Questions about Bad Debt and Collections

[Ava]

My credit is good, but not excellent.
It should be excellent because I pay everything on time.
On Saturday, I went to annualcreditreport and pulled my credit report from one of the three agencies.
Imagine my surprise when I see I have a Bad Debt and a bill in Collections.
Everything else is perfect. All the other bills are paid and up to date.
The Bad Debt comes from my ex-husband. He's a financial and emotional trainreck. He also has several serious health issues.
He wasn't too bad at first, but he started drinking and doing drugs and everything went downhill from there.
We've been separated for a couple of years, divorced for 14 months.
He's defaulted on everything, and thinking about filing for bankruptcy last time we talked.
The problem is, years ago, he helped me get my credit started and gave me an extension in one of his credit cards and also authorized me on his Sears card.
He defaulted on his credit card and I called him, begged him, and he finally called the credit card and had me removed from that account.
I had completely forgotten about the Sears account. It is maxed out and has been discharged as bad debt. It appears on my report.
The other bill I have is from a family doctor I saw a couple of years back. I used my insurance, and they had my address in case they needed to bill me anything the insurance didn't cover.
I was renting back then. A few months after I visited that doctor I bought my condo and moved to where I live now. It appears the good doctor had $ 266 left over after insurance, and they sent me to collections. I never received a bill from them in the six or seven months I stayed in that address after my visit. I supposed they billed me when I had already moved.
Should I contact the doctor's office, or contact the collections office, or just let it be?
If I pay this debt, would it disappear from my credit report?
I have no intention of paying the Sears account since I never used it, and it's a lot of money.
Needless to say, I don't check my credit report too often. The Sears bad debt discharge has been in my report for almost two years, and the doctor's bill for about one year. I think I've learned my lesson about checking my credit report every three months.
But regarding my current situation, what do you guys recommend?

[jkapp]

One bill in collections won't hurt anything as long as you continue to practice good financial behaviors. The Sears card may hurt a bit, but again, it's one hit that will eventually get cleared off. It doesn't sound like you have any current problems of your own, and as long as it stays that way those bad hits will get older and older and eventually fall off. Keep hitting it with good points and hopefully it will counterbalance the bad a bit.

There may be a way to separate yourself from the Sears card, but probably not since it sounds like it was a shared card.

[motherto2]

My ex just did this to me almost a year ago. I had a home loan and HELOC with BOA. My HELOC only had about $250 left to be paid, which was going to be in about a week when payday hit. I received a letter from them stating that they were looking out for their customers and in reviewing my account, felt it was in MY best interest to close my HELOC account. While I was reading my letter I was thinking "yeah right, my benefit". I wasn't too upset because I had planned on closing it as soon as the final payment was made. But the next to the last paragraph of the letter mentioned that they may have made the decision based on something in my credit report. I couldn't understand that, because I have really good credit, and not much other than the mortgage (HELOC at that time) and my daughter's student loans. All of which were current. I looked at my credit report and saw a cc from BOA that hadn't been paid on in months and was several thousand over the limit. I finally decided to call them, and found out my ex had me listed as an authorized user on the cc, even though part of our divorce agreement was to take each other off of everything. I had even spent a whole day going through everything we had and closed everything joint and changed my 2 cc's. I didn't even know about the cc. Good news, I could request my name be taken off immediately (didn't need his permission) and soon thereafter it fell of fmy credit report. If you are authorized vs. joint you can do this. If you are joint, you'll just have to wait it out. You can also request to put a remark on your reports stating what happened and that all of it is your ex husband's debt. Make sure you detail the dates of separation, divorce, etc. And I'd definitely get in touch with the dr.'s office to pay the old bill. Peace of mind if nothing else. you can put that on your credit reports also.

[DVM gone riding]

on the sears car immediately contact the company in charge and say that it isn't yours (not sears but the company responsible for the credit report) they have 30 days to confirm that a debt is legit and you can't report bad credit for a card on the secondary signer only the primary so they will have to remove it.

