Small amount bill into collections. Should I be concerned?

[Anonymous]

Long story short, I was wrongly signed up for a Humana Drug Plan which they refused to let me cancel. I never received cards relating to the drug plan and therefore never even used it. The money was actually withdrawn directly from my SSDI which I never authorized. I filed grievances and all were denied until finally they stopped acknowledging them. So to insure that they never got any more money from me I changed my payment method to a manual payment book and I stopped paying the bill. Of course I got notices saying that I owed them the money ($88.50) and that if I didn't pay my policy would be canceled (which is what I wanted). So I let the policy lapse. 

Last week I got a bill from a collections agency and when I called them to talk to someone about disputing it, all they said was that someone would contact me and that the despute was noted and they hung up on me. I decided to just pay the bill (I mailed payment today) to get them out of my life, but now I'm concerned if it's going to show up on my credit report and kill my score. 

Do I have reason to be concerned since I'm paying it? Is it possible that it might not even get reported? What can I do if it does get reported? I have to go for a car loan in the next few months and if my score takes a hit (which I've read can be up to 100 points), it may be a disaster for me. I've always had excellent credit and don't want this one unfair bill to ruin my life. 

[pizzadude]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Long story short, I was wrongly signed up for a Humana Drug Plan which they refused to let me cancel. I never received cards relating to the drug plan and therefore never even used it. The money was actually withdrawn directly from my SSDI which I never authorized. I filed grievances and all were denied until finally they stopped acknowledging them. So to insure that they never got any more money from me I changed my payment method to a manual payment book and I stopped paying the bill. Of course I got notices saying that I owed them the money ($88.50) and that if I didn't pay my policy would be canceled (which is what I wanted). So I let the policy lapse. 

Last week I got a bill from a collections agency and when I called them to talk to someone about disputing it, all they said was that someone would contact me and that the despute was noted and they hung up on me. I decided to just pay the bill (I mailed payment today) to get them out of my life, but now I'm concerned if it's going to show up on my credit report and kill my score. 

Do I have reason to be concerned since I'm paying it? Is it possible that it might not even get reported? What can I do if it does get reported? I have to go for a car loan in the next few months and if my score takes a hit (which I've read can be up to 100 points), it may be a disaster for me. I've always had excellent credit and don't want this one unfair bill to ruin my life. 

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Have you looked at your reports yet to see if it was reported?   Hopefully it wasn't, because as you mentioned it will tank your FICO score.

[BlessedHappiness]

Report what happened to the Better Business Bureau and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. This should resolve the situation rather quickly ... less than 24 hours. I know from experience.

[BlessedHappiness]

Also contact your insurance carrier to see if you actually owe a balance.  I received a letter from CA saying I owed 1500 in balances.  I have insurance. I called my provider and they said the medical care giver generally has a reduced rate they accept. They are supposed to accept that. Often, she said they balance bill the client which is not kosher. Anyway my provider paid the balance and the collections were removed from my account. I had 9 collections removed this way. I saved 1500 dollars that I was going to pay but found out I did not owe it, so double check.  If the insurance carrier says that there is nothing owed based on the contract, contact the medical provider and tell them. If they do not budge, your insurance carrier should have an advocacy group that will work directly with the oc to resolve.

[Anonymous]

I just checked today and it's not on there. But that doesn't mean that it won't show up later right? 

Also I was looking and because it's under $100, under Fico 08 while it may show on my report, it shouldn't affect my score because it's small collections? 

I will contact the Better Business Bureau. 

[pizzadude]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I just checked today and it's not on there. But that doesn't mean that it won't show up later right? 

Also I was looking and because it's under $100, under Fico 08 while it may show on my report, it shouldn't affect my score because it's small collections? 

I will contact the Better Business Bureau. 

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This is true only for FICO08, all of the older scoring models would count the collection.

[Anonymous]

Well my plan if it shows up on my report is to contact all three bureaus and see if they can remove it. I'll mention that it's fraudelent and I've failed a complaint and hopefully they'll take it off. 

[Anonymous]

Good news! I filed a complaint with the BBB and I'm getting all my money back. They also said that they don't report to the credit reporting agencies so it won't go into collections. That took just under 2 weeks to resolve.