I have been reading and reading on here....i have an OLD medical bill. The hospital sold it to a collection agency. The collection agency sent me a letter saying they purchased my account( I talked to the original hospital and they apparantly sold all their old account to this place and they told me to talk to them- fine I figured that) and that they can settle etc etc. I sent out a validation letter requesting validation and so forth return receipt requested. This is where I get confused about the 30 day time frame. If they do not respomd with proper validation within 30 days does this mean they cant proceed with any legal action? garnishment etc? I know they can try to collect forever from what I understand but my main worry is wage garnishment. Im in OHIO so I know the statute of limits is long.... it is not even on my credit report so that's not an issue. Just confused about the 30 day time frame
Did you send in 30 days within receiving the collection letter? If not made in a timely manner they may ignore request for validation. They are not bound to respond in 30 days, but if you don't hear from them it is always a good idea to send a follow up letter to remind them.
yes I sent it 10 days after I got it. Not to be stupid, but what is the REAL point of the debt validation if they dont have to respond in 30 days and you need to send a reminder? I understand it is to help remove it from CR but It's not on my CR and it's been over 7 years so they cant put it on there. I guess I thought they "lost" their right to pursue you legally (garnishment or whatever) if they dont validate in 30 days. I mean do they have as long as they want to respond? If so, couldnt they wait "forever" and then finally take you to court. Im so lost
If it is off of the credit report and out of SOL then you can just send them a cease and desist letter. You don't have to go the debt validation route if you don't want to. They can try to sue you, but you have a legal defense that the debt is time barred. Debt validation might stall them and if they can't verify it will chase them off. Just another way to do things.
this is where Im out of luck... OHIO is 15 yr for written contract and Ive read different on whether hospital is written contract or not. Guess I'll keep searching the net for case law or whatever I can find to argue the 15 years or consider Bankruptcy because we can not even begin to afford another pmt
Medical Debt is open end account, there are no terms and contracts with hospitals as there is with banks when granting installment type loans. You can have a bill with the hospital and still return for more services they just add it to the existing bill. I use to work for a credit bureau and my employer happen to run a collection agency. So I was up on that one.
If you send a validation letter within 30 days of first notification, they must cease all collection activity until they send you validation. That means they can't take any action to collect or sue. They can't garnish until they go to court and get a judgment.
