My credit report ONLY shows unpaid bills and nothing else !!

[Anonymous]

I recently got my SSN (I am an internation student in US for past 3 years). I had hospital emergencies in 2012 and the bills are unpaid (I never knew about these bills but that another story).

So based on this I can conclude that SSN is not required for stuff to go on your credit report. Which is fine by me. What boggles me is that the only thing on my report are unpaid medical bills. By this logic where are all the bills that I have been paying for like 3 years. The presence of ONLY unpaid bills has killed my credit history. This is wierd as hell and looks unfair. Either everything should be reported or nothing. Not halfway. 

Can I do something about this?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I recently got my SSN (I am an internation student in US for past 3 years). I had hospital emergencies in 2012 and the bills are unpaid (I never knew about these bills but that another story).

So based on this I can conclude that SSN is not required for stuff to go on your credit report. Which is fine by me. What boggles me is that the only thing on my report are unpaid medical bills. By this logic where are all the bills that I have been paying for like 3 years. The presence of ONLY unpaid bills has killed my credit history. This is wierd as hell and looks unfair. Either everything should be reported or nothing. Not halfway. 

Can I do something about this?

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The only thing you can do is pay off the bills.  Medical bills aren't reported as being paid on time.  They only report when you don't pay.  Maybe unfair but that's the way it is.  Credit card companies, auto finance companies, mortgage companies,  and other types of installment loans report when you pay on time but there a lot of bills that do not.  They include such things as medical bills, apartment rentals, utilities like telephone and cable bills, etc.  they only report when you don't pay.  There are moves to give people more credit for paying these types of bills but that's years away from having any effect.

[gdale6]

Google the HIPAA Process and use it for unpaid medical bills.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forum. Gdale6 gives good advice. Good luck.

[RobertEG]

No question that there is some inherent "unfairness" in a system that scores your risk of repayment based only on selective history.

However, there is no statutory or regulatory requirement for any creditor or business to report their customers' history to any CRA.

Fortunately, most creditorw and businesses who deal in installment and revoliing types of credit choose to do so, but most businesses who deal in open types of credit, which is due when billed, and not in partilal monthly amounts that are either fixed or revolve around the amount owed, dont choose to engage in regular monthly reporting of all consumer accounts.

Requiring full reporting of all consumer credit-related accounts and business related activities would be a burden on many creditors and businesses that would most likely impose its own form of unfairness.  How about a loan from Uncle Jim?

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What boggles me is that the only thing on my report are unpaid medical bills. By this logic where are all the bills that I have been paying for like 3 years. The presence of ONLY unpaid bills has killed my credit history. This is wierd as hell and looks unfair. Either everything should be reported or nothing. Not halfway. 

Can I do something about this?

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What you can do:

• Learn about credit.  Don't rely on assumption or what you think is "fair".
• Pay your bills.
• Do whatever it takes to avoid derogs.  Derogs tend to have a major negative impact on your credit.
• Establish credit accounts that report positive history.
• Hit the Rebuilding subforum to see what you can do about your derogs.

As others have pointed out, medical bills do not report postive history.  They only report for delinquincies.  Most utilities, rent, cell phones, etc are like this as well.  Everyone else has to deal with the exact same system.