Please help a clueless newbie!
I'm 25 and last year I was bitten by a bat and had to have a series of rabies shots. I have no insurance. However, I qualified for aid and still $400 something to the local hospital.
I had been making small payments on the bill but recently have been totally in the poor house and had to let the payments slip. I intended to pay the remaining $260 that I still owed after my payments with my tax return.
Well, I got a call friday from Eagle Recovery Associates and the woman was very nice but told me it was in regards to my medical bill and told me I owed $1260! I asked where the additional 1,000 came from and she eventually said it was the aid I qualified for and it had been lifted. I told her there was no way I could pay all that money and was upset and frozen and I ended up giving her some of my info like income amounts, where I work and bill amounts..etc. She verified my phone number and address. I was so terrified and scared that I gave her that info and now that I was looking stuff up I'm worried that would put a big red crosshair on me and get me sued and they can start garnishing my wages.
I don't make a whole lot, in fact, there isn't much left over for food, even. I'm now living on my own, renting a house and have a low paying job.
the lady told me she would see what she could do and will call me back. That was friday evening so I'm expecting a call tomorrow ( monday ).
What on earth do I do? that money doesn't sound like a lot but it is to me. I get my taxes soon but even it isn't enough to pay off the full amount. Can I try and see if they'll take half in a lump sum? How does that work? I'm almost completely clueless!
Tomorrow I'm going to call the hospital and verify that they sold my dept to a collector and ask if there is ANYTHING I can do to remedy this without a debt collector.
Please help a girl out. :(
First of all, thank you so
First of all, thank you so much for your quick reply. I feel kind of lost and I am so thankful for someone with some more knowledge to read this situation over.
Well I just got off the phone with them. Somehow the amount is actually $1,982. Ughh. Apparently the times I went in after the first to get the shot kept adding up and the bill I had gotten for the first time was all I seen.
Yes, it is owned by the agency now, not the hospital so they indeed sold it. The woman from the hospital told me I could pay through the hospital and they fax it to the collector. Or pay the agency itself.
As for the agency..what should I do? they'll be calling me today, I'm sure. Unless I start payments there is no way I can afford it but I can use my tax return when it gets here to pay probably half.
Would payments be a good idea? I don't want the amount jacked up more over time with fees or whatever they do. I would rather try and put all I can down and get it over with. But I'm not sure how to approach this.
I don't know when to give if they start to threaten me..etc. I just don't want sued!
impossible
I found the information on this site to be very help but also misleading due to consumers not knowing what can and can not happen. 123 settlement immediately started contacting my creditors and with in 1 month I was already settling with them. its was too hard and impossible for me to keep up and try to deal with everything at once so i call them 8883666602
Your debt was more than
Your debt was more than likely NOT sold, but simply assigned to the collection agency. And they more than likely had your address and phone number...they were simply verifying it.
Call the hospital tomorrow and talk to them.
No ...the hospital did NOT
No ...the hospital did NOT sell it, they assigned it to the collection agency,. If they sold you, you could not make the payment to the hospital....they would have nothing to do with it.
If they bought it, wouldn't
If they bought it, wouldn't they have just paid pennies on the dollar? Anything they collect will be more than they paid. I would keep pushing for a settlement. No way I would pay that much when I only owed so little to begin with.
Hi Phoenix,
Hi Phoenix,
Call them and explain your situation. Explain that you may be able to come up with half of the balance, but you're not sure.
Then throw a hypothetical at them... "what if I could come up with half the balance? Please understand, I'm not sure that I can, but if I knew you would settle for that, I could make some phone calls to see if I can find it. I already know that I can't borrow the full amount, is there anyway you can work with me?"
Try this and update us to let us know what happened. Good luck.
Hi Phoenix,
Hi Phoenix,
Call them and explain your situation. Explain that you may be able to come up with half of the balance, but you're not sure.
Then throw a hypothetical at them... "what if I could come up with half the balance? Please understand, I'm not sure that I can, but if I knew you would settle for that, I could make some phone calls to see if I can find it. I already know that I can't borrow the full amount, is there anyway you can work with me?"
Try this and update us to let us know what happened. Good luck.