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Got a collections call over a $35 medical bill I never knew about
I was checking my mail last week and saw a letter from a collections agency for a $35 ER visit from 2022. I had no idea the hospital didn't bill my insurance right and just let it slip through. They sent it to collections without ever calling me or sending a single notice before that. I paid it right away but now my credit score dropped 45 points for a tiny mistake. How do you even catch these little things before they hit your credit? Is there a way to fight a collections entry for an amount this small?
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mitchell.thomas3d ago
That $3 sandragrant situation is wild, but yours with the $35 medical bill is maybe even harder to swallow since it wasn't even a fee for your own mistake. Did you try calling the hospital's billing department directly before paying the collections agency? In my experience, sometimes they can pull a bill back from collections if you pay them directly, even after it's been sent out. The credit bureaus might not care about the amount, but the hospital might be more willing to help if you explain you never got the first notice. Your mileage may vary on that though, some places are stubborn about it. Worth a shot before you just eat that 45 point drop for nothing.
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sandragrant3d ago
My credit union once sent me to collections over a $3 overdraft fee.
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gray3143d ago
$3? come on man that's on you. you had three bucks in your account and spent it, that's not the bank's fault for charging a fee, that's you not keeping track of your money. i bet if you'd just called them and said "hey i'm an idiot" they would've waived it before it went to collections.
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david_walker973d ago
Blame the guy for having three bucks in his account like we're all out here living like Rockefeller. Yeah sure, technically he messed up but a collections notice over a sandwich is just absurd. The bank probably spent more on the stamp to mail that notice than the actual fee was worth. I bet some robot just auto flagged it and nobody even looked at it until it was too late. At that point it's not about the money, its about the principle, or lack thereof.
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