Seriously pohjonen, you are digging yourself in deeper.
Sorry for repeating, but GO TO CREDITBOARDS.COM and get yourself some serious advice. It’s free. It’s not a spam site. It’s a place where people with collection agency problems have been hanging out for years and where they love sticking it to collection agencies. They know what they are doing.
Just for the record, whenever a collection agency sends you a demand letter, do not reply to it with reasoned argument, angry tirades, thorough documentation, explanations, etc.
Make a copy of the letter. Write across the bottom “I dispute. Please validate. <your signature>” and send it back to them. WRITE OR SAY NOTHING ELSE. Use certified mail if you wish. Doing anything else is the equivalent of spilling your guts to the friendly police detective in the interrogation room when he tells you he is just trying to help you.
I went to that site but I can’t find anything similar to my situation where the original debt holder grossly overstates a tiny debt like that and sends it to collections.
They won’t let newbies start new threads either.
The funny thing is, CreditKarma doesn’t downgrade my score much over it.
I think the collection agency knows its phony because they have never contacted me at all, even though they lied and said they did and I didn’t respond within 30 days and therefore the debt is valid. (Yeah right.)
As soon as my report comes from Transunion I’ll dispute it and hope for the best.
I’m really annoyed at the medical providers that started this mess over 20 cents.
Not responding within the 30 day of the credit letter does not ‘make the debt valid’ - it only allows them to continue the collection activities under the assumption that it is so. You can dispute it at any time - or as many times as you want - until they provide the evidence to back up their claim.
What generally happens if you dispute the claim - they remove it - then they sell it to the next agency down the road - who can start the process all over again if they choose (until such time as the age of the debt is beyond statute and you push it).
I can personally testify to the ‘they remove it part’ but not the rest. I have never had one come back again because it was sold. I didn’t think that was allowed. The way I understand it, once you dispute it and they either can’t substantiate it or just don’t do so, it is gone for good and no one can ever touch it again by law. Consumer protection laws are strict on this stuff just because everyone knows that collection agencies are scam artists. You have every advantage if you play by the rules set up to work in your favor.
No one needs to have any conscience of these types of collection attempts even if it was partially your fault. Someone should have made a more honest attempt to collect in the first place that doesn’t result in a 7 year penalty. None of the money goes to the original party that you owed the debt to. They already sold it to the speculators (the collection agency) who buys up packaged blocks of debt and tries to collect as much on it as they can as kind of a game using whatever psychological tactics are most effective. Don’t fall it ever. They are extremely easy to beat as long as you know your rights and the way to play the game.
While awaiting my report from Transunion to file the dispute, I filed a complaint with the better business bureau against the medical provider that turned the 20 cents over for collections and called it $79. They created this mess and I’m pretty sure they can clean it up if they want to. As long as it gets settled I don’t care how. I’m retired now - I got nothing but time and need things to do to keep me off the streets.
This probably doesn’t help much, but when I was in underwriting, we ignored all medical-related credit dings. This was some time ago, however, when loans were given to anybody with a dim pulse.
Not good advice, but you could always just shine it. Unlike herpes, it will eventually go away.
The collection notation is gone from my report. I don’t know if it was my sarcastic email to the collection agency or siccing the Better Business Bureau on the radiology group. No one has favored me with any communication about it, but it is gone.
If you want to wait until the item rolls off your report, find out what the statute of limitations is in your state. CA I think is 4 years. IANAL.
If you go this route, NEVER send them a dime - it counts as “activity” and resets the clock to 0 - you now are at the beginning of that 4 years or whatever.
Disputing with the reporting agencies is much better - send them the docs and demand the item be removed.
In the case of the OP, actually, the bill is legit - you admit you underpaid. Interest and fees add up.
One the plus side - at least you actually did owe an amount.
Legend has it that, originally, the credit card (or other revolving credit) program did a simple calculation:
Previous Balance
- payment
--------------------
New Balance
Send bill for New Balance.
Only problem: no zero check. They actually started the dunning sequence while demanding immediate payment of $0.00 before the 20th of this month!
My record was Income Tax in IN. IN had a straight 2% income tax. Few, if any deductions, and none of which applied to more than a handful of people. This made withholding quite accurate. One year, I owed 0.07. For the hell of it, I send a check for .07. Yep. they spent about $5 to process a check to get 7 cents.
I’d like to think that all AR systems now have a minimum bill amount, but I am not surprised that some don’t. Especially in a non-revolving account with a payment missing its pennies.
Does anyone actually think the BBB is a consumer advocacy organization? My experience is that they protect their members while looking like they care about consumers.
