Credit Score

[Andrew Whicker]

Hi,

This is kind of an embarrassing post, but I need to know how to take care of this and I thought this community would be best.

I have a low credit score because I had a medical bill that I didn't know about until we applied for a mortgage.  By then it was too late to get rid of the ding.  I paid the bill right away.

So, as I understand it, there are the following parties involved:

- Hospital

- Collection Agency

- Credit Score company

So, my loan broker worked with me to try to get the credit score back up before we got the mortgage, but we didn't get the score back up in time.  So my MI is higher than it would be if I had my old credit score, which was pretty good (mid 700's). 

I can ReFi in 6 months.  I closed on the house on Dec 12th.

From what I understand, either the hospital or the collection agency put in a request to remove my credit score reduction.  Also from what I understand, this will happen eventually, but the actual amount of time is unknown.  

My question:

How do I follow up?  How can I be sure that in 6 months my credit is back to pre-medical bill status?  The collection agency told me that this particular hospital always puts in a request to remove the credit reduction.  

Who do I contact?  The hospital?  Anyone in particular at the hospital?  Once they put the request in, then who do I call to follow up?

Thanks for putting up with the potentially dumb questions.  

Andy

[Brad Starling]

Who did you pay, the hospital or the Collection Agency. I would start with the one you paid. Make the request to have the item removed in writing. Always in writing. If you speak with someone that tells you verbally, have them follow it up in writing. For future reference, negotiate the removal before you pay, and get that in writing.

Once the item is removed (usually 1-2 billing cycles), your credit score should improve dramatically, assuming this was the only ding. I would recommend a credit monitoring subscription so you can check your report and look for any other errors, and then immediately see when items are corrected.