anyone have any experience with debt consolidation

[justinwebb]

So i have some problems with some medical bills that i never paid and are getting ready to garnish my wages....anyone ever deal with any debt concolidation place.....i just need a low payment rather than paying a ton a month..... just curious on if anyone had any experience with any places didn't want to just randomly pick one.... thx guys for your help

[TimTaylor751647545500]

Citi Financial typically offers some good plans for consolidating debt.

[Mojoe]

you have PM

[Skinner]

With the medical bills that we have right now from my wifes stay in the hospital and my boys birth we only pay $10 to $20 a month. Typically when it comes to doc/hospital bills we always paid what we could offord and have never had any problems. Wheather its right or wrong I don't know but its never been turned into a collection agency.

[Linc5.0]

Call the hospital and ask them to send you a medical assistance form. Depending on how much you make per month at the time of the hospital visit, you may qualify for 50, 75 or 100% assistance. I got some of my bills covered that way cuz at the time i was a student . So they payed 100% of my med bills...which they were over $10k.Thas the best advice I can give

[evan9381]

i do collections and i can tell you right now that anything like CCCS (consumer credit counseling service) or a settlement firm will not do shit to help you, only them. call the hospital and set up a payment arrangement. let them know 'this is what i make, this is what i pay out in bills' and go from there. if they see that you make 2,000$/mo and pay 1500$ in bills and other expenses, theyll work something out with you. all CCCS is going to do is take small amounts of money from you, make smaller payments on your medical bills until they are able to settle the account for a percentage less than what you owe with the hospital. it does ABSOLUTELY nothing to help your credit, and is going to stay on your credit for 7 years after they finally pay it off. it could take them 10 years to get it paid off, and that whole time youre going to have a delinquent account on your credit report AND be paying them to do the same thing you could do yourself.

 

if one of them says that it will help your credit, and do this and that, tell them you want it in writing. they won't do it

[Bhobs]

i have been in debt consolidation for almost a year now and it is great.......if u call 1-800-4-freedom.....they are really helpful. 3 of my friends go through them also and they have all had a good experience with them. good luck

[thorne]

in the case of settlement Since my ex wife and me split I've had a lot of joint bills and other random things we had , I've called alot of them up when i had a bit of cash laying around and made a settlement myself.

 

Example

I had a Joint CC with ~5 Grand on it.

 

I called up after a bit and made a offer for 2500$ and got it.

[GRN96WS6]

You know that you can pay like $5 a month and they consider that as payment and won't send you to collections?

 

 

I would call the hospital and tell them to send you the bills in question.

[evan9381]

yeah...consumers can do stuff like that, and not have to pay a company to do it for them.

 

ill repeat it again...do not go to a CCCS type place. call your creditors and set something up yourself

[BloodRed]

Since you said they are getting ready to garnish your wages, sounds like they already have a case filed in court to collect that money. If not, they can't garnish your wages, it is a scar tactic till the court makes a ruling. And if it has gone to court, you should have attended the hearing. If you talk to the judge he may make a settlement amount for you. Most county judges are good for that, IF you show up in court.

 

My best suggestion to you is the same as what everyone else has said, contact the hospital directly and try to set up some kind of payment plan to keep them from garnishing your wages. Normally they will work with you. Now keep in mind if they do accept this payment plan and agree to not garnish your wages, you miss one payment and they can start hitting your wages again. And be carefull, get everything in writing for the payment plan. I have heard of people making an agreement for payment and they still garnish your wages. Unless they put it in writing that they will not garnish your wages they can and will. But remember, they must have a judgement againist you to garnish your wages. The only kind of collections that doesn't need a judgement againist you to garnish your wages is student loans.

 

BTW...My wife does collections at a law office, and mainly works with garnishments.

[evan9381]

a lot of places (like where i work) we can set up a payment arangement, but we can not send anything out in writing. why, you ask?

 

when a balance is sent to my collection office, the balance in full is due. our clients do not require that we set up a payment arangement. this is something we do through our office.

 

as long as you dont miss any payments, have any payments bounce, there wont be a problem. the bill is getting paid. if the bill is getting paid, client is happy. if the client is happy, company gets more business. more business = more $ for company.

 

and to set up a a payment arangement, depending on how past due it is, they will probably tell you you're going to have to secure the account with post dated checks. this allows them to show the client that there is a payment set up for a certain date each month. theyre not going to allow you to mail in a payment monthly, because you had that option before it was deficient and failed to make good on that agreement

[iwishiwascool]

Always set up arrangements with the Hospital or original creditor, not the collection company. Once you set up the payment plan with the original creditor, you send a letter to them informing them of your HIPAA rights, namely that they cannot legally share information about your medical history to third a third party without your explicit written consent. This will remove any collection status from your credit bureau almost immediately.

 

Use the following links to help you get this done. I would do this on your own. There is plenty of information on the internet about how to go about doing this rather than paying some third party do take your money and do a half assed job...

 

 

Agreement to compromise debt

HIPAA letter

[evan9381]

they can still forward medical accounts to a collection agency...we have a medical/ohio attorney general office here

[BloodRed]

Yep that means nothing with reguards to HIPAA. All the collection agency has to do is sign a document agreeing to follow the rules and regulations of HIPAA. They are also suppost to make every employee sign one as well to be employed there. When a hospital sends a bill to collections, they do not send the full file, only the information they have on you and how much they owe, they hardly ever send any sesative medicial information.

[evan9381]

^ correct. i didnt want to type it all out, but i actually had to take some dumb ass HIPPA test when they moved medical out of the sectioned off back office onto the main floor, and sign the HIPPA papers, just like everyone else in the office

[iwishiwascool]

^ correct. i didnt want to type it all out, but i actually had to take some dumb ass HIPPA test when they moved medical out of the sectioned off back office onto the main floor, and sign the HIPPA papers, just like everyone else in the office

 

I guess that is why I had 3 collections from 02' removed from my Reports using this method.

 

Smart kids...

The point is not that the collection company is violating HIPAA dictations, but that the creditor is required to not report information on a paid account. Thus, by paying the original creditor you are forcing them to require the collection companies to absolve the records.

[CJINOHIO03]

If you pay soemthing that was late or charged off it will still show the orignal history on your credit report. CJ