Credit Advice

can you buy a car with a score of 600

I had a $25 charge on a medical service a year ago that went into collections. Shortly before it went to the collections agency, I was credited $40 to the same medical account, resulting in a net credit of $15. I had the original medical billing office contact the collections agency and let them know that my account was now current. Can this person do the same thing?

This reminds me of the time, I was penalized for a delinquency on my student loan because the bill was sent to the wrong address. As I learned then, it was still my fault because that's how debt works. It was my responsibility to take care of debt with the school regardless of whom or what got in the way of that.

I suspect this is similar in your case. You were the primary party responsible for payment to the hospital. Remember that you entered into the agreement with the hospital and not Medicaid. As such, they have every right to send you to collections if payments were not made as stipulated in the agreement.

The best thing to do now is to call both the collections company and the original creditor to explain the situation. They are under no obligation to remove the inquiries but sometimes you will get a compassionate person who will understand.

i have found that creditors dont want to deal with any score lower than a 620 if it is worse than that good luck to you...im in the same boat

There are a few things you should do.  First read all of your full credit reports to see whether it even shows on your reports, often medical debts don't ever get to the credit beauras.  If it is on your report, contact the company that is listed for collecting the debt and clarify that their records show the debt payed and explain the circumstances of the delinquincy.  They are able to reverse their reporting of your delinquency with the credit beauras.  If that fails you can still challenge it with the credit beauras or at the very least add a statement to your credit files explaining the reason for the debt/delinquincy (this is seen by creditors when your credit is pulled).

 I have been making regular/on time $25/mo.  pmts for lab tests for the last 6 months.  The Co. wants more money, faster.....I am on a fixed income.  They sent me to collections.  How will this affect my credit scores when I cannot afford larger monthly payments - and the company will not allow me to sign a contract stating I will pay this amount each month - they want more.

This is a very large medical lab....would they not know that it is illegal for bills to be sent to collections if payments are being made?  Having said that, I did write to the collections agency and advised them that payments were being made and requested that they cease and desist contact with me - they have.  Additionally, the lab has stopped sending me statements - but I continue to make the monthly payments.  Maybe the lab hopes I will forget to make a payment and then they will have a reason to turn me over to debt collections!!  Thank you for your information. 

Send certified cease and desist letters to all collection agencies and a copy to the credit companies.  Its illegal for them to contact you again at that point.   No matter what they say your debt is with the hospital/doctor  not the credit agencies.  Often you can get the hospital to start making illegal moves which makes it hard for them to collect.

I had a similar situation where the medical bills that went to collection were to be paid by insurance.  I wrote a letter (copies to the 3 bureaus) to the collection agency explaining that the insurance company must have dropped the ball and I was paying for it..  They removed the entries.  Maybe i was lucky but it sure worked out to my benefit. 

I work for a Healthcare system and I'm pretty sure if they were working to get ou to medicaid they should not have sent your bill to collections. You should call and ask to speak with some one in patient accounts/revenue cycle and ask them to remove it from collections. Then the collection agency can remove that from your credit report.