Do you have any Unpaid Medical Bills? If yes, then you might have a question in your mind as “Do unpaid medical bills affect your credit?”
If so, then read on. Many people who pay medical bills don’t have an idea about how do unpaid medical bills affect your credit score.
This article will help you understand do unpaid medical bills affect your credit and if they do how much these unpaid medical bills can affect your credit score.
Contents In Article
Do Unpaid Medical Bills Affect Your Credit?
Yes, unpaid medical bills do affect your credit.
Let me start this with an example, let’s say you went to the hospital because of severe back pain. You had some tests were done which showed that you had some serious health conditions and will need to undergo surgery at the earliest. The total cost for all these tests and doctors fees etc was $100,000.
You did not have $100,000 cash on hand so you had to take a loan and pay off all your medical bills and doctor fees. Now what will happen is that the hospital will give your loan for this amount ($100,000) to a debt collection agency and they will come after you for payment of this loan.
After they have been successful in getting back their loan from you, the remaining amount will be written off. This is how it works with most financial institutions and hospitals.
As a result of this, you will receive multiple pay-off letters from different debt collection agencies each claiming to have the right to collect your medical bills.
It is important that you do not ignore these bills as ignoring them will only escalate the problem and it will affect your credit score.
How Do Unpaid Medical Bills Affect Your Credit Score?
The credit reporting agencies do not only take into consideration whether you have paid off your medical bills or not but they will also calculate the total amount of your unpaid medical bills.
Once the credit reporting agency gets hold of all this information, it will affect your credit score in a negative manner.
How To Avoid Medical Bills Affecting Your Credit Score?
There are ways to avoid medical bills affecting your credit score. It is important to understand how do unpaid medical bills affect your credit.
- If you have unpaid medical bills then do not just ignore them as this will affect your credit score.
- If you have any unpaid medical bills then first take a loan and pay off all your medical bills and doctor fees.
- Instead of paying off all the money to the collection agency, contact the credit reporting agency directly and request them to remove the negative remarks about your unpaid medical bills.
- You can also request an itemized statement of all the fees and charges you have paid so that you will be able to prove how much you had to pay in order to get back your original health conditions.
- As far as possible try to avoid canceling any insurance policies or existing health plans.
- It is advised that do not ever take the first deal offered by the collection agency as this may affect your credit score badly.
- If you can, then always negotiate on the amount of money to be paid back and try to pay off as little as possible in order to avoid having any negative remark against your name.
Conclusion
Just these tips to avoid medical bills affecting your credit score. Feel free to ask any questions in the comment box. Stay tuned to Peryourhealth.fun for more information on the Per Your Health portal.