2 collections on my credit report

[Anonymous]

I am looking to buy a house last year.  The credit union that I will be using uses Equifax for credit reports so I pulled my report and score last night.

It shows two collections that I have no knowledge of.   Neither my wife nor I can figure out what they would be for.  We have never received anything from a collection agency - mail or phone.  This is what it says on the report (both say the same thing but different amounts):

The collection agency "175yc00000" was hired to collect a debt of $179 originally owed to "Not Reported" on account number "XXXXXXX0001".

How do I even start to figure this out if I don't know who is making the claim?

[Anonymous]

I think the best site to get reports is freeannualreport.com or True Credit(bestcreditreports.com). They will both give you the account information that MyFico won't. MyFico is the only real score though so don't pay attention to their scores.

[Junejer]

Hi Geary, welcome to the forums. I would start thinking medical collections for those. Did you go to the hospital or emergency room, where some portion of it may have not been paid by insurance or something? As Steve said, get your full reports, there should be more detail on there.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the input.  I knew there would be bad things on my credit report, but they were things I knew about.  These collections threw me for a loop, because I had never heard of them before. 

 If I order an Equifax report from one of the places mentioned, it will have different info. on it?  3 agencies, different reports - sounds like this is going to get expensive fast.

[Anonymous]

You can get them all free once a year from annualcreditreport.com  

They will show the info you need to DV the collection agency. It does look like medical bills. That's what DH's had on his and they were medical.

If you dispute with the CRAs they will send you an updated report at the end of their investigation.

[Anonymous]

There is a difference between credit report and credit file.

You have 3 credit reports or files...one from each credit reporting agency(CRA)-- Equifax, TransUnion, Experian.

Anytime you request your credit through any place other than the CRA themselves, you are getting a "report".

When you get your credit from the CRA themselves, you are getting a full credit file.

Once per year, and in other situations, you are entitled to a free credit file from each CRA.

www.annualcreditreport.com is the official website to get those reports. Nothing should be masked on those reports and they should show you everything in your file.

When you get one from a credit monitoring site or a place like myFICO, you get reports that show you the basics and certain information must be masked by law. A collection agency that is known to report medical debts will likely show up masked, medical or not. The CRA does this to protect your rights and them.

Now, when it comes to scores-- you can only get all 3 FICO scores from here. You can get EQ FICO from Equifax's website. TransUnion has a special website to get your TU FICO. Experian FICO you can only get here. Any score you get that doesn't state "FICO" is what we call a FAKO. They are useless.

[Anonymous]

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steve413 wrote:
I think the best site to get reports is freeannualreport.com or True Credit(bestcreditreports.com). They will both give you the account information that MyFico won't. MyFico is the only real score though so don't pay attention to their scores.

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Those reports shouldn't show anymore than your myFICO reports would show. As they are 3rd party suppliers and certain information should be masked. myFICO only mask information that is sent to them masked, what information gets masked is not determined by myFICO.

TrueCredit's website is www.truecredit.com

[Anonymous]

You were correct.  I got the credit reports from annualcreditreport.com and the two collections are listing as medical bills.  I have a lot of forum reading to do today regarding all this stuff.

[Anonymous]

For medical debts, read the link in my signature regarding "medical collections". It should give you some direction on how to handle these.