Hi all, I have a collection on my credit report from a medical provider. Short version of the story: 1. Had procedure in fall '07, many bills from many providers/institutions. May have overlooked this Dr's bill. 2. Moved in fall '07, not all mail was properly forwarded. Bill from Dr. may not have been forwarded to us. 3. Didn't hear anything from Dr's Office (may have received a regular invoice, but I have no recollection of a late notice). Also didn't hear anything from a collection agency. 4. Found out that I had outstanding debt when we refinanced in Jan. '10; refi officer verbally asked about a debt to Dr's office. Immediately called and paid the bill. I never saw my credit report. 5. Applied for a new mortgage a week ago and discovered that a collection agency had reported the "collection" to the CRAs. Again, we have never heard from the coll. agency. My question(s): is the agency required to attempt contact before they report something to the CRAs? Can I ask them to provide evidence that they notified us of the outstanding debt? If they can't produce evidence of notice to us, are they required to remove the collection notice? This is literally the only mark on my credit. But for this, I'd be in the high 700's or low 800's. Thanks!
No, they're not required to contact you before reporting the collection and they don't have to remove the collection from your reports either if they can't prove that they notified you of the debt. It should at least be updated to show that it was a "paid" collection. That said, a paid collection is essentially just as damaging to your FICO credit scores as an unpaid collection. How is it appearing exactly on your credit reports?
The collection appears as follows: I 06-08 87 N/A CLOSED Y-9 COLL/P&L 04-10 Hist: 04-10 9 Ctgy: COLLECTION CN: MEDICAL CHARGE OFF; PAID CHRG 04-10 PAID 04-10 ACCT SUBMITTED TO COLLECTION; PAID COLL 04-10 I sent a good will letter to the Dr's office asking for their assistance. They wrote back and basically said no ("not our policy to be involved once accounts have been sent to collection." Given that I've already paid, I feel like I have no leverage. Help? Is there any way to tell when the Dr's office sent this to collection? Steve Anchorage, AK
At this point, since it's been paid and you have no leverage, you might want to start going through the nutcase letter series (original author PsychDoc - back around 2001 or 2002) Thanks All - Wish me luck - Credit Card and Credit Repair Forum With this method, you might be able to get the CA to just go and have their tradeline deleted from the CRAs - since you no longer owe anything, and just to stop being expected to respond to inquiries, they often cave.
