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Do CRA's interact with each other? Question re: disputes

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doredeb
New Contributor

Do CRA's interact with each other? Question re: disputes

I'm confused about a medical collection appearing on my credit report(s).  It's old (2012) but appeared for the first time a couple months ago, out of the blue, on all three reports.  I don't have any other derogatories.  At first, I only saw it on TU; I immediately disputed it (I indicated I had no knowledge of the account, which at the time I didn't), and within 8 hours I got an email from TU that it had been "removed and steps had been taken to ensure it didn't reappear."  Okay, great!  Then I saw it on EQ and EX; I filed the same dispute with EX and it ultimately came back (after 30 days) as "updated" and was not removed.  I was never able to dispute it at all with EQ, because I have yet to be able to get into my EQ report to file the dispute.  I always receive a message that they can't verify me. I put off dealing with it until I could get imore information from the hospital. For what it's worth, I found out this is a bill from an ER visit where I was never actually seen by anyone; I "checked in" but after three hours of waiting, I gave up and went home.  They never took my insurance info or verified my address etc.; when I checked in they scanned my license which I now assume matched me up in their system since I'd been there several YEARS prior.  They must have had a 10 year old address on file.  They "billed" me $300, but I never received anything from the hospital and wasn't aware of the bill until it appeared on my reports.  Of course, I'm now stuck in between the hospital and the CA, with the hospital sounding empathetic but telling me they have no information anymore.  I really don't want to pay the CA but I REALLY want this off my reports.

 

Back to my original issue...today when I got my credit monitoring update, I saw my EQ score (Vantage) had jumped up 44 points; when I pulled up the report, I saw there's now a remark under that medical collection that says "consumer disputes the information in this medical collection".  I never disputed it with EQ!  Because I disputed it with the other two CRA's, does that mean it was automatically disputed on EQ - even if I didn't initiate the dispute?  And why did my score jump up just because it says I disputed the collection?  I thought it would only rise if/when the collection was removed completely.  I'm confused!

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gdale6
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Do CRA's interact with each other? Question re: disputes

Sometimes they communicate with each other but not normally on a CA reporting they do with ID theft issues. Disputing on one does not pass to another CRA.  If this is not yours and it went down as you said, I would demand that the hospital cancel the bill (they have records in the back office) dont let them buffalo you. 

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