Minimum Payments to Avoid Collections

By

grammy v

Wanted to let you know something I learned not long ago. Some hospitals will give you up to 20% off the bill if you pay the bill in a lump sum. I know not everyone can do this, but those of you who can, maybe the bill is 200 or so. The savings can be quite a lot, 40.00 on a 200 dollar bill is good. Might check into it...;)

By

grammy v

LisaE2, you should have called the hospital to inquire why they sent it to collections.sometimes the computer generated bills are sold off and no one looks to see if you are making payments on time, just that the 6 mo period is up. They did that to me once years ago and when I inquired why they had done it, they looked at the bill and said it shouldn't have gone to collections. They were able to reverse it out of collections and I was able to continue to pay the bill at the hospital.

By

grammy v

I've always been told that.also,most hospitals don't charge a interest payment either-so you are better off to make payments than you are to put the bill on a credit card.

By

ldean50

Thanks to you all. I called the hospital and worked out a payment arrangement agreement. So everyone was right!
Sure hope they stay with agreement and not turn over to collections anyway.

By

WeeWillie

You obviously are not going to get away making $2.00 payment on a $5,000.00 bill. The arrangements must be reasonable and made according to schedule. I worked in a hospital office for 31 years and I've seen accounts turned where regular payments were being made. You can't go out an buy a new car and make tiny payments and expect the hospital to wait for their money.

By

LisaE2

I live in WI and at one time years ago we had a substantial hospital bill. We did set up a payment plan with the hospital and even with paying on time, they still sent it to collections after 6 months I believe, and of course, went on our credit report.

I don't know what happens in your state though.
Good luck!!

It is a common practice for a creditor to sell a debt to another creditor, although I'm not sure about specifically collections agencies. When we've been paying well on our debt, we were sold to another creditor. It happens.

By

foxrun41

Companies and hospitals do sell delinquent accounts to collections agencies. I knew a fellow who was in that business for a while. Your best recourse to visit the accounting dept of the hospital and make arrangements to pay what you can afford every month. A relative owed a very large sum to the local hospital and they worked out a payment plan. She did get one call from a collection agency about the bill but no other calls after the payment plan was agreed on.

By

MCW

I've never heard of anyone selling accounts to collection agencies.

Please contact the hospital and talk with someone in the business office about a payment plan. If you make regular payments to pay off your bill they won't turn you over to collections.

Is there any truth to if you pay just $5.00 on your credit card bills that they can not turn you into a collections agency?