This is kind of a long story, and I am new at this, but please bear with me... 4.5 years ago, my then girlfriend (now wife) was diagnosed with Cancer. As part of the follow-up to surgery, samples were sent to a lab in Florida (we live in WA). The hospital also sent them incorrect billing information for us, so their bill was returned with a No Such Address and was IMMEDIATELY turned over to collection. Now, 4.5 years later, we are starting to think of buying a home and got our credit scores from MyFICO before starting the financing process and lo and behold, here is this unpaid bill in the amount of only $150. We contacted the hospital to try to find this unnamed company in Florida to whom they had sent the samples and were shot down since "those records are too old" and offered no further help. With a little perseverence (and a calling card) we tracked down the lab in Florida that had been sent the sample simply by calling all of them. We offered to pay the debt on the spot if we could get this removed and were told no. We continued to speak with the billing department and were told that 1.) Yes, we sent you to collections because we didn't receive your billing address and 2.) It was sent to collections so you have to deal with them now. We requested a letter stating the reason were were sent to collections was through no fault of our own and were told that "they don't do that" Now we are left with dealing with the collections agency (who has never contacted us in the last 4+ years or we would have known about this earlier) but all that does is change the collections status to "paid" as I understand it. I know this will help our score, but given our situation shouldn't there be a way to remove it from our record altogether? The worst part is, we would have gladly paid this bill had we known about it. $150 was a drop in the bucket compared with some of the bills that rolled in. I know (at least I think I do) that this will drop off of our record in another 2.5 years anyway (making it 7 years) but that is longer than we planned to wait for a house and this really is about the only black mark on our record (alone my FICO score is 730+) I have contact information for the Florida Lab, their local better business bureau, the collections agency, and an archives person at the original hospital (haven't had them dig up the records since we found the lab on our own) so what is the best way to approach this? What are our rights in this situation? Can I force anyone to remove this from our credit record given we were not really at fault? Is the lab obligated to help us remove this? If necessary, would the better business bureau be of any assistance in this type of matter? Thank you for any insight you can provide. Some of the sample letters I found here look like they may be of some use, but I don't want to screw something up, or proceed in the wrong order. I will gladly keep you all posted on my progress in this matter. - hyside
Paying the account with the CA, WILL NOT improve your score, it is still a CHARGE OFF, even if it is updated to PAID CHARGE OFF, and it could make it worse if the CA updates the date of last activity to 07/2004, then the date of the negative status is more recent then it is, which means that it will have a larger negative impact, then it already does. This is what I would probably do... I would try to place pressure on the HOSPITAL, they are the ones who made the original mistake which resulted in the account going to collections. It is the hospitals fault, and your credit history is being damaged directly by their negligence. Tell the hospital, that since THEY are the ones who caused this situation to occur, that it is THEIR LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY TO FIX IT, by using whatever means that they can, to get the lab to RECALL THE ACCOUNT, AS SUBMITTED IN ERROR; which it was since, it was submitted to the CA, because the HOSPITAL made an error. Put a CC: Better Business Bureau, and forward a copy of the dispute to the Better Business Bureau as well. Once the CA's account has been recalled as submitted in error, THEN the CA's entry should be removed. Was insurance involved in this as well?
Sorry, I wasn't very clear in my first post about the address. As best we can tell (from the partial address the lab had on file that they had apparently attempted to bill) the hospital either ommitted the apartment number from the address OR the Lab failed to enter it. The hospital has our address correct (all of their bills arrived just fine) so it is hard to know who made the error for sure. I know this will likely result in the run-around and finger pointing, but everyone else (and there were many) who billed us for various services and tests found us just fine so I would lean toward the lab when judging error. From my point of view, since the lab sent one bill, and the address was not complete, why would they not ask for verification and try again? The hospital people seem sympathetic and willing to do what they can (they gave me the contact info for the archives) but the lab was rude and cold on the phone. I get the impression it will take more than a phone call saying sorry to get them to help out in any way. From what I have read here, I should NOT contact the Collection Agency (that you all call the CA right?) instead trying to tackle this from the Lab/Hospital side. Also, should I be contesting this charge with the Credit Reporting Agencies (CRA?) at this point, or wait till I have actually contested it in some way? I could also just contact the Better Business Bureau of Florida and possibly let them approach the lab? They may command an audience that I apparently can not? Sorry for all the questions. I read the "100 mistakes" thread and realize I should procede with caution lest I do something stupid. Worst case, this disappears in 2.5 years though right? Also, if the statute of limitations in Florida is 4 years and in Washington State is 3 years, does this statute of limitations have any bearing on this type of unpaid debt? (just read about that too) Thanks Again for your help, hyside EDIT: Forgot to address insurance... They were never billed, that was apparently our responsibility once we received the bill we never got from the lab.
