I'm the sole support provider for my family of 3 and that $300/month will have to suffice. I re-iterated that I am on track to pay the amount off in full as per the originally agreed upon repayment terms.

So what can I expect? Are they just testing the waters to see if I'll freak out and fold and do whatever they ask? They're getting money, so why are they suddenly "not satisfied"??? What's the collection agency up to and should I be worried or just keep sending them the same letter stating the same facts mentioned above?