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Law Office of Mitchell D. Bluhm & Associates

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Law Office of Mitchell D. Bluhm & Associates

Hello,

 

I'm hoping someone can help me out. Many years ago (roughly five or six years), I went to the hospital when I was sick. At the time, I was a broke college student and I didn't have insurance. When I received the bills (part of the bill from the beginning was sent out of state for some reason) for the visit, I had difficulty identifying who I owed money to exactly and it was very confusing/frustrating so I gave up. Ultimately, I couldn't pay and I ignored it.

 

For a long time, I never heard anything about this account. It never once appeared on my credit report. Since it seemed like it just went away, I didn't have anything to worry about. A couple of years ago, I started receiving phone calls from United Collection Bureau Incorporated. I don't know that I ever received anything in writing, just annoying phone calls twice per month, which I ultimately blocked. Again, it never appeared on my credit report. I just ignored it.

 

In the past year or so, I noticed on my CreditKarma.com account that I had some "Closed Collections" accounts. Both were from "UN COLL TOL," but my calls did not stop up until more recently. At this point, I was definitely confident that far too much time had passed and that this was finally going away. I should mention that the two closed accounts are for two separate amounts and one is for the actual hospital and one is for emergency services, apparently. That was part of my initial confusion with this bill.

 

Anyways, fast forward to about a month ago when I suddenly received a scary letter from the Law Office of Mitchell D. Bluhm and Associates. I should probably mention, I have nearly an 800 credit score, have never been late on my bills/student loans and I watch over my credit report on multiple websites. I did some Googling and realized that these guys aren't legit and have done a lot of sketchy things. So what did I do? I ignored it. This bill was never an issue in the past, so I figured why start messing with it now? Especially given so much time has passed.

 

Today, I got an email from CreditKarma saying there was a new account added. Well, of course it was the scammers over at Mitchell D. Bluhm for the emergency services portion of this bill on my Collections. They are appearing on my TransUnion account, but no where else as of now. I know this bill has to be way too old at this point and I don't believe that it's possible that I owe it anymore given that nothing has ever happened with it. I think the hospital likely wrote it off LONG ago.

 

With not knowing exactly how to go about it, I gave TransUnion a call and reported it as fraud/too old of an account given all that I've read about Mitchell Bluhm. However, I'm worried that they're going to deny it and it's going to remain. The person I spoke with at TransUnion was clearly from out of the country and it was hard to communicate/ask questions.

 

I prefer not to deal with this scam company, so I don't want to call them up and ask them anything. They aren't calling and harassing me, at least yet. I'd rather not start that up.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do to get this off my report? This is really freaking me out since I'm looking to buy a house and things in the next six months to a year. It's lowered my score quite a bit. I've done a lot of reading and researching on this, but I don't want to do the wrong thing.

 

Additional information: CreditKarma.com also lists this under closed accounts: 

Jul 29, 2016
N/A
-
I don't know if that means anything. All it says is a date and N/A for everything else, which seems weird. TransUnion has marked my account for fraud activity, as well.

 

Message 1 of 15
14 REPLIES 14
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Law Office of Mitchell D. Bluhm & Associates

Pull your reports from annualcreditreport.com and look for a Date of First Delinquency (DoFD) or estimated removal date. If this bill was created 5-6 years ago then it can still be on your reports (for up to 7.5 years).
Message 2 of 15
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Law Office of Mitchell D. Bluhm & Associates

I'd agree, you need to get a look at your hard-copy credit reports.

Find out when the date of first default was, and if there is an estimated removal date already assigned.

 

An old bill is never not collectable.  The original account holder, or anyone they sell or otherwise assign it to, has every right to continue to attempt collecting on it forever.

What they are barred from doing is (a) suing you for it once the statute of limitations in your state expires, and (b) reporting it to the credit bureaus once it's 7-years-plus-180-days-from-DOFD expire.  That is why you need to find out what your DOFD was, so you know when the 7-year mark is going to pass and you can start disputing it based on that, if it's still around then.

 

Any collection agency can sontinue to reach out to you trying to collect, even after 7 years.  Most don't bother, because they know they cannot report the debt to the credit bureaus and so have lost their main weapon to make you want to pay, but there is nothing stopping them from contacting you about the debt itself.  They cannot sue you once your SOL passes, which I'm sure yours is long gone since most states have 3-5 year SOLs, but the lower-end collectors who buy these things for pennies may still call and/or send letters for years after that before giving up.  

 

In your case, it looks like you may have a year or two of reporting life left on this one.  You can start to request early exclusion from TU once the DOFD is about 6 1/2 years in the past, as they are known to routinely agree to exclude old debts about 6 months ahead of the end of their reporting life.  If you don't want to contact the collector, you can only rely on what you can get done from the TU side.  They cannot un-report something without the creditor/collector who put it there agreeing that it is not correct.  Your disputes with them are sent directly to the reporting collector for verification and TU's decision is based on that.  The only power TU has to alter reporting is to decide to exclude something from your report ahead of schedule.  Anything else has to be corrected or removed by the entity that reported it in the first place.

Message 3 of 15
RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

Re: Law Office of Mitchell D. Bluhm & Associates

The post seems to acknowledge that the debt is legitimate.

