If you've worked to clean up your credit recently...

[ktgrok]

Any advice? We have some unpaid medical debt in collections. We are more than willing to pay it off in full. However, I'm reading conflicting things as it if it can be removed from the credit report at all, etc. 

 

Also, it seems that perhaps one debt is listed multiple times, but multiple collection agencies. Thinking I'll start with the actual hospital and go from there, but that seems odd to me. In good news, paying that one debt will clear up most of our delinquencies, lol. 

[EmseB]

I'm not a lawyer, so grain of salt and all that, but:

 

Do everything in writing, but don't put your signature on anything you send to collection agencies.  Do everything with verifiable transactions -- registered mail, etc, so you have proof of what you've done.  I think this link is pretty helpful and there's another link with medical debt specifics at the bottom of that page.

 

It may be tricky if the debt's been sold multiple times, but in your shoes I would start by trying to validate the debt with the latest collection agency who contacted me about it and work from there.

 

I might also contact the various credit bureaus if have the same debt listed multiple times with multiple agencies.  I would try to get them to remove the duplicates.

[ktgrok]

Ugh. So to start with, many of the debts are from the same hospital, some for the same amount multiple times. So I decided to start with them. However, their financial department can't find any accounts in reference to any of this!

 

The guy said my best shot is to go into the hospital with an ID and try to find it that way. Um, really?

 

Then I decided to call the first collection agency, who has those debts, to see if they can get me an account number, or more detailed info, but they can't discuss it with me because my husband is the listed guarantor, not me. 

 

He's working 2 jobs and doesn't have time to deal with this. UGH> 

[Schadenfreude]

So here's the thing. If the debt has been passed along many times to different collectors then your paperwork may be lost. Request a copy of proof of your debt from every collector. If they are unable to produce it then you don't owe the money and it must be removed from your credit report.

[HomeAgain]

There are sample debt validation letters online. Start sending them out.  After you figure out which one is valid, though, the debt will stay on your credit report as closed/paid (when done) for about 7 years.  It won't be removed. There will be a note that it went into collections and is now paid.

[ktgrok]

Thank you guys, that's exactly what I should do. And yes, I do know that if we pay them they stay, although some credit scoring systems do rank paid accounts better than unpaid, so there is that. 

 

My husband needs to stay at his job until April to finish collection on his starting bonus and avoid repaying it. He's not happy there now though, although that may change..it fluctuates. We mostly are going to need a newer vehicle and a bigger house, and both require most likely getting loans/mortgages, which is the reason for this clean up. 

 

Maybe if we start now, we can see some traction by then. 

[HomeAgain]

A couple of us on here belong to another board at livinglikenooneelse.com.  It's DR but more private than here and the longtime folks are good at helping to find and clear up trouble spots in our financial lives.

[Anne in CA]

Never trust collectors. At all. Even a little. They lie like rugs. This is my unfortunate experience with many many collectors over the years because dh's ex runs up bills in my name and they go to collections. Every. Single. One. of those collectors has lied at some point about something. Don't pay anything until you KNOW you owe it, and even then, argue to reduce fees. Use up their time. Time is all anyone has. Once I argued with a collector while I folded laundry, did dishes, made cookies and then pointed out to him that I had used up an hour of his time, and that my time had been productive... did he really want to keep trying to get money out of me he knew I didn't owe???? He closed out the account, lol. 

[Anne in CA]

Also, when I lived in Oregon there was a one year window to sue collectors for false accusations, at least there was back in the day. Know the laws in your own state. I figured I had all the time in the world to take legal action over some things and it turned out I didn't. The laws in Oregon were really on the side of the collectors. 

[StephanieZ]

I haven't done it in a couple years, but a while back, I was really good about checking our credit reports every year or so (using the free reports you are entitled to from each agency each year . . .) and there was some easy process where you could click on items to "challenge" them or some such thing. Essentially, you could click on items you thought were sketchy, and then the "owner" of the debt has to either back that item up within some time frame (3 months??) or it is automatically removed from your report. I didn't have any really bad things on there, but there were a few decade-old-closed department store credit cards, etc, that showed open that were really closed (many years ago), and I just was trying to clean things up, so I clicked on those items . . .  Whenever I have heard the "credit score clean up" advertisements, I'm always thinking that all you'd have to do is go and "challenge" each and every negative item on your report, and I bet dollars to donuts that a significant number will disappear WHETHER OR NOT they were actually inaccurate. 

 

So, anyway, if you can figure out how to do what I'm talking about, I'd do that. :) I *guess* that that click/challenge technique is just a quick and easy version of sending whatever letters folks are talking about above. If your credit score is critical to you at this time, I'd just go whole-hog on doing all the above options. (Click/challenge on all 3 reports as well as mail whatever form letters some credit guru advises.)

 

Be sure to check all 3 credit bureaus, as they each have their own records!!

 

 

[shawthorne44]

One thing that I learned the hard way.   GOOD things come off after 10 years.  I had premier credit.  As in I'd get "Whoa" as a response to the credit score number from financial people.  But I paid off the house 10+ years ago.  When you don't have a mortgage, you become loan-reluctant.  I was shocked to discover I now have worse credit than when I was 19 because the mortgage and the formerly active credit cards dropped off the report.