Why checking your credit reports is important!
A few months after free credit reports became available to me, I decided it was about time I checked my credit. At the time, I pulled all 3 reports at once, and paid an additional fee to get my FICO score from one of them. Everything looked good, my credit score was very pleasing, and I was able to spot some tiny, extraneous, old credit card accounts that I could close without damaging my score.
I decided it was about time to do another check, especially since I occasionally entertain the idea of buying a condo and would have to deal with getting a mortgage. This time, though, I plan on taking the staggered approach, where I will get a report from one of the bureaus now, another in a few months, and the last a few months later. That way, I can monitor any changes in my credit.
I went to www.annualcreditreport.com and selected my Experian credit report. I paid the extra $7.95 for my FICO score. I was more than a little bit shocked and upset when I noticed that my score had gone down approximately 75 points!
The report noted that I had a "derogatory public record or collection item on [my] credit file". I looked through the 39 pages of the report, and found that a hospital bill from 2005 had been sent to collections, but it was shown as paid. I recalled the bill, which I had had problems with (never getting the bill or statement over several months, which included multiple calls to them to request the bill, and verifying the address, not to mention several months of wrangling with the insurance company before that, and eventually calling to get the payment information and sending a check without the bill). My checkbook showed that I had sent the payment to the original creditor (the hospital), NOT to a collection agency.
I called the hospital billing office, and the first woman I talked to, Sheila, said that there wasn't a record of my account being sent over to the collection agency listed on my report, but she did say that once it was reported, it would stay on my file, because I was only protected from being reported for 30 days. I explained to her that I made many attempts to get it taken care of, and paid it NOT through collections, and I thought it might be an error (of course, I feared there would be some technicality and it would not be resolved in my favor). Sheila said I'd have to talk to the team leader, Kanessa. When she transferred me, the line rang a couple of times, beeped, and went silent.
I called back, spoke with Tiffany, and was transferred with the same result. So I called back again and spoke with Tiffany again. She said she'd give the message to Kanessa, because they were shorthanded and Kanessa was taking calls on their incoming call rotation.
During lunch, I called the collection agency. The woman there, Debbie, was very nice and told me that the account was given to them on December 19, 2005 and was shown as paid in March, when I did pay it to the hospital. I didn't even know I owed the hospital money until December that year, so I was surprised that was when it was given over to collections. Debbie said that if it was a mistake, the hospital billing office could easily call and get it corrected. I liked Debbie a lot because she did not hesitate when I asked her name and gave me her full name without prompting.
I knew I had jotted notes when I had originally been working out the billing problems, but I wasn't sure where they were at home. I decided I would call the billing office one more time, to see what their records of my calls said. I knew I had called a few times between December 2005 and March of 2006. I talked to Sabrina this time, and explained again briefly why I was calling, and if she could look back on my account notes to this time period. She put me on hold for a minute or two. When she came back, she said she'd spoken with Kanessa, who would be correcting my credit report THIS AFTERNOON. Yay!
Sabrina verified my address, which was STILL wrong so I gave her the correct one, and told me I'd get notification that my credit was corrected. I thanked her, got of the phone, and did a happy dance.
So, kids, don't forget to check your credit reports!
I decided it was about time to do another check, especially since I occasionally entertain the idea of buying a condo and would have to deal with getting a mortgage. This time, though, I plan on taking the staggered approach, where I will get a report from one of the bureaus now, another in a few months, and the last a few months later. That way, I can monitor any changes in my credit.
I went to www.annualcreditreport.com and selected my Experian credit report. I paid the extra $7.95 for my FICO score. I was more than a little bit shocked and upset when I noticed that my score had gone down approximately 75 points!
The report noted that I had a "derogatory public record or collection item on [my] credit file". I looked through the 39 pages of the report, and found that a hospital bill from 2005 had been sent to collections, but it was shown as paid. I recalled the bill, which I had had problems with (never getting the bill or statement over several months, which included multiple calls to them to request the bill, and verifying the address, not to mention several months of wrangling with the insurance company before that, and eventually calling to get the payment information and sending a check without the bill). My checkbook showed that I had sent the payment to the original creditor (the hospital), NOT to a collection agency.
I called the hospital billing office, and the first woman I talked to, Sheila, said that there wasn't a record of my account being sent over to the collection agency listed on my report, but she did say that once it was reported, it would stay on my file, because I was only protected from being reported for 30 days. I explained to her that I made many attempts to get it taken care of, and paid it NOT through collections, and I thought it might be an error (of course, I feared there would be some technicality and it would not be resolved in my favor). Sheila said I'd have to talk to the team leader, Kanessa. When she transferred me, the line rang a couple of times, beeped, and went silent.
I called back, spoke with Tiffany, and was transferred with the same result. So I called back again and spoke with Tiffany again. She said she'd give the message to Kanessa, because they were shorthanded and Kanessa was taking calls on their incoming call rotation.
During lunch, I called the collection agency. The woman there, Debbie, was very nice and told me that the account was given to them on December 19, 2005 and was shown as paid in March, when I did pay it to the hospital. I didn't even know I owed the hospital money until December that year, so I was surprised that was when it was given over to collections. Debbie said that if it was a mistake, the hospital billing office could easily call and get it corrected. I liked Debbie a lot because she did not hesitate when I asked her name and gave me her full name without prompting.
I knew I had jotted notes when I had originally been working out the billing problems, but I wasn't sure where they were at home. I decided I would call the billing office one more time, to see what their records of my calls said. I knew I had called a few times between December 2005 and March of 2006. I talked to Sabrina this time, and explained again briefly why I was calling, and if she could look back on my account notes to this time period. She put me on hold for a minute or two. When she came back, she said she'd spoken with Kanessa, who would be correcting my credit report THIS AFTERNOON. Yay!
Sabrina verified my address, which was STILL wrong so I gave her the correct one, and told me I'd get notification that my credit was corrected. I thanked her, got of the phone, and did a happy dance.
So, kids, don't forget to check your credit reports!