Credit Report Question

[jumperjah]

I've been trying to figure out exactly what to do with an item on my credit report.

- On my credit report is a medical debt that has been charged off
- The history of the medical debt was "PAID AS AGREED" for 18 months from the inception of the debt. - Note: I do not believe that this debt was paid at any time during those 18 months.
- At the 19th month, it was charged off.
- It is not showing as being sent to a collection agency

I am thinking that I need to contact the holder of the debt to see what I can do to resolve this, but it seems really odd to me that it would show as "PAID AS AGREED" and then immediately go to a write off at that point.

Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated!

[Ben Dinsmore]

Jumperjah,

First, is the medical debt valid? In other words, are you sure that medical collection on your credit report is truly YOUR debt. Did you you sign for it etc...?

[swanberg22]

Hi there. I work in the servicing department for a bank, so I do have some insight into how credit bureau reporting works. We are required to submit a file once a month on all accounts to all of the reporting agencies. We only report payments as past due if they're more than 30 days as of month end. Our file is created from our database, pulling in all of the necessary payment information, as well as paid as agreed, non-accrual or charge-off status info.

The status info is a code that needs to be manually maintained at the account level, regardless of how many days past due, so if not maintained you report a loan months past due with a staus of paid as agreed.

It appears this medical institution is filing information monthly, but I can only guess that their billing software isn't all that sophisticated, and likely can't easily handle all of the credit bureau reporting nuances, if any all. Or they aren't utilizing it properly.

Not having a medical institution background, it may also simply be their policy, for a number of reasons, to chose to only report bad debts as such after 18 months of unsuccessful attempts via regular monthly billings. My bank handles bad debts internally, and they may too, but been unsuccessful contacting you?

I would definitely contact them at this point and offer a settlement amount in order to clear it up. In other words if you can afford to pay half of it, see if they'll accept that and mark the account as paid in full. If they're nice, they'll probably be willing to accept as they don't expect to get anything from you at this point.

I hope this helps you out in some way...

Any other thoughts out there?

[Ben Dinsmore]

Good ideas pete!

Also, if you do get the collection agency to settle on the debt, make sure that you get the agreement in writing before you send them a dime!

And NEVER give them electronic access to your checking account!! They will Clean you out!