Hospital Bills Have Ruined my Credit!

how can hospital bills lower your credit score so much?

Have u pulled ur credit reports? Hospital bills shouldn't make ur credit score drop that low. Maybe there are other things on ur report that aren't accurate or shouldn't be there! Try that and see if it helps!
Ang

bulldoggstookie -

Ang made a good point. Pull your credit reports - go to annualcreditreport.com - there, you can obtain a report from all three bureaus for free, once per year, or when you have been denied credit.

This will give you a better overall picture of your credit situation, and your husband's. Sit down together, and go over the reports line by line, and see if there are any items on your reports that shouldn't be (bills that aren't yours, or have already been paid). If so, you can dispute them right then and there, online. It will take up to 30 days to get the results from the bureaus, but that does help.

Also, if you can obtain ONE secured credit card (meaning you have to make a deposit of about $200 on the card, and that's your credit line), it will slowly build up your credit score. But only take this step if you know you are disciplined enough to make small purchases on the card every month and pay the bill off in full every month. After about 6 months of on-time payments, you should start seeing an improvement in your score.

(This advice was given to me by a bank's mortgage officer who is trying to help me refinance my home - the main issue she saw with my credit was that I didn't have any open credit lines at all - having one shows you are becoming more responsible with your money and paying on time, which makes you a better credit risk.)

I realize this doesn't help with the credit part of your problem- but I wanted to make a suggestion to get these hospital bills paid off. Keep making your payments- don't miss them. Contact the billing department of the hospital. Ask if there are any grants or "programs" for someone in your situation. Every hospital is alloted a specific amount of money as "donation" if you will towards people's medical bills. Come the end of the year- if they have not used up all their budget it's kind of a "use it or lose it" scenario where the hospital won't be allocated as much for the next fiscal year. Each hospital has a different ending period- so it doens't hurt to ask them if they have any sort of funding to help you out.

As far as the credit score goes- I am really suprised to hear your score went down so much from medical bills. I would be willing to bet there are other things on your report you don't know about. Pull your credit report and see for yourself.