Paid Collection Account of $55

[karthik10]

Hi All,

I know someone might have already had similar situation, but please help me with my situation to get the collection account off my credit report (only Equifax)

I lived in a X City before and I was insured with a X Medical Insurance before and I owe them 55$ which I don't know, I paid for my copay when i visited and was in an impression that my health insurance guy is supposed to pay the balance. I went out of country for a month vacation and came back and i moved to a new apartment and i changed my Medical Insurance to a different company, everything is fine till now. After that I lost my job and had to move to a different city where I got another job and after an year or so, i registered online to find out my credit score and i was shocked seeing that i owe 55$ and it's almost (1year).

I called the hospital and they told me that they mailed me the balance amount that i owe them, but since i moved to a new apartment and then later to a different city i missed those mails ( i should have forwarded my bad). I told them that i did not get any mails as i no longer live in that place or city, then i told them that i can pay 55$ right away and all this happened due to miscommunication.

After I payed them in August (My Credit Report got updated in September and interestingly it got off my credit report from both Transunion and Experian). Now my problem is only Equifax shows the collection account and ofcourse it's showing as "PAID".

I disputed 3 times with no luck and i called the hospital and one of the lady there told me that they don't take off collection accounts off my credit report and i don't know why transunion and experian have removed and not equifax.

My Mistake: I should have forwarded the mail

Hospital Mistake: They could have called me or emailed me if i did not respond to mail before placing the amount to collection

I have never been late with a single payment in my last 5 years and my credit scores are very high inspite having this collection account till now (760 -transunion, 740 - experian, 660 - equifax).

How do I proceed from here to get that collection account off my report from equifax, i called them and explained the problem and they said all they can do is create another dispute and the hospital guys are saying they will not remove collection accounts.

Can I hire a lawyer and work on this situation? I am blank

Please suggest me something!

Thanks In Advance!
Karthik

[chane]

That's weird. Equifax is usually the easiest to deal with. Are you sure you don't mean Experian? They are the devil.

I would keep disputing. Try using different wording. Try a hand-written letter. Make sure you are not admitting to paying it or giving any excuse or reason. Just tell them to verify it or remove it.

What did you say in your dispute? Most disputes that don't work are because people said too much. Less is more.

[karthik10]

Hi Chane,

Thanks for replying, yeah it is Equifax that did not remove that item from my credit report. Yeah sure i will keep disputing it, even after paying the amount for couple of months the Equifax collection account did not even say that i paid that amount so i was disputing that i paid that account and asked them to remove it, from last month it's showing as Paid but they did not remove it.

I am having one question who is responsible for removing this item from my credit report (Hospital ? or Credit Bureau? or Collection Agency?), I am little confused about this, When I asked the Equifax support guy he told me that they will remove that collection item only if they get confirmation from the hospital or some other guy not sure who they referred to.

I just filed another dispute yesterday and told them that i don't have this collection item in transunion and experian so please remove it from my equifax credit report and it will take another 30 days to get the results. This is how it shows as in my credit report as shown below

Responsibility: Individual
Condition: Paid
Original Balance: $55
Balance: $0
Date Opened: 07/2009
Date Reported: 10/2010

Thanks,
Karthik

[chane]

That is the mistake right there. You told them that you paid it. That makes the debt yours. CRAs don't remove collections because they are paid. They keep paid collections on your credit report as a negative account for 7 years.

If you would have simply said "I would like to dispute this account, please verify it or remove it from my report immediately" and not given any details it would probably be gone.

You can try disputing it like again, but they probably have it recorded as yours. It might be too late.

[karthik10]

ohh, I will try to dispute it the other way and see if it get's removed. Is there a way where i can tell them that this happened due to miscommunication and get it removed as i did not do it wantedly or else it would help me if i hire an attorney and explain him the problem (The hospital guys are equally responsible as i am since they did not communicate to me in any other form and they placed for collection)

Thanks,
Karthik

[JeremyKean]

One thing that we do is make sure that everything is 100% accurate, like account numbers, open date, etc.....a lot of times there is a discrepancy and i highly doubt that the old lady answers the phone when the credit bureaus call.