CareCredit

[Anonymous]

I applied for and received a CareCredit Card about 18 months ago. I never needed to use it until about 5 months ago. I had some dental work done and the bill was over $900.00. Whe I received the monthly bill in the mail. I paid $865.00 and the following month paid the balance in full. Was never even 1 day late. While checking my credit score online, I noticed that it had a negative report on the credit bureau from CareCredit. I called them and was informed that my account was closed and the reason was, decreased credit score and inactivity. When I informed them that I had never been late on a payment and that I did have some medical bills against my account, they just blew me off. It's a shame that these companies are allowed to do this. I pay my bills, always have, but when you have medical bills in the thousands of dollars, all I can afford to do is make payments. I was also informed that even if a hospital accepts partial payment, they still have the right to turn in negative accounts to the credit bureau.

[llecs]

Welcome to the forums! Sorry that happened.

When you mentioned "negative", are there lates reporting? Charged-off or anything like that? A closed account by itself isn't a bad or negative thing. Credit card companies often close accounts, especially if it hadn't been used in a long time which would explain the inactivity comment. Credit card companies also review your credit on a very frequent basis and if they see anything they don't like, like high balances, then they will often take action like decreasing credit limits or even closing accounts, even if you paid that particular company 100% on time. Admittedly some of my balances were too high. I just had two credit cards close down and they cited high balances on my other cards and inactivity despite the cards being locked away with $0 balances for over a year. For best practice, always use your card at least once every 3 months and then pay it off as you did just to keep it active. I know that's harder to do with CareCredit though.

I'd give CareCredit a call and see if they are open to reopening the account. Some will listen and work with you. I had a BofA CC that closed and I called a few times until I found someone who listened and they reopened it for me.

Was your last sentence related to CareCredit? CareCredit aside, if you pay less than 100%, a doc or a medical group or center can turn over the left over balance to collections anytime they want. They'll usually give you 30 days or so based on the contract and then turn it over. However, if you are making payments, most all medical practices will allow you to continue to pay even if it's late without turning it over to collections. If you had a doc turn you in after a partial payment and you continued to pay after that, then he's a jerk for turning you over to collections.