To make a long story short, I had to have a test done at the hospital a few months ago. My insurance paid some, but still left me with a decent sized chunk of the bill, which I opted to pay out over a few installments. Well, between a busy start of the semester and the fact my mail goes to my parents' house and I'm away at college, I never got a bill for January and forgot about it. The hospital seemed to be rather quick about sending it to a collection agency, because a couple weeks ago, I got a letter in the mail from a collection agency who wanted their money obviously. It'll be paid as of next week once my payment arrives in the mail. But now I'm worried this will show up on my credit report. Is there any sort of grace period with agencies or am I screwed as far as my credit goes? Thanks
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Credit report question....
- Thread starter yg17
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the impact on your credit report depends on your credit history. you're young and most likely have very little credit, basically then it's going to be a big slice of the pie, so it will be a big hit to you. someone in their 60's with 40 years of credit, having a collection account may only impact them 15 or 20 points, because there's so much positive information to balance it out.
a collection account remains on your report for seven years from the date of the missed payment that lead it to be sold to collections.
i used to work for experian, i can answer just about anything for you
a collection account remains on your report for seven years from the date of the missed payment that lead it to be sold to collections.
i used to work for experian, i can answer just about anything for you
Nope, you can get it online for free at annualcreditreport.com once a year. Although you will have to pay if you want your actual credit score.
If you have some other "good" credit and this is your only "bad" credit, then you should be OK. However, if you haven't done enough to develop "good" credit then your score will likely not be very high.
All my other credit is good credit. My score was a 730-something back in December when I bought my car.
trouble is, there's a big difference between a young guy with limited credit history's 730, and someone three times your age's 730.
you may have a 730 based on three accounts. add one collection account, and it's weighing in as 25% of your credit history now.
someone else may have a 730 based on 24 accounts. add a collection account and that's 4% of their credit history. they still have positive information on 24 other accounts.
also, if you request a report and purchase a score, you cannot compare that score to the score you saw at the car dealership. there are different scoring methods used, MOST of the time a dealership will use FICO. unless you go to www.myfico.com, you're most likely not going to get a FICO score.
I had a medical bill go to a collection agency after my secondary insurance failed to pay the allowable limit. It was an error on United Healthcare's part and they said they would expedite the payment of the bill on my behalf.
Anyways, when I spoke with the collection agency they said even though they had received the bill for collection it would not be posted on my credit report unless I failed to pay. Basically some agencies will give you a little bit of time before they report it. I have since reviewed my credit report twice in the past year and have yet to seen it appear.
The same thing happened when I forgot to return an express 7 day library book within 3 weeks. They sent it to collections, I got a bill but they didn't report it to the credit bureau. I was required to pay the collection processing fee of $10 bucks even though the late fee for the book was less than that.
You may be safe depending on who they sent it to. Like others said check you credit report in 6 months. AnnualCreditReport.com is the free site (you must pay for your score), be caeful of the others that enroll you in programs.
Anyways, when I spoke with the collection agency they said even though they had received the bill for collection it would not be posted on my credit report unless I failed to pay. Basically some agencies will give you a little bit of time before they report it. I have since reviewed my credit report twice in the past year and have yet to seen it appear.
The same thing happened when I forgot to return an express 7 day library book within 3 weeks. They sent it to collections, I got a bill but they didn't report it to the credit bureau. I was required to pay the collection processing fee of $10 bucks even though the late fee for the book was less than that.
You may be safe depending on who they sent it to. Like others said check you credit report in 6 months. AnnualCreditReport.com is the free site (you must pay for your score), be caeful of the others that enroll you in programs.
There's a lot of misinformation and myth in this thread. You need to check out your rights under the FDCA. There are numerous websites devoted to this. You can also download the appropriate letters to send to the CA. If they violate the FDCA you can easily sue them and win $1000 per violation. Keep records of all communication with them. Don't be a passive victim. Collection agencies rely on your fear and ignorance to get you to pay. Obviously you are going to pay this debt anyway, but there's no way in heck you should have to have it show up on your credit report. Do some research on your own and don't take it lying down.
or just make sure you call to cancel in time
i work for a marketing company that owns a bulk of those "get your free report when you enroll for monitoring" and things like that. i used to work for experian which runs consumerinfo.com and freecreditreport.com. the benefits of those aren't that great. my company (trilegiant) owns privacyguard.com, mycreditkeeper.com, and a few others marketed through banks and credit card companies.
privacyguard is currently two months for one dollar, this will get you three reports with three scores, then just call to cancel.