So I have been stuck with my head in the sand the last 6+ years since an emergency hospital stay landed me with 26K+ worth of medical bills before I turned 18. Found out my step-father had removed me from his insurance, which would have covered everything, so I was left with family help and benefit and charity options. I was groggy for most of the hospital stay and financial decisions, so my mother had apparently taken care of them. I found out later that no benefit or charity applications were sent. I never knew anything about checking my credit report, or how to handle that stuff back then. My mom wasn't the best financial advisor and said that medical bills don't really matter on credit reports anyways, and that I shouldn't worry about it. Well, I wish I had worried about it.
Aside from that fluke, I've managed to keep myself debt-free, never overdrafting my bank account and paying what few bills I have had on time while I had been working. Now I stay at home tending to the kids while my boyfriend works to pay bills. But after taking a look into my credit reports to see if I could get a car loan with my BF as a cosigner (he had about a 720+ credit score in april), I saw that I had about 7 medical bills on Equifax, 2 medical bills on Transunion, and apparently a "thin file" on Experian. I'm hoping that it is possible since we'll have 3 kids soon, and our Jeep may not have the room for all the carseats.
My plan is this: Opening a bank account and direct-depositing my small checks into it, to try and save up and pay off two collections I have with Transunion, then opening a secured visa with Open Sky Secured or First National Omaha Secured, using about 10-20% and paying it each month, then opening a US Bank secured about 3 months later and doing the same thing, and working on those for the next 12 months. (At 15 months I may get an unsecured card through First National).
Also, I have read about the statute of limitations for Washington state, and I think I may be able to do a Pay-For-Delete or Good Will letter to some of the credit agencies. The day of 1st Delinquency is July 2008 for three of them on Equifax, and those are the BIG ones. Totaling over 54k now, and I cannot pay those. The other four from EQ are under 400 each. Would it be worth my time to do a PFD on the ones from 2008? I'm still a bit confused on how the PFD and GW letters work, and I don't want to get sued or ripped off.
Any advice is welcome! I know it's a lot to read, but I felt I should elaborate on some of it so that there are less questions asked about specifics. Thank you in advance to any advice!
Thanks, I'll change the headline. I was getting discouraged because I had no replies and my post was being buried.
A GW letter is when you write a creditor a letter requesting that they remove a negative mark from your credit report AFTER it has been addressed. For example, maybe you paid a collection, and now you want the paid collection mark removed. They are under no obligation to do so, hence the goodwill aspect.
A PFD is very similar, but it takes place before the process. You might sent a letter to a creditor you owe money to, explain your situation, and say "I will pay the full amount you are requesting in exchange for your removal of this derogatory mark from all three credit reporting agencies. Again, no requirement to do so. In fact, they aren't supposed to do it.
The "medical removal" that was mentioned in here somewhere has to do with the HIPAA process. You can google that one and should find some results, but I've never personally dealt with it.
PFDs are a great way to go if you can get the collection agency to agree. However, before doing so, you need to search the statue of limitations for the state you live in to ensure that you can't be sued. That is step one for you.
Well first off you cannot be held liable for these bils since you were not yet at the age of majority (18), your parents and/or conservator are responsible for having to pay them. I would write a letter to these CAs demanding immediate deletion as you were not of legal age and were not the responsible party or you intend to bring suit against them for false credit reporting. That will take care of anything prior to you turning 18.... Anything that you are responsible for you would Google search the HIPAA Process and contact its creator for help as it cannot be discussed on this board. I wish you good luck and an expedient resolution to these unfortunate matters 
@-NewGuy- Thanks for the clarification! I have done some googling and haven't seen anything on the HIPAA process, so I'll look into it. I guess I have a lot of letter-writing to do. I believe the statute of limitations is up, but I'm having trouble guaranteeing this fact for myself. I'm not sure whether to consider the medical debt an "open" or "written" agreement, so I don't know whether the 3-year statute of limitation is used, or the 6-year. Even if it is the 6-year, that would make the debts from July 2008 fall outside the statute of limitation in July, or perhaps August. Do they go by the specific date or just through the end of the month? Should I wait until August to do anything?
@gdale6 Thank you! Again, I never heard of HIPAA so I'll google it. I could use all the luck I can get in this matter. Doing the math, I may have actually been 18 at the time, but I was supposed to be covered under my step-dad's insurance until 19, which apparently he removed me from shortly before that. I don't remember a whole lot of what happened at the hospital because of all the drugs I was on, but I remember that much now at least. 
And I'll hopefully talk to my mother about this and figure out what happened... I'm sincerely hoping she has the paprwork still but I highly doubt that she had it for very long in the first place.
@xaiduz114 wrote:@@-NewGuy- Thanks for the clarification! I have done some googling and haven't seen anything on the HIPAA process, so I'll look into it. I guess I have a lot of letter-writing to do. I believe the statute of limitations is up, but I'm having trouble guaranteeing this fact for myself. I'm not sure whether to consider the medical debt an "open" or "written" agreement, so I don't know whether the 3-year statute of limitation is used, or the 6-year. Even if it is the 6-year, that would make the debts from July 2008 fall outside the statute of limitation in July, or perhaps August. Do they go by the specific date or just through the end of the month? Should I wait until August to do anything?
@@gdale6 Thank you! Again, I never heard of HIPAA so I'll google it. I could use all the luck I can get in this matter. Doing the math, I may have actually been 18 at the time, but I was supposed to be covered under my step-dad's insurance until 19, which apparently he removed me from shortly before that. I don't remember a whole lot of what happened at the hospital because of all the drugs I was on, but I remember that much now at least.
If you find out it's the six year, wait til August, dont' risk it over a few weeks. Pretty sure it's six years to the date, but better safe than sorry.
I don't even know how to check for sure what the statute is other than consulting an attorney that I can't even afford. I've tried googling it and haven't found much stating one way or the other.