FICO score update.

[Anonymous]

I am hoping to buy a house at the end of the month. When I checked my fico score, and credit report, I found a medical bill that went to collections back in Feb 2011. This is a bill that was supposed to have been submitted to my health insurance carrier but the medical provider failed to submit it. I contacted the provider and they told me they have handled it and they advised they called the collection agency and told them to remove the account from my credit reports. Does anyone know about how many points that one item would affect my score? How long should I wait for my score to update? I'm trying to get an idea of what my score would be if that item were not on there.

[LIGHTNIN]

Welcome to the forums,

If the Date of medical service is recent (say less then 12months), it can hurt your FICO score by 80-100pts.

Then it hurts your CS less and less as time goes on.

IME, insurance companies allow medical providers up to 12months to file a claim.

A few things to know about collections....

Debts are either sold or assigned to CA's. If the debt was sold, then the CA owns the debt. If the debt is assigned to a CA,that means the OC still owns the debt and only asking the CA with help with collection of the debt.

A CA can stay on a CR up to 7.5yrs.  

You may be interested in a PFD Letter, that is where you pay the CA and they agree to delete.                 

For more information about what I talked about, visit the other board called Rebuilding Your Credit