82 point drop due to PAYING a collection, lesson NEVER PAY MEDICAL COLLECTIONS

[runner40]

I am devastated that my Experian score dropped 82 points when a collection was updated as "paid". Paid this in Jan in preparation for a mortgage application later this month.   I thought medical was not supposed to have as much of an impact.  The bill was from 2012  and I had asked them to delete and they said no.  I paid thinking it was the right thing to do and that a paid collection would be better than an open one.  If I ever get another medical collection I am likely to NEVERY pay it as a result of this.   Are there any companies that I can go thru to try to get this company to delete?   I read a few things about some hippa laws but did not understand if they apply.   I did expect it to drop, maybe 10 even 20 points, definately not 82.  

[Anonymous]

Have you try to ask the agency to delete the record? Most medical collections that I had were happy to delete the record off all bureaus. I actually had 2 removed last week. Give them a call and tell them you're looking to apply for a mortgage and that the account is paid. See if they will do a goodwill deletion on your behave.

[Anonymous]

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@runner40 wrote:

I am devastated that my Experian score dropped 82 points when a collection was updated as "paid". Paid this in Jan in preparation for a mortgage application later this month.   I thought medical was not supposed to have as much of an impact.  The bill was from 2012  and I had asked them to delete and they said no.  I paid thinking it was the right thing to do and that a paid collection would be better than an open one.  If I ever get another medical collection I am likely to NEVERY pay it as a result of this.   Are there any companies that I can go thru to try to get this company to delete?   I read a few things about some hippa laws but did not understand if they apply.   I did expect it to drop, maybe 10 even 20 points, definately not 82.  

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To be honest, after already paying the collection, it  may be very difficult to get the agency to delete anything.  I had 3 collections which I basically told the collection agency, "if you agree to remove the items from my credit report, I'll gladly pay you...otherwise you get nothing."  And they gladly agreed to do so(made them place such agreement in writing).  

You can send them a goodwill letter, but aside from that, not sure if you have much recourse?

[runner40]

I had tried the approach of requesting a deletion and they were adamant they were not a "pay for delete" company.   I thought I was doing the right thing by paying the bill and thought incorrectly that a Paid collection was better than an unpaid collection and even if my score went down it would only be a few points. 

The unpaid collection was so old it was not doing much damage. should this happen again I will not pay any company that does not agree to delete in writing before payment is made.    It would be better to leave it as is, the damage has already occured and it would be better than having such a huge hit on my score.

Doing the right thing is not always the right thing : (  

LESSON LEARNED - NEVER EVER EVER PAY A MEDICAL COLLECTION WITHOUT A DELETION AGREEMENT IN WRITING 

Sure I will send them a letter asking them to please delete, nothing to lose now.... however I am not hopeful they will even respond.

[Imperfectfuture]

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@runner40 wrote:

I had tried the approach of requesting a deletion and they were adamant they were not a "pay for delete" company.   I thought I was doing the right thing by paying the bill and thought incorrectly that a Paid collection was better than an unpaid collection and even if my score went down it would only be a few points. 

The unpaid collection was so old it was not doing much damage. should this happen again I will not pay any company that does not agree to delete in writing before payment is made.    It would be better to leave it as is, the damage has already occured and it would be better than having such a huge hit on my score.

Doing the right thing is not always the right thing : (  

LESSON LEARNED - NEVER EVER EVER PAY A MEDICAL COLLECTION WITHOUT A DELETION AGREEMENT IN WRITING 

Sure I will send them a letter asking them to please delete, nothing to lose now.... however I am not hopeful they will even respond.

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Does the collection show the name of the medical facility?  You can dispute (I would use phone, U.S. Supervisors) and dispute off.  I learned that lesson while rebuilding.  But, some small collection agencies do not want to pay the deletion cost.  One had me dispute to get it off my reports.  You can always call the agency, ask for a supervisor, and then ask - what will you all do if I dispute it off for my mortgage?  I had the agency swear up and down they would not respond, and they did not. 

Several tactics for you to employ here.

[Anonymous]

Not to add salt to the wound, but most mortgage companies don't count medical collections against you if you have a small number, and rest of file is pretty clean. When I was shopping around for my mortgage, every LO I talked to, when they pulled my credit just said, "that's a medical collection, don't care about that," and then just went on like it wasn't there. If the rest of your file is pretty clean, a medical collection won't matter much for a mortgage, other than the point ding for having a collection. 

Right now that is the only collection in my file, so it's keeping my scores down, and I can't break 715.....but I refuse to pay it, because they won't deleate it. Even told them the only way they will get money from me is if they agree to deleate it, and they said they won't. They care more about putting the blemish on my credit than collecting