Medical Debt Collections Issue

Mar 212011
 

I have a medical bill from 2008 (under $100) from an ER visit.  I paid it online directly to the OC (hospital), but I did not pay it until approximately June 2009.  I never received any documents from the OC stating the payment was misdirected .  It showed up on my credit report under 1 collection agency (CA) in 2010; then, I disputed it and it was deleted.  However, this medical collection that I’ve already paid directly to the OC has recently shown up on my March 2011 credit report under a 2nd CA called Pinnacle Financial Group.  Note, I have not received any phone calls and do not believe I’ve received any letters in the mail fron Pinnacle.  This has adversely impacted my credit score by almost 40 points.

 

From what I’ve read and my understanding of FCRA, attempting to collect a debt and reporting it to CRA is illegal.  Is this correct?  I have disputed this and awaiting a response.  However, what rights will I have if EQ, TU or EXP do not delete it from my credit report?  Also, what is the statute of limitations (SOL) for a CA to attempt to collect debt on a medical bill in North Carolina?  What’s so frustrating is that my credit score that I’ve been working on for a couple of years has fallen from 620 to 584 as a result of this collection recently being reported on my credit profile.

 

I am considering filing a complaint to State Attorney General’s Office from which Pinnacle is HQ’d. 

 

TIA!

Credit Score Could Go Up In Flames! Help!

Mar 082011
 

Okay!  For the past three years I have been working on getting my credit score from the low 500′s to the low 700′s.  Today, I went to my mail box and got a letter from “afni” stating they are attempting to collect a debt for AT&T.

 

I have not had an account with AT&T for over 8 years.  So, I am not sure where this is coming from.  The letter tells me to do the following if I dispute this debt: 

“To notify them within 30 days after receiving this notice that I dispute the validity of the debt or any portion thereof.  It goes on to say if I notify their office in writing within 30 days that I dispute the debt they will obtain verification of the debt or obtain a copy of a judgment and mail me a copy of such judgment or verification., they will also provide me with the name and address of the original creditor.

 

I do not want the work of the last three years to send my credit score up in flames.

 

Stop the flames 

Wait.. how did THAT happen? [Removal of CA from CR]

Feb 262011
 

Hi again all,

 

I apologize for the necessary creation of a screenname. I contacted support for assistance, but unfortunately those requests were to no avail.

 

Anyway,

 

I wanted to report an odd situation that arose this morning.  Last week I sent off a settlement proposal to the one other office that holds a CA for me.  After offering the same letter to the agency I mentioned previously and receiving quick response I asssumed the agency I’m now speaking of didn’t accept or acknowledge my letter.

 

So anyway, I was updating my CreditKarma account today and notice a rise in my score, thus affecting both my Transunion score as well as my VantageScore.

 

I offered them a settlement and that if they so agreed that they had to remove any derogatory information pertaining to the account. Now after seeing an increase of 5 pts to Transunion I reviewed the dispute resolution within Experian’s site to see what could have made this occur.

 

….The CA account had been REMOVED from my report. What do y’all think that means?

 

- Is it the possibility that they, in good faith, preemptively removed the CA prior to me even sending them payment?

- Could the CA have been sent to another collection agency?

- What if they forwarded the settlement proposal to the original creditor for review?

 

I just do not know what it means, I’m very elated to see this score increase, but unsure as to why the CA was removed.  Thanks for any insight! :D

:( EX score is horrid

Feb 232011
 

I checked my other scores a few months ago, an account that was closed a bank and is disputed to the office of the comptroller, is reporting as CA.  I’ve sent my dispute letter to the CA as well.

 

Anyway, my EX is 576.  There were several accounts noted as closed, written off that were actually included in my Ch 7 bk last year (May 2010).

 

My current cards – Orchard unsecured, Cap 1 unsecured, and First Primevil unsecured all show paid, never late.

 

What else can I do?  Is it the one CA that is holding me down?  I’ve asked it be removed. 

 

Just very disheartened.:smileysad:

Need Some Help Rebuilding My Credit and Understanding Information

Feb 032011
 

Hello,

 

I have been poking around this forum for a bit trying to learn and gain information in rebuilding my credit.  I made some stupid mistakes with student loans when I was younger and am trying my best to clean it up and fix my credit.

 

I recently saw my new scores, which were sitting at 621 EQ, 595, EX, 591 TU.  I don’t know how accurate these scores are, but I got them from Bank of America’s Privacy Assist Premier.  This leads me into my first question. 

 

1. What is the preferred service for monitoring real Fico scores (preferably with monthly updates) and maybe monthly or quarterly updates to the full reports?

 

My next question is somewhat longer as I have a hard time making sense of a lot of the abbreviations being used on this forum.  If you provide explanations, please spell out the words so I don’t have to hunt down abbreviations on Google. =)

 

I obtained recent credit reports yesterday and wanted to know what I can do about certain things listed within.  I hope I can provide enough information to obtain the help of the wonderful people on this board.  The things littering my credit report are mostly Sallie Mae student loans.  I have a couple lines for a private loan, and quite a few for federal loans. 

 

———————

 

The federal loans defaulted a year or two ago, but I went through rehabilitation for all of them and the loan was recently picked up by, unfortunately, Sallie Mae again.  Though GRC (the company I did the rehabilitation through) tells me I will likely only have to make one payment to Sallie Mae before the loans goes over to the government.  We’ll see what happens there.  I had a couple questions regarding the rehabilitated loans and what is showing on my credit report:

 

2.  All of my credit reports are still showing random things for the 6 federal loans that got rehabilitated:

 

I have 6 of these dated originally at 11/103 showing as ‘transferred to another office’.  It does not list any negative information that I can see, but does show current from this year.  Is this the original loans that got rehabilitated?  What does ‘transferred to another office’ generally mean (if not literal)?  Since these were opened 11/03, can/should I write Experian and have them removed?

