Help repairing my credit and fiance credit.

[debtRIOT]

My fiance and I are trying to up our credit scores to get a house. Mine is garbage, hers would be good if not for a reporting error which I need some suggestions on. Once hers is all squared away I'll be coming with lots of questions for mine as it is in the mid 5s and not so pretty with a few items that I don't think I can negotiate on.

Anyways, on to her issue. She had 1 medical account (1 account. 2 different visits) that went past due. The billing department had her wrong address so she never got any bills. Upon finding out about the collections accounts, she promptly paid it off and the balance is now $0.

Here is where the issue lies. For the 1 medical account she had multiple things done at the same time. The collections department separated the entire bill in to multiple collections (equifax and experian are showing 6 different collections for 1 account and trans is showing 7) for each procedure that she had done. Now my question is 1) is this legal to separate an account balance in to multiple collections accounts? and 2) How can she go about getting all of these excessive collections off of her credit report?

It does not seem fair at all that 1 account can be turned in to multiple collections to completely annihilate someones credit score. This is the only negative mark on her credit report and it is absolutely killing her score having this many collections being reported. The collections agency that reported this is called Account Recovery Services located in Wauwatosa, WI.

I've been reading and it seems like the best bet would be to send a dispute letter to the CRA and a letter to the CA asking them to remove these multiple instances. What should the letter include? This is my first time ever doing this so this will kind of be my opportunity to learn and get my foot in the door so I can move on to my credit which will be requiring lots of negotiations and, hopefully, PFDs.

[Hal Jordan]

Do they all show the same account number on the Credit reports? If they all share the same account number you can ask the bureaus to delete them as duplicates. If this is the case usually you can get them to do it instantly over the telephone.. or rather she can get them to do it instantly over the phone.

If they are different numbers I would advise contacting the Collection Agency she paid and explain what happened and ask them to remove the multiple reportings as duplicates since they were all from the same origin. They have been paid so they may or may not be receptive.

Make sure if you do it by phone you RECORD the conversation. No if's and or buts about it. If you do it through mail ask for written response.

If they still won't play ball. Contact the Medical Provider and explain the situation and ask them to recall these debts from the CA's with instructions for the CA's to delete them. You'll need to speak to a supervisor or the head of billing at the medical provider to get this done.

You should be able to get these removed. And if they STILL don't you can try the sue happy HIPAA process stickied on this site.. And if that fails.. Sue them for FDCPA violations.. I promise, if the CA gets a summons to go to court on an item that has already been paid they won't spend money to fight you in court. They will just delete it..

It might take a couple months to get resolved but I believe you'll be able to if everything you've told us is accurate.

[debtRIOT]

They all show the same account numbe and same date she paid them off. I'll have her call the 3 agencys once she gets out of the hospital and hopefully it gets resolved from there.

Would going from 6-7 paid off collections accounts to just 1 paid off account make a good difference in her score? Like I said, everything else she has (current car loan, cell phone, retail credit card, utilities) are all 100% current with no missed payments.

Thanks for your advice, ill post back when we figure something out.

[Lian]

In many instances, the actual creditor on a medically related bill can be several parties. The hospital, your doctor, the surgeon, the anaesthegeologist, specialists, etc. If each is separately owed a debt and bills you separately, then they are not the same debt, and can result in multiple parties pursuing their own piece of the pie.
So it depends...