A collection showed up on my Experian credit report last Thursday from Gulf State Credit. I just got a demand for payment in the mail today, one week after the entry was put on my CR. Gulf States informs me that they have purchased the debt on 08/21/01 from the original creditor. My question is, can Gulf State enter this information on my credit report as a collection in the Original Creditors name if they own the debt? The reason I ask is that I would have gladly paid them thier money, but at this point they used thier trump card too early. I am forced at this point to challenge them directly via Validation. Funny, I thought it was better to blackmail someone with something you could do, not something that you have already done.