You will receive a letter from the attorney that will probably give you some options. Such as negotiating or reaffirming your payment. Or perhaps a setoff amount for a lump sum. Seldom is the first contact from an attorney a notice they are going to sue. Do not ignore anything from a valid attorney, nor answer it without legal counsel. They can however, simply serve you with a summons that you are being sued.
Anyone that you owe can send you to collections
No.
Yes, having a bill sent to collections can negatively impact your credit score.
The attorney gives you some time to pay, then gets a judgment and uses the other legal options(garnishee wages, attach property, bank accounts).
In the world of bad debt, everything is negotiable.
Yes, collections can hurt your credit score. When a debt is sent to collections, it indicates that you have not paid it as agreed, which can lower your credit score.
Yes, private parking tickets can be sent to collections if they are not paid. This means that a collection agency may pursue payment on behalf of the parking company.
If the payments are not suitable in size to the creditor, then yes. This commonly happens with medical bills. Hospitals and clinics are not required to extend the courtesy of credit to anyone. Payment in full tends to be the policy. If you owe thousands and are only paying a small amount (like 50 every month) they will send it to collections.
They burn it
You should not be sent to collections if you are making monthly payments. Some companies have their own "polocies" on how much your payment needs to be in order to keep from collections but the law says that you can pay what ever you want as long as you don't sign a payment contract.
Not unless you are sent to collections
The collector will act as an agent for the original creditor and follow their prescribed collection procedures, usually mail and phone contact. There is no specific length of time that a collector will pursue an account before deciding IF it should be referred to a collections law firm or attorney for legal action.