What starts the 7 year clock rolling on a medical collection? Is it the date of the treatment, the date the insurance provider paid their portion of the bill, the date it was sent to collection or what? Just curious, the wife has a small copayment that she missed that has gone to collection. The CA won't take a pay for delete and of course I won't pay it any other way. I was just wondering how long this thing will stay on her credit reports, it's pretty old already and the date of treatment is about 6 years ago. I am shocked they won't do a PFD considering once the 7 years is up they will be out of luck.
First of all, don't confuse the SOL when they can collect with the seven-year reporting period. The reporting period starts when the account first goes delinquent and is never again brought current. If it's over six years old, it probably doens't have much effect on scores. Even if you don't get a pay for delete, why not pay it and be done with it? It will fall off shortly anyway, and given that it's so old they might not verify if you dispute it. The SOL for collecting is determined by your state's laws.
I wasn't concerned with the SOL but the date it will fall off the wife's credit report. Wouldn't paying it without a pay for delete agreement be a mistake? Wouldn't that restart the clock?
It can restart the clock, but I've found if you contact the medical provider and offer a pay for delete, 95% of the time they will do just that. They just want their money.
Restart what clock? If you pay it now no collection agency will ever again hound you for payment. By law, once it's paid, it should show as "paid". It will however stay on her report until the end of the 7th year after the first date of delinquency. Once the CR shows it as paid, you can dispute the whole account and chances are that it will be deleted for good.
Right. Paying it doesn't reset any clock. In some states, if you made a partial payment you could reset the SOL for collections. But the 7-year reporting SOL is based on the date of delinquency.
7-year reporting SOL is based on the date of last transaction, not the last date of delinquency. If you pay anything on any old delinquent debt(s) you re-age them. Do not pay unless they will delete. medical collections are easy to remove, google whychat and look at how to remove by sending payment to original creditor (not collection or billing agency).
No it doesn't. The FCRA is federal law. The seven years is from the date it goes delinquent and is never again brought current. Although many CAs and JDBs try to tell you that it will report for seven years, and they may try to reage it, it is illegal. One of the first things you need to do if you're working on credit repair is READ the FCRA and FDCPA. State law governs the SOL for collecting. State law also determines if a payment restarts the SOL. In some states it does. But that's for collecting, not reporting.
I guess i should have worded that in regards to his 2nd paragrah and not the whole post sorry.hedwig.But if you make one payment that does't always reset the clock?
If you mean for collecting, no. In some states a payment restarts the SOL. In others, it doesn't. In fact, in some states just agreeing to pay can start the SOL for collecting.
That will never happen. It would be struck down by the Supreme Court, I'm sure. If you read the Constitution you'll see that most of these sorts of things are left to the states.
