Another Murphys law case.

[routierracing]

In the middle of June I flipped my racecar and got pretty banged up and had to be stabilized and transport to the hospital to be checked out and have my back x rayed. Everything came out ok despite some serious back pain and several bruises the size of softballs. This all happened in a small town over in ohio. Over 3 hours from my home in Edinburgh, IN.

Flash forward to present day and I am trying to buy my first home. While I've got no dings on my credit score, the lack of history because my age makes it hard to get homeloans.

So early this morning I randomly get a call from a collection agency saying that they were hired to collect a debt from me for a hospital in Ohio. It turned out that someone at the hospital had copied my address as being Edenton, OH instead of Edinburgh, IN. (they say its just because they hit a wrong key with the area code but thats not true bc the area code they gave shows up as being in spain.) The charge was only for $63. Lucky for me for some reason the unpaid bill didnt hit my credit when usually they do after this amount of time. Imagine that, being unable to buy a home because someone at the hospital messed up a 63 dollar bill. I woulda been taking them to court. Know I got to hope there are no other hospital bills out there with the same mistake.

 

[dasnootz]

When I was in high school, I was injurred playing a sport. I ended up being treated by an orthropedic surgeon. Nearly a year later, I got a letter from a collection agency saying that I had an outstanding balance with the doctor. The total was $0.27... and if I did not pay or make settlement, I would be taken to court.

They spent more in postage than what the outstanding debt was.

 

[theskipman_98]

As someone who has sold (tried to sell ) cars, the worse hits on credit come from hospitals and cellphone companies.

Some hospitals are "pay when services rendered". If they are not settled with in a certain period of time, they almost immediately turn it in to collections. Also a word of warning especially if you are a JR or SR., they will tack on a past due bill to the more current person and it is VERY hard to get it straight.

Watch out for co-signs.

Watch out for fly by night "collection agencies" that come after you for a bill from 5-8 plus years ago, that may even have been settled, they will hold your credit "hostage". What are you going to do sue them? Good luck! They are here today gone tomorrow, but not before they tag your credit, and the reporting companies are very quick to put it on, but slow to take it off.

Hope this helps

 

[Pat Whatley]

When we bought our last home I had my mortgage broker (fraternity brother) pull my credit report to pre-qualify me for the loan. He called me half an hour later and told me that he couldn't get me a loan because I'd been 30 days behind on 35 of 36 car payments.

It took half a day to figure out what had happened. When I made the first payment at the bank I set the payments up on a bank draft. Somewhere in setting it up the draft didn't start the next month, it started the month after that and instead of being set up to pay on the due date it paid three days later so every payment got made 33 days late. I never got a late notice and nobody mentioned it when I paid the car off.

That debacle and ONE late credit card payment dropped my credit score over 100 points. It took almost a month to get things straightened out and to get my credit report cleared. Thankfully I knew the credit manager at the bank so he didn't try to blame me, he just assumed it was a bank error and had it fixed.

By the way, congratulations on buying your first house!

 

[mark in tx]

That first mortgage will bring up surprises. I had a report on the for owing 38 dollars to a business that had gone bankrupt 4 years before. Lucky I had a receipt.