Very Old Debt.....Maybe

[KeithW]

I was scheduled to have a throat scope at a local surgery center, but they called and told me that before they would do it I needed to pay roughly $300. They said their system showed I hadn’t paid this amount 12 years prior when I had the same procedure done before. I asked why they never had contacted me and I was told they had turned it over to collections, yet it never showed on my credit report and they never contacted me. She said it looked like I made a partial payment, but never paid in full. 

They basically want want me to prove I paid them. I am thinking I will just get the scope done at another place and forget this.  How would you handle this?

[RobertEG]

Not stated in the post is whether you agree that the debt is valid.....

[KeithW]

I believe I paid it. 

[Anonymous]

Then go somewhere else.  You believe you paid it, and they have no legal power to compel you to pay more since the SOL has expired (as well as the limit for it appearing on your credit report).

[JVille]

If you pay it now you run the risk of them now reporting a Paid charge off. Unless you get it in writing that they will not report this at all. They never contacting you fir 12 yrs is fishy!

[KeithW]

In the period we bought a car and then a house. Our credit report had no outstanding collections, so I know that if they did indeed report it, I had paid it. 

[krielly]

Is the $300 for the old procedure or the new one? You said this is the same procedure you had done previously. If you failed to pay your portion previously, perhaps they are asking for the $300 up front for this second one?