No credit card required
Browse credit cards from a variety of issuers to see if there's a better card for you.
Call the medical office back and ask them to recall the debt due to being paid. You can dispute the CA online as a debt not owed also. At the same time send a certified letter of anything that shows you have 0 balance from the med office. Bank statement or ask the med office to send you letter that you PIF and ship that out certified letter.
The FDCPA lets the credit collection agency assume the debt is valid if you do not make your dispute within the 30 days allowed. However, this will not count as an admission that you owe the debt in any legal action. You have the right to sue the collection agency if they act improperly for one year from the improper action. You can sue for lost wages and other expenses incurred, including legal and court costs. Also, the judge is allowed to award you up to $1,000 in punitive damages.
So get on it now. Good Luck!
Perhaps the clinic had/has not yet sent notice of payment and termination of the collection authority to the debt collector.
Until the debt collector is noticed by the clinic that payment has been made, they wont terminate on the word of the consumer.
A consumer cannot bring their own private civil action against a party that is based on reporting of inaccurate information.
You must first file a dispute via the CRA and permit the furnisher with the opportunity to review, and either verify or correct.
Upon notice from the clinic that the debt has been paid, the debt collector is not required to delete their collection.
In fact, CRA reporting policy instructs debt collectors not to delete based on payment of the debt.
They are required to close their collection and update the balance to $0.
Your dispute can dispute the accuracy of lack of update of the balance to $0, but lack of deletion is not basis for a legit dispute.