Medical Collections with good credit scores

[Anonymous]

I have a question regarding medical collections. My wife and I ran our credit reports and discovered we had pretty good scores (801 and 756). However, there was a medical collection listed from about 5 years ago from when my wife was in college and her parent's insurance which she was on refused to pay. Would it still be possible to get a mortgage with these collections?

[llecs]

I'm not a mortgage expert and someone will chime in I bet, but I'm certain that it is up to your lender whether or not you'd have to pay it first.

IMO, it wouldn't hurt to try to remove it now. Could you pay it if you had to?

[Anonymous]

We could pay it off, the thing is that my wife had tried to contact the hospital after this happened. She called and emailed trying to get onto some sort of payment plan and we never heard anything back. Never received a letter in the mail regarding it a call or anything. We had forgotten about it until we ran our credit last night.

[llecs]

Again, someone will chime in on whether it has to stay or go; IMO, you wouldn't have to worry about it being 5 yrs. But removing it will boost your scores by a good deal.

However, if you opt to tackle it, then save up the money to have the ability to pay in full (don't do a payment plan) and follow the HIPAA process. I'm not too knowledgable on the process, but several have reported success in getting it removed from their CRs.

[Anonymous]

Old collections don't have to be paid, though some lenders may require it.  So if you don't want to pay it and the lender asks you to, move on to another lender.

[WannaHouse]

It is basically your choice. As old as it is, it will not affect your scores much, if any. Most lenders will not care, but have the money put back just in case.

Good luck!!

[DallasLoanGuy]

don't pay them until after you get your loan. it will hurt your scores.

i am 100% sure that you will get approved WITHOUT having to pay them..... unless you use the wrong lender.

fannie mae and freddie mac will not care about them. neither will fha.

some lenders will.

if the lender wants them paid, call another loan officer.