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Hi Everyone - I just got my 3 reports and want to really start working on them to increase my scores. We would love to buy a house in the next few years and I'd like to be at a good or maybe even excellent credit rating by then. May not be possible but hey, here's hoping.
I have many questions on different types of items so rather than throw them all in here at once, I'll start with the most recent. I had my first child in April. I was out of work until a month ago and so our shaky (but current on everything) financial situation came crumbling down quickly. I got behind on my car, the rent, and pretty much everything under the sun. Finally am almost caught up but in the meantime, I've been unable to pay anything on these mounting medical bills. I really have to sit down and go through them all tonight when I'm home but I know for sure the hospital has turned one over to collections and I'm unsure of the others until I organize them tonight and call them tomorrow to get a status.
None of these medical bills have hit my credit yet, Thank GOD, because I definitely don't need anything else going on there. So in order to prevent this which for now is my TOP priority because they are a few thousand dollars, what is your advice. For the one that has went to collections, I'm assuming I'll have to deal with the collection agency itself and not the hospital anymore. I know they can be sketchy when it comes to promises and I've tried in the past for letters of me paying in return for them not putting something on my report and never got a thing. Do I try for this or how do I approach them?
The others, as long as they haven't went to collections, I plan to call and set up payment plans although with my current situation and the number of bills I have, I won't be able to pay much to each one but at least it will be something.
I have insurance. That's a whole other fight because some things weren't paid correctly but then now that they are in collections, I'm not sure how to get them corrected. I will call and ask about pulling them back from collections. If they do that, I assume I don't have to worry about it going to my report as long as I'm paying?
Definitely call and see what they will do.
Your income dropped that much...have you applied for financial assistance?
Is the debt over $5000? If it is, most hospitals have a hardship program to let you make smaller payments.
It's hard when you have something big because you might owe:
The hospital
The anesthesiologist
The Lab
The doctor
Start with the hospital, if they give you any assistance (say 25% off your bill) call the others with a copy of the letter and see if they will match it. The worst that can happen is that they will say no.
Be warned, the hospital will potentially want income statements, tax returns, bank statements. They often have a guideline, though, so you can find out if it's worth doing all this work, sort of pre-screening.
Twice in my life I've been successful in getting everything written off for 6 months (including future bills, my ex was able to get physical therapy under that deal). Another couple times I've gotten chunks written off, from 1/3, to a flat $100 to another flat $1000.
Different offfices have done different things. I have been successful with getting some things pulled back from collections but not all. One collection agency (the one working for the hospital that I work for ) is especially mean and really I could get no where at all with either them or the hospital itself. Now that I've filed bankruptcy all payments have been current since the begining of the year, actually.
One big mistake I've made (given my family history I should have known better) was not putting the maximum into a health savings account knowing that my out of pocket is $6600, and the max I can put into that HRA is $3300. I spend it every year, and if there is something left over in December I just buy a package of acupuncture treatments from my local community accupuncture clinic, or new glasses, or a dental treatment, or whatever. I've never wasted any.