Need advice. Received bill from collection agency that I never knew about

[Anonymous]

First I apologize if this is in the wrong section as I am new to these boards. 

Short Version:  I received a bill from a collection agency that the orignal company never sent me the bill for, how to pay it without affecting my credit score?

Long Version:  In April of 2008, my wife (before we were married) had a routine doctors appointment and submitted everything to her personal insurance company.  In July of 2008, we got married, she cancelled her insurance policy, and he joined mine.  In September of 2008 we received a bill from the doctors office of ~110.  That bill was payed immediately.  Last Friday (January of 2010) we received a bill from a collection agency of about $50 for the service received in April of 2008. I looked up her old insurance policy and two bills were submitted for the April 2008 service (one for ~110 and on for ~50).  However, we only received one bill (the ~110).  Had I received the other bill at the same time, it would have been paid immediatly.

What course of action should be taken to pay the bill without hurting my wife's credit score?  My plan (which have yet to do) was to contact the original vendor (Quest medical) and tell them I never received the unpaid bill, will pay them the full price, and want them to alert the collection agency that there is no outstanding debt.  Additionally, I was going to contact the colelction agency and despute the debt.  I have no idea if this plan is the best or would even work, but considering we were planning on buying a house in the next year or so I don't want to take a hit on her credit score.

Also worth noting, her credit score last summer was ~740 across the board.  I have not looked it up recently (past 6 months) to see how this might have affected it.  I plan on doing that this week. Any and all help I can get to preventing a drop in her score would be greatly appreciated.

Message Edited by cjstaum on 01-24-2010 06:32 AM

[Anonymous]

Negotiate a PFD

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Negotiate a PFD

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Ditto.  Plus pull your reports to make sure you haveeverything else accounted for.  Regularly checking helps to make sure nothing weird comes up in the future and shock you.

[Anonymous]

I have one last question for you all.  The name of the CA is "Credit Collection Services."  I did some amateur internet sleuthing and found some website stating that this is a scam.  Does anyone here know whether this CA is legit, or some kind of scam?  If they are a scam artist, what is the best way to proceed.  Thanks again to everyone for all your help.

[Jazzzy]

If this collection account has not shown up on her credit report yet, your best move is to take care of this ASAP in order to keep it from doing so.

If this was my bill...

I would first try to pay the original creditor and ask that they pull the collection account back from the collection agency.

If they can't/won't do that, then I would send a Pay for Delete letter to the Collection Agency.

Try NOW to get this paid in a way that keeps it from reporting. Read about Pay for Delete letters. You have to have a written agreement with them before you give them the money. It would be nice if the original creditor would take the money and this would go away.

I wish you luck!

[Anonymous]

First off, thanks to everyone for all the advice. This had made this process significantly less painfull then if I was on my own. I contacted the OC and they said they would accept payment and pull the collection account back from the CA. To close the loop, I plan on submitting a DV to the CA as soon as the transaction to the OC clears. My hopefully final question is whether this is necessary, or by paying this does it go away on its own?

Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

Once you pay the OC you have no need to submit the DV to the CA.  If they do not stop reporting and pull back you can send them a paid copy of your account to the CA, and complain to the OC.