Collection agency actions legal? (credit report, debt, payment, disputing)

[snowangelz430]

Can anyone tell me if it is legal for a collection agency to put bad credit on your credit report before they inform you that they have been engaged to collect from you. I ran into this I was checking my credit report about a year ago and found 3 accounts listed under a certain collection agency hired in Indiana to collect hospital bills and I had not been notified by them at the time... Thank you in advance.

[Hawkeye48]

Originally Posted by snowangelz430

Can anyone tell me if it is legal for a collection agency to put bad credit on your credit report before they inform you that they have been engaged to collect from you. I ran into this I was checking my credit report about a year ago and found 3 accounts listed under a certain collection agency hired in Indiana to collect hospital bills and I had not been notified by them at the time... Thank you in advance.

I honestly don't know it that's legal for them to do that. First thing I'd do is go to the government web site that allows you to get all three of the major credits reports for free. I believe you can get all three credit reports free once a year. If you do see something on your credit reports that you don't agree with you can challenge it in writing and get it removed.

[UseJeff]

Here's a post which tells you how to get the free credit report, and discusses disputing and options to a point. http://www.city-data.com/forum/busin...disputing.html

Yes it is legal for them to report it on your credit report. They probably tried to notify you, mainly because this is typically the only way to get their money.

There are key things involved though that effect your score. For example... legally they can only report the activity date to be 180 days after the last payment was made, or date of services rendered if there was never a payment.

Also read the last post I made in this thread: http://www.city-data.com/forum/north...me-me-3-a.html

Hopefully this helps some... have to run, but will check back to see if there are any other questions.

[southernlady5464]

It depends...

We had one try to contact us and had NOT been assigned to the agency yet. I contacted the medical company we actually owed and asked what was going on. They said they were still filing the bill with the insurance company and had NOT sent it to the collection agency. So with names in hand I called the collection agency back and *sic'ed them*. I then put it in writing. Haven't heard any more from THAT collection agency again and it isn't on any of our credit files.

Btw, what we owed after the insurance company paid was about $50 and what the collection agency claimed we owed was $7,000. Liz

[UseJeff]

I wish I could remember who posted this... but this is a great link (so far that I've explored) about debt collection: Fair Debt Collection Practices Act - You can Fight Back! (if I happen upon who posted it I'll edit and give credit to the poster of the link).

You should do your best to keep all correspondance and take notes or record any phone calls if possible. I would forward the information on to the FTC's complaint section. While it's unlikely a few complaints will do anything...once they reach a certain point, they launch and investigation, and if the choose to they will sue the company. Nothing like having the government sue you...kinda tough to win that one

One note...the medical bill when you pay it off. Be sure and get it in writing before you pay it that the account will be considered "paid in full" and "paid as agreed". This will protect you from any further collection...

[Padgett2]

If you are so far behind in paying a bill that it is turned over to a collection agency, you already have 'Bad Credit." You knew you owed the bill.

There are some scummy collection agencies around. They will use every trick in the book to collect.

Now, mistakes are made. In any large company such as a hospital, there will be numerous people with the same or very similar name. The wrong account gets pulled and turned over. Clerks make mistakes.

So always, make sure that any charge you get that you don't understand, don't just assume that someone will catch the mistake. Look into it yourself.

[southernlady5464]

If you are so far behind in paying a bill that it is turned over to a collection agency, you already have 'Bad Credit." You knew you owed the bill.

That is also not true.

We had that one turned over when it should not have been. Our credit was NOT affected by that at all. And no, we did NOT know we owed it yet since it had not cleared the insurance process yet. Liz

[Padgett2]

Sorry, I should have use a qualifyer such as USUALLY people that get turned already have bad credit.

Accidents, misfiling, all sorts of clerical mistakes happen and it's the client/customer that pays.

My father-in-law was turned over once. The hospital had him living on 56th street when he really lived on 65th street. The household on 56th apparently just tossed the bill in the trash every month and he thought Medicare had taken care of it.