Personal Finance & Money Asked on February 8, 2021
I recently ran my credit score and discovered that unbeknownst to me there was evidently a $60 medical co-pay from last year that I never paid (they sent the bill to an old address and due to it being a low $$$ didn’t bother calling.)
I know that due to it being a medical bill and that it is under $100 it won’t affect my credit score for current formulas.
However, I am planning on buying a house in NYC in the next few years ($2 million plus) and my understanding is that the current mortgage companies use a older version of fico for calculations and I would still penalize me for this infraction.
I want to remove the collections from my credit report entirely. I phoned the collections agency and they said that they don’t do pay to delete but if I paid in full then they would request to the credit companies to remove it from my account and it would be deleted in ~60 days … which sounds like a pay to delete just phrased differently.
Can the collections agency actually have the credit report agencies delete the infraction or are they just lying to get me to pay the bill?
If they are lying what other options do I have at my disposal? Part of me wonders if because the bill is so low if I could just hire a lawyer to scare the collections agency into removing the infraction rather than have to pay for a long drawn out legal fight. Like I said the actual money is less important to me than the effect to my credit score.
They can, or they will mark the debt paid in full, which is really all you need. When applying for a mortgage, the lenders typically, do not like any kind of outstanding debt on your credit report. Despite not making any material difference to your score, most lenders would balk at lending you any amount for a home with this $60 outstanding debt on your report.
It seems silly, but there are a lot of silly things about mortgage lending that have grown out of the need to reduce fraud.
As the comment says, get the agreement in writing. Also save that email or whatever, and pay the debt in full with a throwaway credit card or by money order. Debt collectors are known to sell the debt to another company shortly after collecting. Also if you give them full access to your checking account through a debit card or whatever, they have been known to take much more then the agreed upon amount. They are pretty sleazy and cannot be trusted.
Answered by Pete B. on February 8, 2021
You can either request a goodwill adjustment from the collection agency, it is basically a letter explaining your situation, such as you want to purchase a house but can't because of the collection on your credit report, and you're kindly asking them to remove the collection out of goodwill.
Or you can demand that the collection agency validate the debt.
Under section 809 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, collection agencies are required to validate debts they are attempting to collect if you request that they do so.
If they are unable to validate the debt, you can ask them to remove it from your credit report.
Answered by Binoy Thomas on February 8, 2021
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