bad weather friend

[ironymaiden]

when last we left our heroine, i had found out that there was some kind of small medical debt on my credit report. i froze about this for a while, but finally pulled my reports and contacted the creditor.

it hasn't been on my report for that long, just since August went to collections in August and hit my report in January. and it's definitely not me - ambulance transport in NY state in late 2021, when i was here in Seattle mostly isolating from omicron. here's the fun part: this other person shares my not-at-all-unique wallet name AND birth date, may even be a partial SSN match.

the three credit bureaus are interesting - one took my dispute and automatically cleared me. one said we'll look into it and get back to you. the third basically said we won't believe you, only the collection agency, go talk to them ಠ_ಠ

the collection agency is clearly used to people lying to them; all i could get on the phone was "I've made a note on your account" and "this call is recorded" when I asked for proof that they would do anything in response to the contact ಠ_ಠ

i may have hit paydirt by contacting the actual ambulance company. it took a while to get my point across, but it finally clicked that the middle names don't match. they said they'll call me back AND they gave me a direct phone number and a contact name.

after that i found a contact email for the collections agency, so i'm trying the written route there, asking what would constitute proof that i'm not (a very minor) deadbeat in upstate NY. i think i've found their actual target via social media - she lives in the correct town, pictures are plausibly my age, and she has a disability that would probably account for a lot of medical bills. i don't want to risk being wrong and hurting someone else so i'm not going to hand that over, but it took me maybe 15 minutes ಠ_ಠ

Comments

[motodraconis]

Fucking hell, this is so fucked up!

[ironymaiden]

My credit card sends me a monthly update on my score - it came today, and it has six months or so of history with a trend line. This error has taken me from "exceptional" rating to "fair" in one month.

[yourlibrarian]

Collections places are simultaneously very sloppy and absurdly broad. I remember we were once contacted by one about my partner's sister's ex. They divorced 15 years earlier and we all lived in completely different places, yet the agency was hunting down some debt he incurred.

Good for you on tackling the error!

[ironymaiden]

Ugh. I used to track down medical records for complex litigation so I know the sorts of broken and incomplete info they get... but that means that I also know very well how sloppy they were on this search

[sleepybadger]

Ugh, trying to expunge stuff from your credit report is so frustrating. A friend of mine had to fight for a long time because for some reason they had his mother listed (somewhere) as his wife, and they kept adding her stuff to his credit report. Fingers crossed they can all get it switched over properly.

[varina8]

Of all the medical entities, ambulance companies are apparently the most aggressive on collections. They were a monster to clear too, though very nice (and really not all their fault as his insurer dragged their feet, even after approving it). I'm glad you managed to get it resolved.