> Took me over 2 years to pay all of it off. It pretty much wrecked my personal finances
Why did you pay it then? Tell the hospital you can't pay and move on with life. If you do well financially pay it then.
> threats from collection agencies finally forced me to put it all on my credit card
I don't understand this. Why do you even answer the phone when they call? Or open the letters they send?
Just ignore them, and when you are ready to pay, then pay the hospital directly.
Completely ignore the credit collection agencies. They are utterly impotent, especially when it comes to medical debt which has no effect on your credit score.
I mean it - completely ignore them. I don't mean answer the phone, listen to the threats and ignore it. I mean utterly ignore them. You have caller ID.
Hospitals can be rather unhospitable. They want their money, and they don't exactly hire the nicest/knowledgeable people. I routinely get collection calls for someone else based on this issue (who either had my number prior to me getting my phone OR the person gave them my number randomly), and I wouldn't invite them over for dinner.
> Completely ignore the credit collection agencies. They are utterly impotent, especially when it comes to medical debt which has no effect on your credit score.
Source? Googling for medical debt and credit score seems to indicate that it will in fact impact your credit score once they hand the bill over to a third party collections agency.
Why did you pay it then? Tell the hospital you can't pay and move on with life. If you do well financially pay it then.
> threats from collection agencies finally forced me to put it all on my credit card
I don't understand this. Why do you even answer the phone when they call? Or open the letters they send?
Just ignore them, and when you are ready to pay, then pay the hospital directly.
Completely ignore the credit collection agencies. They are utterly impotent, especially when it comes to medical debt which has no effect on your credit score.
I mean it - completely ignore them. I don't mean answer the phone, listen to the threats and ignore it. I mean utterly ignore them. You have caller ID.
Any letters get placed unopened in a box.