I moved countries a few years ago and am building up my credit score from scratch. I’m cognizant of good practices to build up my credit score like paying my credit card on time. My credit score dropped 10 points in the last month but I don’t know why. I’ve increased my spending on my card because of Christmas and travelling but make the payments right away (typically same day) so that there is not a large balance on my card at the end of the month. The total spending for the month is less than 30% of my credit card limit.
I don’t have any other form of credit like loans. Any suggestions why there was a drop?
AFAIK, medical debt has changed quite a bit recently, and my read of this is that paid medical collections will drop from your report. So unlike non-medical debt, you should consider letting large medical debts go to collections and settle for a fraction of the price. This doesn’t work as well for non-medical debt because collections otherwise stay on your report for 7 years.
I’m far from an expert and haven’t dealt with this at all, so definitely double and triple check this if you’re in a situation where defaulting and settling may be preferable.
I think settling for a fraction of the price is rarer than it seems, and even a tiny fraction of cancer bills would be extremely difficult for most. This is good advice if you need your credit though. I hear it’s easiest to negotiate with the hospital itself but with American healthcare you might well get one that simply does not care.
Your suggestion also works for people who already have the medical debt though. At that point it doesn’t hurt to try to negotiate. They should avoid making any payments until completely ready to pay it off though (and having made a deal), wouldn’t wanna restart the clock and whatnot.
In the other commenter’s case I would probably just ignore it until it went away. I never need credit though so it’s not realistic for everyone. Medical debt is such a fucking terrible thing honestly. Hopefully they succeed in removing it from credit entirely
Yup, try your luck with the provider, and consider the collection company as a backup plan. Usually you can get a pretty good deal from one of them, but you need to be ready to pay in cash.
But yeah, if you can handle waiting 7 years, letting it fall off is the cheapest, but you’ll have crappy credit and are open to lawsuits until that time.
Man medical debt lawsuits are among the worst things in this country. Pure maliciousness. I imagine it’ll be one of the most reviled “past things” in the future.