bad credit

I have roughly 5 -10k in bad credit card debt. I was wondering if I pay them off, will I get my cards back ?Creditors can either enlist collection agencies to recover debt on their behalf, or they can sell your debt to the collection agency. If it is the latter, then the account is closed. If it is the former, the account is probably "active", but there may be a block on it. For example, when I worked in the library, we used an outside collection agency to collect on library fines over $50. The library card is blocked. Only until they pay off their balance will we allow them to use the card again. (The books are assets of the City....a library card is like a credit card in which you're borrowing property.)