Un-Paid NYC parking tickets

[jla]

I was working in NYC a few years ago, with permenant residence in Illinois. On one of my trips I ended up driving out and keeping my car out there for a month. While out there I received 2 parking tickets. One had a sign that was pointed the wrong way making it unclear which side of the sign you could park on (I choose the wrong one apparently), to which I pictured and disputed on-line (I was still found guilty). The other was for parking too close to a fire hydrant, which really aggrevated me because I asked a nearby cop what the law was for parking distance and he told me I was fine but I still found a ticket on my car. This argument clearly didn't hold up on the ticket. My situation now is, I talked to a friend of a friend who was a lawyer out there and asked him if I had to pay these tickets when I was found liable in both cases. He told me that NYC will boot you after i think 3 tickets and you can't register a car or a driver's license with any tickets on your record out there. This was fine since I don't live out there. He then told me they won't do anything else to enforce this and if they don't collect after 7 years the statute of limitations was up and I'd be clear. Someone from an old address where I lived recently called me saying that A letter from a collection agency came stating that they where representing NYC in collecting these tickets. Well maybe the advice I got was wrong? It looks like perhaps these tickets have gone to collections. What are my options here? I'm frustrated because the $200 in parking tickets is now $380 according to the letter from the collection agency. I'm somewhat hoping the letter is just a scare tactic and not a real collection agency, but this probably isn't the case. What are my options here, obviously if this is a real collection agency and going to have an affect on my credit I'll pay. Since I thought I was ok based on the advice I got when i first got them i didn't pay. (1) What happens if I don't pay? (2) Is there a way to negotiate how much I pay, can I call NY and negotiate to pay closer to the original amount? I know often times cities will do this, if so who do I call? Any help is appreciated.

[SSandecki]

1. If you don't pay they'll most likely go against your credit history.

2. You can try and negotiate with the collection agency since the debt was sold over to them; most likely you can pay less than the amount due.