The hospital *SHOULD* be able to even if its through the archives find out what exactly was provided to them as the billing information. The reason to try to get the hospital to get to it, is to see if they can leverage their current business relationship with the lab into remedying your problem. I.E. The hospital has one card, that you don't... If you say, "I WON'T DO BUSINESS WITH YOUR LAB UNLESS YOU FIX THIS!", it doesn't carry any weight, now if the hospital says, "*WE* WON'T DO BUSINESS WITH YOUR LAB UNLESS YOU FIX THIS!" it now suddenly has a larger value than the one $150.00 account; NOW it has a value of $150.00 TIMES the number of patients that that hospital sends to that lab. If the lab thinks they could lose THOUSANDS of dollars in potential business, because of one $150.00 account, then it has a dramatic effect, and may just be the encouragement that the lab needs to try to fix it. Is the account completely past the SOL in your state? If so, then that may be what you could do to get rid of them as well.
Thanks for the advise, I am supposed to be able to get copies of the records from 1999 later this week that will HOPEFULLY show what was sent to the lab. If it turns out that it appears that the full address was sent to them but the error was theirs, do I have any legal standing to force them to do anything then? I don't know that I could really sway the business practices of the hospital to sever their relationship to the lab, but I may at least drop some hospital names and let the lab know that they are working with me to help clear this up. If that doesn't do it, my plan is the Orlando Better Business Bureau to see if they are willing to help. They state on their site that they don't get involved with billing disputes, but this is decidedly different than a billing issue. After all, I am willing to pay if they will only take my money and wipe the slate... SOL: Washington State has a period of only 3 years, but do I need to use WA or FL for this? 4.5 years is longer than both, but FL has an SOL of 4 years so it is closer. I guess I don't fully comprehend what the SOL period passing implies though. That I am no longer obligated to pay my debt? or that the CA can no longer hassle me about it? (Not that we ever heard a peep from them) Thanks Again for your help and Advise, hyside
SOL means that they can't sue you for the account. Therefore, you can tell them to not communicate with you, and they have no other option than to cut off their collection activities, since the only other options really are to sue you, or to tell you that they plan to try to sue you, which you've already told them can't be done, legally, because its time-barred. Look at the thread in the signature for an explaination of how reporting fits into the equation as well... -- shameless plug The short version, is communication to the CRA's is in-direct communication to you, after all, that's how you were communicated to by the CA about the existance of this account, wasn't it... So, since you've told them that they can't talk to you about this account in any way, what has to happen to the trade line.
It's good to know that someone we have never heard from can no longer sue us for a debt we had no knowledge of... ;-) I'll let you know what the archives hold and what the BBB has to say if it comes to that. This has been one eye-opening adventure so far that I would gladly pay $150 NOT to have been a part of. (if they would only let us pay!) Thanks again Jam, hyside
Welcome to C N *************** GET THE BASICS HERE. http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=410243#post410243 ***************** >This is kind of a long story, and I am new at this, but please bear with me... hyside
Sorry for the long abscence, Jury Duty then Vacation pushed this to the back burner... I did get what records were kept from the hospital regarding the samples that were sent to the Florida lab for testing, but none of the included paperwork lists our mailing address. They obviously got this address from somewhere, but it is not among the hard records kept at our local hospital. This basically leaves us with no proof of where the address mistake occurred... Either the hospital sent an incorrect apartment number, or the lab entered an incorrect apartment number. Either way the one points to the other and vice-versa. The end result is that I have no hard leverage to use against either of them to aid us in clearing this up. So now, in your opinion(s), is this worth the effort of trying to make use of the better business bureau to help us out when dealing with the lab? The hospital has pretty much washed their hands of this pointing to the lab as the culprit. Since their own records do not show otherwise, I have no way to prove otherwise. The lab, of course, still denies any error on their part and has stonewalled our pleas for help with getting this resolved (as in removed from our CR) telling us that we have to deal with the CA at this point. I see no way to force either entity to help us and it appears, from my reading, that paying this debt will not only NOT help our credit rating, but may reset the clock on it's reporting life. (currently about five years old) Any other ideas are welcome. I just hate to think that we will either 1.) pay a higher rate for a home loan at no fault of our own or 2.) wait until this blemish passes off of our CR in another couple of years and THEN apply for a home loan (my wife is ready for a house NOW Thanks for your help and patience while I finally got around to dealing with the archive guy at the hospital. (Jury Duty was no peach either...)
Since the bill is post-SOL from what you've said, I would personally send a time-barred C&D to the CA, and be done with it. Read the post in my signature for an explaination of why, that should get the trade line deleted from your reports. I would however in good measure, dispute the tradelines personally; this makes sure that they are hard-deleted, and if they are resubmitted, you are assured the 5 day notice of the re-submission.
