Medical Bills Sent to Collections - It's Affecting My Refinance Rate
I have had great credit and went to refinance and saw that I had a collection on my credit score. I called the collection agency and they said it was a medical collection for $60. I then called the doctor, and the office manger said the doctor had charged me extra after the visit for what was already paid and they couldn't get a hold, so they sent it to collections. I never knew about this and thought the $105 dollars I had paid for the visit was all that was needed since the doctor never mentioned anything else or that it would be extra pay.
I told the office manger and asked her if I could give her the money and have this taken off since I knew nothing about it. She said there was nothing she could do because it was out of her hands, and I needed to take it up with the collection agency. A judgment went on my credit report in December 2008. My credit score then was a 760, but now it's a 660.
Now the bank doesn't want to give me the same rate on my refinance loan because of my lower score. Is there anything I can do to get this off my record? Will paying the $60 to the collection agency change my score?
Our Response:
This is one of the most common questions we receive from consumers. Unfortunately, medical billing departments sometimes make a half-hearted attempt to reach former patients before sending accounts to the collection agencies. There is a lot of information on the blog that speaks to this issue. So the best thing I can do is provide you with links to previous Q&A sessions on this topic.
Previous posts related to overdue medical bills:
If I were you, I would pay the $60 that is due. It won't remove the item from your credit report entirely, but it will update the status of the account to show that you paid it. This might boost your score slightly -- but don't expect a huge leap in points.
Labels: scores
posted by Brandon at
3:02 PM
