what should i do in this situation??plzz help!!

Submitted by afe08 on Sat, 06/05/2010 - 00:14
Forums
Credit repair

hi,
i am new to this forum and i have a Question regarding my credit report and credit score. i would try to explain my situation as clearly as possible and would welcome any advice & personal experience from this forum.

i had a medical bill for my newborn daughter from a pediatrician in may 2006, i had some issues with being the doctor in network or out of network with insurance and doctor's office and so the bill was unsettelled, the doctors office sent it to collection, i was out of country and could not respond efficiently, but i did pay it in full after it went in collection and it was all over. at that time i had no idea that it would have such a bad effect on my credit score, now they say that it would be on my report for 7 years. I have a perfect history other than this one thing, pay all my bills on time, never carried a balance etc.
1--can i get this one thing removed from my history some how, should i contact the collection agency and ask them to do so??? do i stand a chance since 3 years have past???

2--should i dispute it with credit bureau as i paid the account in full and it was a medical bill for my daughter and i was trying to settle it with my insurance???

3--if i dispute it, and if the credit bureau decides against it, would it have a bad effect on my score????

thanks in advance for all or any input!!

Aaron

Hi afe,

Welcome to this community :)

I am afraid the negative cannot be removed from your credit report before the seven years. You could have negotiated a "Pay for delete" (PFD) agreement with the collection agency before making the payments.

"Pay for delete" (PFD) is the agreement through which the negatives on an account are removed once you make the payments. The account status too gets updated as "Paid".

You have already made the payments 3 years ago, so the collection agency may not want to work out with you in removing the negatives from the account. Still, if you want you can try your luck. If they agree to the PFD, get the agreement in writing. Moreover, a "Paid collections" is not that bad a listing as the unpaid one, and the negative impact reduces with time.

You can also try disputing these with the credit bureaus. Sometimes, the dispute method works.

Thanks,

Aaron

Sat, 06/05/2010 - 06:17 Permalink
afe08

hi,
thanks a lot for ur reply. i would like to know more about the dispute method,

1- i paid that money in full, can i dispute that its a paid accout and reporting it is violating my privacy rights according to HIPPA laws???

2-one of my concern is if i dispute it and my dispute is rejected by the bureau....would my score take a negative hit due to that....or in other words, if disputing has any effect on the score????

thanks again for your valuable advice.

Sat, 06/05/2010 - 14:24 Permalink
Aaron

Hi afe,

Can I know the status of this account on your credit report? Isn't it showing "Paid in full" status? If you have made the full payments, and if you have the payment receipt, you will be able to dispute this with the credit bureaus.

For that you will have to send a <a href="/repair/dispute-letter.html>dispute letter to the bureaus, and attach a copy of the amount owed, and a copy of your payment receipt.

As for your second question, if you try to dispute an item with the credit bureau, and if your request gets rejected, it will have no impact on your credit score.

Thanks,

Aaron

Tue, 06/08/2010 - 10:27 Permalink