 

Not listed is the current and past due balance.  I pasted this info from Excel, and the acct number isn’t anywhere near complete, so I am not worried about deleting it for the purposes of this thread.

 

The other 2 are showing as Payment Deferred.  Not sure if this is negative or positive.  They are also from 11/03.  Unfortunately, these Sallie Mae accounts are showing as my longest accounts.  Will having these lines removed lower my credit length?  These 2 are from Experian.

 

 

Sallie Mae Not Listed Not Listed 11/1/03 22003XXXX Transferred Closed – Reported OK Jan 2011

Sallie Mae Not Listed Not Listed 11/1/03 59969XXXX Transferred

Closed – OK Nov 2010 + Pymnt Defrrd

 

On TransUnion these similar lines are showing with negative information:

 

Sallie Mae $0 $0 12/1/09 71000**** Current Transfer Showing Del 120+ Days

 

Isn’t the rehabilitation supposed to clear these records up on my credit report?  The new loans haven’t even showed up on TransUnion yet.

 

And on Equifax:

 

Sallie Mae $0 $0 1/1/11 00032XXXX Current Transfer Showing Del 90+ Days

 

Showing as 90 days late, but transferred.

 

I’m not sure what/if I can do anything to update these records in my favor.  Any advice is appreciated.

———————

 

The private loans through Sallie Mae also are sitting as Charge Offs on my credit reports.  I tried to contact them and the collection agency involved at the time to make whatever plans I could to make payments and pay the loans off, but Sallie Mae refused to talk to me and the collection agency refused to let me go into payments, instead asking for an ~$18k lump sum payment, which they swore I had access to based on information in my credit report (will get to this).  Needless to say, no agreement was reached regarding the private loans and they have been sitting dormant on my credit report.  I am unsure what to do about this part.

 

I seem to be seeing contradicting information between my credit reports on these 2 loans:

 

Equifax shows them as being opened on 02/06 and 09/04, but TransUnion shows them as being removed in 2014 and 2015.  Isn’t that way past 7 years?  I doubt I can do anything about these as the charge offs are closed already.   Allied Financial ended up getting these accounts, but I sent them a debt validation letter, they sent it back incomplete, I never responded, and I haven’t heard from them since.  Not sure if I should do anything else regarding that.

 

———————-

 

3.   I had a checking account with Union Bank a while back.  I closed the account and the person closing it must have failed to tell me that I owed them $100 for god knows what (maybe overdraft charges).  I didn’t find out for over a year when I checked my credit reports, promptly paid it, and it has been sitting as ‘Paid after Charge Off’ on my reports.  Is there anything I can do to get these removed?  TransUnion shows one version of it dropping off May of this year, and another version dropping off September of next year.

 

———————-

 

4.  My Experian credit reports has 2 revolving AMEX accounts totaling $20k limits due to some error.  These accounts have always been paid on time and the balances has never passed 25%.  When something is charged to it, they are paid off.  I should probably have these removed correct?  Unfortunately, this is showing as the longest account on my Experian report.

 

———————-

 

I am doing what I can to clean up my credit report up until now.  I opened an Orchard Bank unsecured card ($320 limit), haven’t put more than $100 on it, and pay it off monthly.  This weekend I am going to my new credit union and opening a secured Visa with them for $1k, which can be moved over to unsecured in 6-12 months.  I am much more financially stable nowadays and would like any advice I can get into cleaning up my credit more than I have.  Like everyone, I would like to get married and buy a house someday, and I don’t want anything negative in my credit reports when I want to.

 

Thank you all for your time.  I apologize for the length of this post.  I can also provide any other information needed if requested.

 

 

Ignore this.  I couldn’t delete it.

             

 

Medical Collection Question Please Help!

Jan 172011
 

Hello Friends,

 

A local Chiropractor here was advertising a first visit free when you donate $20.00 to a local charity! I decided to make an appointment being that I was in severe pain and wanted to find out what was going on with my shoulder.

I went to his office, donated the $20.00. He really didn’t do much except massage me, and use a little electrode device handed me Biofreeze samples, and sent me home with my next appointment scheduled. I came home and realized that he never asked for my insurance information.

Coming onto my next appointment, my shoulder started to feel better and I decided to go ahead and cancel the upcoming appointment.

 

Shortly after this, I received a bill from this office for $150.00!!! I sent the claim to my insurance company, come to find out they only paid $75.00 and the rest I was responsible for. I was outraged, and could not understand why I was being charged when this was a FREE first visit!?

 

I recieved two bills from this chirpractor in the mail in recent months for the amount of $75.00…then last week a collection bill for this chiropractor in the amount of $91.00. There was no warning, no attempted phone calls, and I only recieved two bills a week apart

A few days ago, MYFICO sent an alert that there was a change on my credit report. I checked and APEX Management placed this on my COLLECTION section, and dropped my score 33 points.

I have been trying so hard to get my credit score up high enough in order to buy our first home. This is devastating. I called the collection company and just simply asked if I could do a “pay and delete” they said no. So I typed up a letter and will be sending a “pay and delete” request by mail.

I wanted to know, is there some sort of limitation in the state of PA on how long a dr must wait to submit a bill to collections? I am also curious to find out just why it went from $75.00 to $91.00 and I wanted to know how much the amount must be in order for it to be sent to collections as well.

I really need some good advice, and any help I can recieve I am truly grateful for!

 

 

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