Been Paying on Med Bill That Was Sent to Collections

[scm325]

This is a bit of a long read, but I'm unsure on what to do in this situation.

I had a medical bill that has been lingering since this time around last year. Being that it was a medical bill and it wasn't going to accrue any interest, I just paid what I could since I'm in school full-time and only work part-time in retail on the weekends. One day at my job, we were talking about bills/expenses, and I brought up my medical bill. I was told by someone that "as long as you pay something, they won't send it to collections." So I was paying $5-$10 every paycheck while keeping more for necessary expenses and other bills . Well, stupid me didn't think to call them to start sending me my bill monthly in the mail because their PDF statements weren't opening online. So I just assumed that since I was paying monthly, nothing will happen and there was no need to look at my statements anyway. 

Well, I got an e-mail from CreditKarma and CreditSesame sayin that I have a new derogatory account on my credit report. I panicked since it's been almost three years since I've had any late payments and I haven't had a collections since '08. I logged in to see it was from the hospital from Consumer Adj. (CaCi) and it shows the date that the collection was open was back in Dec '13. There's a $25 difference between the original balance and current balance. Also, the actual balance is different since I have been paying on it since then too. I have never received a 30-day dunning notice from the CA. I immediately did a search and I was ashamed when I read that paying something does not prevent it from being sent to collections, and other topics on this forum advised to contact the OC. 

I emailed the OC and asked her if she could pull the collections and she said, "The account has been in collection since December so I am unable to return from collection.  We have 30 days to return an account from collection."

In the next email I sent, I asked, "If I were to pay for the medical bill to bring the balance to $0.00, would they remove it from my credit report?" She replied with, "I asked the collection agency not to send the account to the credit bureau and they will not, but the bill needs to be paid rather quickly."

Well, the CA already sent it to the credit bureaus! So I don't know what she meant by that.

What should I do?  Should I pay the OC (they have been updating my balance to them) and then ask the CA to remove it since it's been paid? I don't know what steps I should take. I have enough saved just to spare to pay the rest of the bill if I can get it off my report.

[ljohn27]

Send them a PFD letter via certified mail.

[scm325]

Sorry, this is probably annoying, but I need further advice.

I sent them an e-mail asking if they delete tradelines with CRAs after accounts are PIF. They sent an email back simply stating to call their toll free number provided.

I only asked them because under the BBB reviews for this particular agency, other consumers have requested PFD and stated that they did not follow through. They fired back to the consumer and said:

"As per CACi's credit reporting policy, once an account is paid in full in our office, we report the paid in full status to our client, as well as the credit bureaus. Once the paid in full status has been reported, the account is closed in our office. On the next reporting cycle, we delete all closed accounts from the consumers credit report as we no longer have the account in our office.

.....The deletion request was then submitted to the credit bureaus on our next cycle update provided to the bureaus.

.....Once the deletion report has been submitted to the credit reporting agencies, CACi has no control over, and is not responsible for the amount of time it takes to update a credit report, or whether the credit report is updated. CACi satisfied its responsibility to request the trade line be removed. Due to this, it is sometimes necessary for a consumer to contact the credit bureau(s) to have them correct their information."

If they have done it before, why did they e-mail me back with an encrypted PDF attachment only to say: "Please contact our office. (###)###-####". Should I call them? I've read not to call the CA and some have successful PFD on the phone. I'm at a lost. I apologize if it seems repetitve, but this is my first possible PFD and I'm really worried/nervous.

[bkelly906]

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@scm325 wrote:

This is a bit of a long read, but I'm unsure on what to do in this situation.

I had a medical bill that has been lingering since this time around last year. Being that it was a medical bill and it wasn't going to accrue any interest, I just paid what I could since I'm in school full-time and only work part-time in retail on the weekends. One day at my job, we were talking about bills/expenses, and I brought up my medical bill. I was told by someone that "as long as you pay something, they won't send it to collections." So I was paying $5-$10 every paycheck while keeping more for necessary expenses and other bills . Well, stupid me didn't think to call them to start sending me my bill monthly in the mail because their PDF statements weren't opening online. So I just assumed that since I was paying monthly, nothing will happen and there was no need to look at my statements anyway. 

Well, I got an e-mail from CreditKarma and CreditSesame sayin that I have a new derogatory account on my credit report. I panicked since it's been almost three years since I've had any late payments and I haven't had a collections since '08. I logged in to see it was from the hospital from Consumer Adj. (CaCi) and it shows the date that the collection was open was back in Dec '13. There's a $25 difference between the original balance and current balance. Also, the actual balance is different since I have been paying on it since then too. I have never received a 30-day dunning notice from the CA. I immediately did a search and I was ashamed when I read that paying something does not prevent it from being sent to collections, and other topics on this forum advised to contact the OC. 

I emailed the OC and asked her if she could pull the collections and she said, "The account has been in collection since December so I am unable to return from collection.  We have 30 days to return an account from collection."

In the next email I sent, I asked, "If I were to pay for the medical bill to bring the balance to $0.00, would they remove it from my credit report?" She replied with, "I asked the collection agency not to send the account to the credit bureau and they will not, but the bill needs to be paid rather quickly."

Well, the CA already sent it to the credit bureaus! So I don't know what she meant by that.

What should I do?  Should I pay the OC (they have been updating my balance to them) and then ask the CA to remove it since it's been paid? I don't know what steps I should take. I have enough saved just to spare to pay the rest of the bill if I can get it off my report.

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scm325 - I know it has been a while since this post but I was wondering if you have had any success with Consumer Adj. Co.?  I have a paid collection to them for an Ameren UE bill.  I was going to start sending out gw's and wanted to know if you had any success and possibly a contact person.  I would love to have this deleted from my credit report!!

Thanks