care credit card

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

New to this board!  Last Feb I went to the dentist to get my wisdom teeth removed.  They automatically signed me up for care credit financing and charged me the total amount for the procedure.  A week later I canceled my appointment and never had any work done.  However, they still wanted me to pay the full amount.  I argued with the office and they finally discontinued the financing after I paid 80 'service charges'.  I'm in the process of buying a house and care credit is coming up on my credit report as closed, but it is delinquent because of a high balance during the time I was trying to get it resolved with the dentist.

Is there any way I can get this off my credit report and what do I need to do?  It's brining my score way down.

Thanks!!!

[Anonymous]

i've never used care credit before but i'm just curious about how it was done "automatically". wouldn't this be something you filled out an application for and had to sign?

if someone filled it out without your knowledge or consent i'd tell the dentist to remove it from your reports or you'll sue (possibly prosecute?) have them remove it and sue anyway.  that's just wrong of them

good luck

[vawt]

Care credit is just a health focused credit card.  I have one and it worked great, I was able to pay the monthly bill out of my HSA account to make my eye surgery tax free and 0% interest.

I'm guessing you filled out some paperwork to apply for the credit card?  If not, you have a real issue with that dentist.  they can't apply for credit on your behalf.  If they cannot produce any paperwork showing you signed a credit application, I would talk to a lawyer immediately.

Even if you did sign something, the dentist should have reversed any charges they put on the account.  I'm confused how they charged you anything though?  usually its less than 24 hours where you get charged and its just a service fee, not the ENTIRE amount. 

Either way I would never go to that dentist again and I would file a complaint with the BBB and whomever that dentist is accredited by...

[Anonymous]

I shouldn't have said 'automatically'.  I did sign the papers and the way it was explained to me was that it would be charged when I received the actual service.  A few days later I canceled the appointment and told them I would not be going to that dentist any longer.  A few weeks later I recieved a bill in the mail from Care Credit that had listed the amount of the total bill and that a payment was due, even though I canceled the procedure.  I sent one certified letter to their billing dept asking why the charges were not removed and that was about a month ago.  Is there something else I could do to recitfy this situation.  The high balance is $2500 on my credit report.

Thanks!

[vawt]

You need to get the denist's office to reverse the charge.  I would call or head over there and get them to give you a receipt for the reversal.

You can probably do a dispute with Care Credit, but their website is not like other credit cards and is difficult to use.  There might be a form on the back of the bill to fix as well.