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Rebuilding Credit, question about medical collection issue

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Chat' started by weluvvegas, May 29, 2014.

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  1. weluvvegas

    weluvvegas Casino Countess

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    Maybe you all could give me some advice. The people on the credit boards are so mean!

    Ok, doing credit repair for the past two years in preparation to buy a house next summer. The last 2 collections are from 2011 when my son was sent to a specialist to check for a heart issue (which came back completely normal, thank goodness...the doc read something wrong!) but incurred some medical charges. Here is the backstory on how they got there.

    I had just changed jobs the month before but didn't get insurance with the new company, I added to my husband's policy with his employer. My insurance coverage from that job was terminated obviously and they sent a letter to my husband's insurance company stating that so I could be added outside of the annual enrollment time. All good - I was added. Then after the tests were run...I assumed the bills were paid by insurance minus the copays I paid to the specialists office.

    I pull my credit reports and see that they are listed as collections! I contact the original providers and they tell me that my husband's insurance denied the claims because they said I had dual coverage. Which I did NOT.

    How in hell do I get these off of my credit report. I don't think I should have to pay when the insurance company made a mistake. They had proof of my terminated coverage but denied them anyway. These are the only two things standing between us and a mortgage.

    You all are smart folks...I know you can give me some guidance here! Thank you!
     
  2. firstkill

    firstkill High-Roller

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    Sorry not much help, I had an issue with a cable statement, and it took 4 yrs to not affect my credit.
    Who sent your case to collections? Insurance or the doctor. Only they can " cancel" the collection notice.

    Also for a mortgage loan. Have the lender run the loan under your husbands name only and maybe he can qualify alone without you. Your name can still be on the house title but not the loan.

    Fk
     
  3. tatterdema

    tatterdema VIP Whale

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    Take this advice with a grain of salt, I am no financial advisor. When I was applying for a mortgage about 13 years ago, I had HORRIBLE credit. I started just disputing one item at a time, over and over again. If the agency doesnt get a response in a certain number of days, they have to remove it from your report. That worked for a number of my PAID accounts. There were still a couple that were unpaid from many years prior. I ended up having to pay them before the mortgage would be approved. I am under the impression that you will probably be denied any mortgage product if you are currently in collection status.

    Good luck! Buying my home was the best thing I have ever done. Only 13 years later, and it is almost paid off, and my credit rating is stellar.
     
  4. VegasGroove

    VegasGroove VIP Whale

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    I don't know if this is quite the same situation as yours, but in dealing with a collection on your credit report: I had to write letters to the collection agency, the creditor who was saying I owed them AND the 3 credit agencies (Equifax, Transunion and can't remember the other one) to have them remove the erroneous mark on my credit report. I had to also include the proof that I did pay the charge. When I was gathering necessary documents for my mortgage, I had to give the broker all that information so it could be considered and documented for mortgage approval. It worked.

    I had spent almost 2 years repairing my credit in preparation for a mortgage. I have been in my condo for almost 2years now and my credit is in good shape. I now "care" about my credit, before I didn't. I have a credit monitoring service to keep track of how I am doing.

    I hope you can resolve this.
     
  5. hillwood24

    hillwood24 High-Roller

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    As several posters mentioned above, you could dispute it with the credit agencies to try and get the negative reports removed.

    If that doesn't work, or if you want a potentially faster route, I would consider calling the collection agency that is reporting the debt and try and negotiate a "pay for delete" deal in which they will remove the charges from your credit reports once you've paid. This assumes that you're not opposed to paying for charges that sound like they could be erroneous in your case.

    Having listened to Dave Ramsey for a while, he recommends offering to fully settle the debt by offering between 20%-100% of the debt depending upon how old it is. In your case - since you may not actually owe the debt - I would shoot for the low end of the scale here should you decide to venture down this route. As always, get any "deal" you make in writing from the collection agency before sending any funds. Make sure it specifies that the debt is now considered "paid in full" and that they will remove the negative report from your credit report within a specified amount of days.

    Once it is in writing, overnight them a check. It is generally recommended to NOT give them electronic access to your checking account because they could try and take the entire balance despite the deal you might have made.

    Good luck!
     
  6. bjpcyclone

    bjpcyclone High-Roller

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    The first step is to get copies from all 3 of the major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian). They all operate independently so your report may (and likely will) differ from agency to agency. Then dispute the charge(s) and explain to them what happened. They will look into it and many times can remove it. Many years ago, I moved out of an apartment into a house. I canceled my cable bill and dropped off all of the equipment at their office. I specifically asked if I had any outstanding bills due, they said no. 3 months later I get a call from a collection agency for $80 that I have an overdue bill. Turns out I did have a final bill to pay and the mail never was forwarded to my new house. I was able to explain the situation and it was removed from my credit reports.

    Even if you have legit collections on your report, its not the end of the world. Most people do. And unless you have a lot of these, it shouldn't hinder you from buying a house.

    If your credit is bad, spend a year or 2 making sure to pay everything on time, minimize the amount of credit "pulls" you have (a couple are ok), try and keep your debt-to-income ratio as low as you can and you'll be well on your way.
     
  7. weluvvegas

    weluvvegas Casino Countess

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    Thank you. I have been doing the dispute letter process and have been successful in getting a few taken care of and deleted off of our reports. These medical ones are the only negatives left! I read something about the HIPAA process on this website – if you google it – you will see what I’m talking about. A lot of people have gotten medical collections deleted using this process but I don’t really understand it.

    All of our credit is current, oldest is about 3 years old and A+, we just don’t have a lot of accounts and the ones we have do not have high limits. In an attempt to get more credit with higher limits – we are met with the denial and reasoning of “not enough credit” or the age of the accounts are too low. Kind of a double edged sword.

    After years of terrible credit – it is so refreshing to have an “almost” clean report and increasing score. I just wish that I could get these damn medical accounts off of there. I plan on sending the dispute letters this weekend and see what happens.
     
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