Paying off Old, Bad Medical Debt

How old is the debt

Get a copy of your credit report to find out who currently holds the debt.

They usually won't negotiate debt that small.

Just pay the money and move on with your life

>>1398174
Went to collection in 2013.
By negotiate, do you mean a pay for delete? I was planning to pay in full, not as a settlement.

>>1398188
If they have never contacted you about the debt, send a letter to the credit agencies requesting the removal of the records from your credit report, with all the usual bullshit reminders about 30 days of compliance. They have to get proof of the debt to keep it on your report for more than 30 days once you request the removal. There's a very good chance that whoever owns the debt doesn't have proof, so you'll be able to walk away without paying a cent beyond a few bucks for certified mail.

NEVER acknowledge a debt. Always demand to see proof of the debt in writing. If a debt collector is harassing you, send them the general form letters via certified mail demanding proof of the debt, and informing them that they are henceforth barred from contacting you except to submit proof of the debt, to tell you that the debt has been resolved, or to sue you.

Never communicate with the credit agencies without sending stuff via certified mail. Their websites have arbitration clauses, and you cannot be forced to accept them if you communicate through mail. You'll have to opt out of the arbitration clause via certified mail anyways, so you may as well just use it exclusively to begin with.

Debt collection is a game of hunting low hanging fruit. Keep yourself from being a soft target, and it suddenly isn't worth their time to go after you, even if the debt is legitimate.

>>1398215
Thanks. Asking for proof of debt is probably a good idea, but I also want to have these debts paid so they don't resurface under a different collector that does have proof.

I actually have the money to pay the debts so I just want them gone. My question was more around whether I should be messing around with the "pay for delete" strategy or not. I'm reading a lot of mixed info online about it.

>>1398291
No. Don't acknowledge the debt at all. They don't have to delete it, and communicating with them means you validate the debt. You can only harm yourself by doing this. Every time you acknowledge the debt, the statute of limitations clock on it resets.

By contacting the credit agencies, you get it off your credit report, and it stays off. If it ever comes back, you can immediately request it's removal citing your previous interaction with them, and they would (typically) have to go to court to prove the validity of that.

They aren't going to do that for debts so trivial.

>I also want to have these debts paid so they don't resurface under a different collector that does have proof.

That's not how it works. Well.. it's exceedingly rare that it will work out like that. Debt gets sold, and their 'proof' is often nothing more than an excel sheet with a list of contacts and the amount owed. This shit is sold for fractions of cents on the dollar. It's used as a tax writeoff, and the collector makes a profit if they get even 1 or 2 people out of several hundred to pay what they 'owe'. It's not impossible, but it's unbelievably rare for them to somehow acquire more proof down the line.

By now the original person has written it off, and been paid by the first collections company. They won't waste their time providing more proof, especially because for all they know someone else has already collected the debts. It's a huge legal liability for them to do so. The company that initially bought it may have sold it half a dozen times by now. Hell, they might have gone bankrupt. You don't know. You don't care. It's not your job.

Even if you do have a debt, make them prove it to you. If asked why you want to do it this way, just say that you've dealt with a lot of fraud, and you want to be sure. Or just say it's none of their fucking business (since it isn't).

File: 1461015862987.jpg (34KB, 722x484px)

34KB, 722x484px

>>1398344
Ok, so you're saying to request that the credit reporting agencies get proof of the debt, not the collection agencies?

And if they come back with proof, do I then go down the pay for delete route or no?

>>1398463
Say that you are disputing the validity of the report. Once they receive your dispute, they have 30 days to get proof, or remove it.

I'm just going to outright say that they won't actually acquire any proof. Since you haven't been contacted about this debt at all, it's extremely unlikely that the collectors even have proof. There's a good chance that they aren't even in business anymore. Since the credit reporting agencies won't be able to validate the claims, they will remove them. If they somehow get proof, you can request copies of it, and then you are not any worse off than you were before.

Send a dispute letter. Say that you noticed several reports on your credit that are negatively effecting your credit rating. Request that they be removed because you have no evidence that they have not been made in error, and that you have not been able to successfully contact the agencies in question to obtain evidence that these reports have not been made in error.

Since you've said they are valid debts you cannot claim to believe they are invalid, because perjury is a thing, but you can certainly allude to not believing they are invalid, and you don't have to mention that you haven't attempted to contact them. Be sure to itemize the exact line items on your report that you want removed, and consider sending a separate letter for each line item.

>>1398485
The problem that you can (and probably will) run into is that whether or not the debt is valid, IF you pay it off, they don't HAVE to remove it from your credit report. They can still leave the default on your report for non payment. You only want to request the deletion once they have validated the debt. Until they have validated the debt, you are free to bluff and treat the debt like it is invalid. The burden of proof is on them. Force them to prove every single thing every step of the way.

Just shortcutting to groveling at their feet only hurts you. If they want to offer the deletion as an incentive to coerce payment, GET IT IN WRITING. Again, even if you pay, they don't have to remove the fact that you defaulted on payments from your report. If you don't have it in writing, you don't have it at all. Period. Fullstop.

Going to them directly will ONLY hurt you. It's like talking to cops. Anything you say or do can and will be used against you. So just don't fucking talk to them. Go above them to the agencies, and make them fight you every step of the way.

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0151-disputing-errors-credit-reports

I should give you the worst case scenario, just so that you understand the scope of what is going on.

>The worst case is that they have some form of proof of the debt. Then because you complained, you go from sitting on the backburner, to them actively hounding after you.
This isn't retaliation, it's just that they are have to start going after you or you get additional leverage to demand the debt's be stricken from your record.

>Now you ignore them. Completely and utterly.
If they offer a deletion, in writing, you can choose to take it. Realistically you can just ignore them forever. Send them a certified letter telling them that they are never to contact you outside of serving you with a lawsuit. If they refuse to give you an address to mail it to, ignore them, they are scammers, and doing massively illegal shit.

>If you continue ignoring them, they might actually sue you.
Threatening to sue, and actually suing are two entirely separate things. Open mail you receive, and keep it. Most of the time they don't actually have proof that would go anywhere in front of a judge, and even if they did, it's not worth their time to bother for debts this small when there are easier nuts to crack.

The WORST scenario is that you end up getting sued and paying court expenses. You have enormous amounts of time to settle before that, and by dragging the process out as long as possible, you might actually have that information stricken from your report, even if they do have proof. Practically speaking, as I've said before, they won't be able to provide evidence, and everything will go away in a month or two if you just bitch about it in a civil legalese manner.

Might not be around before tomorrow if you have more questions. Good luck.

Should I contact the credit reporting agencies or the collection agencies to request validation of the debt?

>>1399601
reporting.

File: OuttaMyWayEuroFuckingShits.webm (3MB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 1280x720px

>>1399650
thanks