Should I contact CA if I have arrangements with OC?

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I recently had to have surgery and as a result have several medical bills. It took a few months for me to get back on my feet financially and be in a position to start paying them. None have been reported on my credit report as of yet.  A few days before I mailed out proposed payment schedules and a starting payment to each place I received a letter from a CA on one of them. I thought I would just go ahead with my plan to deal only with the provider and ignore the CA. I just received a message today from the CA saying that the provider had reported my initial pmt and approved the pmt schedule but they wanted the payments sent to them instead of the provider so they could report the payments on my credit report. I haven't returned the call, from what I have read it's always best to deal with the provider/original creditor. How should I proceed to keep this off of my credit report? Help!!

[RobertEG]

I would do only one thing with the CA.  Send them a DV letter, which requires them to cease active collection activity until they responsd.

If the OC is willing to deal with you, then deal with them, and not the CA.  In actuality, there is really little you can do to block the CA from reporting to your CR, if they choose to later report. 

The OC still owns the debt.  It is usuallyu best to deal directlly with the party who owns the debt, and not a third party CA.

[AndySoCal]

Since these are medical collection accounts i would suggest the HIPAA process which is for these types of accounts. You can Google or search the forum for this. Ask the one creditor who you have made apyment arrangements with to recall your account from the collection agency as a part of the payment agreement.