My biggest advice to you is this - Since you have a payment plan in action, Never Never Never be late or skip a payment. If so they will Drain your bank account without notice. Which could cause other payments to bounce and cause more fees. ( if you use the same bank account to pay your other bills.. The other companies dont care why their payment didn't clear )
Keep very accurate notes of all conversations you have with them, When you go to court you could request the judge to grant you proof they are the owner of your debt. It is called "Debt Validation" (
http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/debt_validation.shtml
Keep track if they ever said they were Lawyers, Because they did when my case was happening. Now they make a point to say they are NOT lawyers.
Also know your rights read up on THE FAIR DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES ACT. Know your rights.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf
Tell the judge what you stated here, You never received anything from them.. They never called you, you are now on a payment plan ect. Make sure you are indeed the correct person they are taking to court. Make sure they have the account number right, your address right, your name, and the amount right.
When they drained my bank account and was going to take me to court for the second time... They had someone else information on my account. They were mailing it, ( even certified mail ) to someone else house.. Meaning they were mixing up 2 seperate accounts, mine and someone elses. They will also used a local lawyer ( from my town ) when we went to court ( which they were not suppose to do ). when I found out they first drained my account and I knew they were mixing up orders I told them of their mistakes and what they did was wrong they did reverse the bank drain and all funds were put back into my account ( yes I still had to deal with all the bills I paid that were over drafted ) and since I was going to counter sue them, they dropped the next case. ( and the local lawyer didnt even want to talk to me since he knew he was standing up wrongly. he hung the phone up on me infact )
Know your right, know if they do anything out of the ordinary.. Stand up for yourself.. But if this is indeed the money you owe.. Never never never be late..
I hope I helped.. Best regards.