[Ava]

Thank you for the good ideas.
I have no problem paying off the doctor's bill. The only aspect of it that annoys me is that even though I made a change of address at USPS, and even though the bill is now in collections, nobody, not the doctor's office or the collections agency have contacted me about this. Ever. I just found out by reading my credit report.
But yes, I want to pay the bill. I would like to pay the doctor's office directly instead of the collections agency. I'll call the doctor's office tomorrow and explain.
Regarding the other debt, it's a Sears store card. I think he made me an authorized user, because I never had to sign anything.
Mothertotwo, our situations are eerily similar. The only difference is that we didn't have any children.

I was going to let that one be. But you guys make a good point about calling them and explaining. I never used the card. I don't even have it. Maybe there's a chance they will drop me off of the account. Let's see.

[Deleted]

I was also left with nasties on my credit report after a divorce. My then-husband had used my cards fraudulently and then hidden the bills from me, so there were late payments (I eventually paid the balances). He'd also run up medical bills and not submitted them to the insurance, and spouses are considered jointly responsible for medical bills, at least in NJ. Despite those, I was able to get a mortgage and also explain them to a couple of prospective employers over the years who did credit checks. (It's VERY good to know ahead of time what they'll find so you can tell your own side of the story first.) The hospital charges were paid off at the divorce but showed up on my credit report for a long time.

I agree with paying the doctor. My husband once noted that doctors and dentists frequently have no idea what's going on with their billing functions, so while it's crappy that they didn't call you before sending it to collections try not to hold it against the doctor. If you're still seeing him/her, though, you might want to mention it so they know.

[azphx1972]

Mar 10, 2011 1:21:11 GMT -5 Ava said:

I have no problem paying off the doctor's bill. The only aspect of it that annoys me is that even though I made a change of address at USPS, and even though the bill is now in collections, nobody, not the doctor's office or the collections agency have contacted me about this. Ever. I just found out by reading my credit report.
But yes, I want to pay the bill. I would like to pay the doctor's office directly instead of the collections agency. I'll call the doctor's office tomorrow and explain.

When you talk to the doctor's office, explain that they never bothered to lift a finger to give you a call and give you a chance to pay the remaining outstanding balance. Had they done that, they would have been paid promptly. Chances are, they'll remove the collections record and tell the credit reporting agency that it was reported in error.

My cable company did this to me several years ago. I had shut off my account, and they sent me a final statement that showed I owed them a small balance. When I called to pay it however, they said that my deposit would take care of it, and not to worry about it. Imagine my surprise when a collections agency called later to ask for the money (and it also showed up on my credit report). I contacted the cable company and chewed them out, and basically said that had they bothered to make a single phone call, I would have gladly paid whatever amount I legitimately owed instead of risking getting my credit damaged. They not only rescinded the collections record from my credit report, but zeroed out my account balance as well.

Good luck!

[TD2K]

and you can't report bad credit for a card on the secondary signer only the primary so they will have to remove it.


That's not what I've seen reported.

Even if you do decide to go the authorized user route and the account appears in your credit report, there is a downside to the issue. The fact is, if the account holder continues to pay his or her bill like clockwork, your credit scores will likely continue to reflect this positive activity. But if, for some reason, the account holder begins to fall behind or even miss a monthly payment or two (or worse), your credit score could also take a serious hit.
www.autocreditexpress.com/blog/2010/09/28/becoming-an-authorized-user-during-a-bad-credit-auto-loan/

For the doctor's bill, I'd try contacting the office and get that paid through them. Paying it won't automatically remove it from your credit report unfortunately but some people have commented their experience is that it is removed.

For the old Sear's bill, I'd try asking for validation this is your debt through the collection agency which is a right you have. Do it in writing with a way of proving they received your letter (priority post, delivery confirmation for example) and give them 30 days. If they don't respond in that time, then dispute it with the credit bureau(s) stating you have asked for validation and have not received it and therefore the entry should be deleted per the Fair Credit Reporting Act (the FCRA requeires anything on your credit report be accurate AND verifiable).

www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/debt_validation.shtml

I also disagree that one collections isn't that bad for your credit report. Other than BK, collections are about the worse thing to show up on your credit report. Even late payments over 30 days that are reported can significantly drop a good credit score.