You wrote to an earlier post of mine that paying my medical collections does not apply to the 30% rule, what do you mean? What should I concentrate on first, paying down my balances and THEN going after charge-offs? Thanks for all your help!
Not Roni but What she means is that it is good to keep your balances/limits to under 30% usage, meaning that the medical bills aren't used in that equation. How old are these chargeoffs?? A paid versus and unpaid does nothing score wise, I would concentrate on getting your balances down and also try to settle your bad things, but only if they agree in writing to remove, and if they don't , alot won't budge then focus on your debt ratios.
RE: Not Roni but Can any of this actually hurt my credit worse? Will it restart them hounding me and then decrease my scores as well? Is Junum.com a good thing to try, sounds like they would do the work for me, but again, I am scared to try and get myself worse scores instead of better ones.
Not exactly What I mean is once a bill is in collections it is negative. Now has the bill been added to your credit report? Have you received copies of all three credit reports? That is your first step by the way. A medical bill which is in good standing would rarely make it to your credit report anyway. Let me try to explain this again. If you have a credit card account and your balance is $899 and your credit limit is $1300, your balance to available credit ratio sucks and you need to reduce that considerably before your credit score will suffer. This hypothetical account which is not in collections and is in good standing should have no lates if you want to avoid a credit score reduction. Once you do not pay on this account for several months(usually 6 months) and this account becomes permanently delinquent in the credit eyes, they will chargeoff the debt. Before this happens your account will be marked 30, 60, 90, 120 days late etc. Once this happens and you charge off, the credit company 'writes off the debt' so to speak to taxes and you get stuck with a big charge off, R9, or Collection notation to your credit file. By the Way, depending on how old the collections are, they may not be on your credit file. That is why I encourage you to find out what is on your file. Once a collection agencies chases you for a while or you dont pay it will be on your file. Once there and noted as Collection, R9 or chargeoff, paying the debt will not change this status. This is totally different than the credit card account from above which was in good standing until you didnot pay it off. Had you made payments on your outstanding medical bill, and you had paid it own considerably the 30% rule would have counted. But like I said, most hospital's dont pay to have your accounts reported like credit card companies. They only report the collections. So, in conclusion the 30% rule DOES NOT COUNT IN YOUR CASE. Paid Collections do not help your score. The credit bureau will not even update the balance until it is totally paid anyway. It is remain as a collection forever until you get it off in 7 years or hopefully sooner. It is like trying to give CPR to a dead person. A collection is not revivable once noted as a collection. I hope this is clear now. roni
Thanks Roni Thanks for taking the time to clarify all that for me....I loved your analogy on the dead person!