If so, then what is the basis for asserting that the collection is a scam or is fraud?

 

If the CRA has interpreted your prior communication as a fraud alert, then you can have it removed by noticing the CRA that you wish any fraud alert be removed.

Message 4 of 15
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Law Office of Mitchell D. Bluhm & Associates

Well, it's complicated. The actual bill wasn't fraud, but this company seems to be pretty fraudulent themselves and it's widely known. I tried to explain to the guy I was talking to at TransUnion my situation and I really wanted to ask questions. However, the TransUnion calls center must be overseas because the language barrier was ridiculous/he insisted I should mark my account for fraud and make a dispute.

 

From what I've read online, this company collecting this debt isn't legitimate. For every complaint on the BBB website, they seem to remove the complainer's account and it goes away for them. Seems a bit sketchy. They also never seem to have proof of people owing their debts (I personally have not contacted them, but everything I have read online indicates this).

 

I haven't been able to pull any of my reports at this point because it's marked for fraud. So I will call to get it removed.

Message 5 of 15
p-
Valued Contributor

Re: Law Office of Mitchell D. Bluhm & Associates


thefeverr wrote: Well, it's complicated. The actual bill wasn't fraud, but this company seems to be pretty fraudulent themselves and it's widely known.

That doesn't matter, and is not grounds for removing it from your report.  You need to know the DOFD, if you don't already.  Assuming it is a real debt, past SOL for your state, and within FCRA reporting limits, they are within their rights to report you to the CBs as part of their collection strategy.  All the bad press in the net doesn't change that.

 

If it's out of reporting (7.5 years past DOFD) then you can dispute and get it removed on those grounds.  Do it by mail.

 

If it's within reporting but not SOL for your state (they can't sue), then you need to make a deal with them.  Preferably communicating in writing.  Offer them a low amount to PFD but demand agreement to fully remove in writing.  Be sure to make it clear that you know it's past SOL, and know when the reporting period will end.

 

When is the DOFD, and how much is the original amount?

Message 6 of 15
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Law Office of Mitchell D. Bluhm & Associates

Just curious if the OP is still here and how this turned out.  This is the same CA that filed an illegal balance-billing medical claim against my husband.  He has disputed but so far hasn't heard anything, either from the CRAs or the CA. 

Message 7 of 15
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Law Office of Mitchell D. Bluhm & Associates


@Anonymous wrote:

Just curious if the OP is still here and how this turned out.  This is the same CA that filed an illegal balance-billing medical claim against my husband.  He has disputed but so far hasn't heard anything, either from the CRAs or the CA. 


Illegal balance billing is not the CA's violation of law - its violation of law on the part of the medical provider. You need to first determine if the CA is collecting on behalf of the provider of if they own the debt themselves. Simply disputing is usually not going to get you very far...

Message 8 of 15
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Law Office of Mitchell D. Bluhm & Associates

Okay, so for anyone who finds this via Google or for the other person who posted asking me what happened:

 

It was resolved. How I fixed it was complaining to the Better Business Bureau. What they are doing is so obviously illegal because they have nothing to back up any of their claims of debt owed ever, it seems. And they are a nightmare to actually work with. If anyone complains through the BBB, they remove your debt — it was that simple. And it's clearly because they have zero proof. Most of the complaints against them are of bills that had already been paid, were unidentified/not theirs or had some other type of inaccuracy. In my case, this bill was completely unidentifiable by what they sent me. I was guessing on what it was from, but no one had proof of what it really was. I don't care what anyone told me, it's clear to me that this place is a big scam and they cannot provide evidence of debt owed. I don't know the laws, but I think people need to use their own common sense when it comes to this stuff. If they could provide proof, they wouldn't give up so easily on anyone who makes a claim against them. I highly suggest that anyone with debt owed to this collector make sure they either have that proof, or file their own complaint against them. 

 

Hope that helps.

Message 9 of 15
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Law Office of Mitchell D. Bluhm & Associates


@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

Just curious if the OP is still here and how this turned out.  This is the same CA that filed an illegal balance-billing medical claim against my husband.  He has disputed but so far hasn't heard anything, either from the CRAs or the CA. 


Illegal balance billing is not the CA's violation of law - its violation of law on the part of the medical provider. You need to first determine if the CA is collecting on behalf of the provider of if they own the debt themselves. Simply disputing is usually not going to get you very far...


The CA's letter stated that the the OC no longer had authority to credit us for payment, so I assume that means he owns the debt.  He was the one we had to deal with.  There's a thread where we discussed this a couple of weeks ago ( http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/Medical-collection-not-owed/m-p/4717444#M503339 ).  Since then, dh sent registered "legal" letters to the two CRAs involved and the CA,.  We haven't heard anything official from anyone yet, but his TU report has changed the collection to the OC instead of Bluhm/Capio.  If we see it change on EX as well, then we can take it up directly with the OC.  

 

The interesting thing is, at the time we disputed, we had no damages (hubby wasn't denied credit, nothing hurt but our feelings) so pursuing the matter legally didn't really sound worthwhile.  We just needed to get it off his report.  However, this weekend we're applying for a car loan based on his score.  If he is denied or gets a higher rate, and then the collection is removed and his score goes up 50 points, we might reconsider. 

Message 10 of 15
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