Old Medical Debt

[CRUG]

I have started working on fixing my credit - FINALLY - and I only have two baddies left on my CR.  One is an old medical bill that is due to fall off of my report in August (according to the CA.)  However, since we are looking to apply for a mortgage in a few months, I called and went ahead and paid it off.  They were reporting it as an open, delinquent account so just paying it off bumped my score 40 pts.  However, while I was on the phone with the rep, he let me know I had a few more accounts with them, although they were so old they had already fallen off of my CR - he didn't push it or ask that I go ahead and pay those, he just let me know.  I was planning to send a GW and ask if they will go ahead and remove it, but my concern is that they will hash up the old accounts.  Do you think sending a GW will cause more problems than its worth?

[gdale6]

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@CRUG wrote:

I have started working on fixing my credit - FINALLY - and I only have two baddies left on my CR.  One is an old medical bill that is due to fall off of my report in August (according to the CA.)  However, since we are looking to apply for a mortgage in a few months, I called and went ahead and paid it off.  They were reporting it as an open, delinquent account so just paying it off bumped my score 40 pts.  However, while I was on the phone with the rep, he let me know I had a few more accounts with them, although they were so old they had already fallen off of my CR - he didn't push it or ask that I go ahead and pay those, he just let me know.  I was planning to send a GW and ask if they will go ahead and remove it, but my concern is that they will hash up the old accounts.  Do you think sending a GW will cause more problems than its worth?

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First I would never have paid it off in full and would have waited for it to become excluded then negotiate for much less, now call the CRAs and ask it be removed early. For any others they have that are old and off your CRs just send them a FOAD letter if they send you any dunning for them.

[RobertEG]

If you are soon to app for a mortgage, paying the collection removed the issue of a delinquent debt, and certainly was beneficial, even though PFD was not requested.

You may not have the luxury of simply wating for CR exclusion to hide the unpaid debt.

The same applies to the other unpaid, delinquent debts.  Even though now excluded from your CR, you may be asked for disclosure of any unpaid delinquent debt as part of the moftgage app process, and they could still impact your approval process. 

There may still be significant benefit to paying those other debts, and if it also can be used as basis for deletion of the paid collection, it would be something I would seriously consider.  More leverage than a simple GW request for deletion of the paid collection.

[CRUG]

Thank you for the infi. I did ask for a PFD, but when he said they wouldn't do it and mentioned the older debt, I decided to momentarily let it be. It may also be worth noting it is a tiny CA in my town and has maybe 4-5 emoloyees, and I believe I was speaking with the man guy.

As far as older debt and how it applies to a mortgage app, I had a ton of stuff fall off years ago from when I was 18 (10 years ago) and I couldn't even begin to recall what and how much there was. How would I address that?

[gdale6]

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@CRUG wrote:
Thank you for the infi. I did ask for a PFD, but when he said they wouldn't do it and mentioned the older debt, I decided to momentarily let it be. It may also be worth noting it is a tiny CA in my town and has maybe 4-5 emoloyees, and I believe I was speaking with the man guy.

As far as older debt and how it applies to a mortgage app, I had a ton of stuff fall off years ago from when I was 18 (10 years ago) and I couldn't even begin to recall what and how much there was. How would I address that?

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If the debt is past 10 yrs old I would not even worry about it. If you are contacted by a CA on this zombie debt just send them a FOAD letter. A mortgage broker could ask for a full factual report but its expensive and most lenders dont bother with it and it only applies to loans in excess of 150K. Once the debts become excluded at the 7 year mark they could linger around until the CRA finally deletes them at the 9-10 year mark. Some will say they hang around forever but that is BS, the CRAs themselves say they delete after 10 years as they simply dont have the storage capacity to keep all of this crap around till time indefinite, this is the same reason good closed accounts vanish at 10 yrs...