Source
r/personalfinance•
FoxIslander

Contacted by a debt collection agency about a bill I have never seen.

Debt

I recently retired early and moved to Mexico. I have a forwarding address in the US. A family member that monitors this address for me took a photo of a letter from a collection agency (first time in my life) concerning a $110 unpaid bill that I have never seen. It is with a US insurance company who's policy I cancelled about a year before moving to MX. I could easily simply pay the debt to the collection company, but will that prevent a credit hit? Or has my credit likely already bit hit by the insurance company. I have an excellent credit score. My other option is to begin a dispute resolution with the insurance company...however they have obviously already written off this debt.

Posted Mar 12, 2018, 5:31 PM UTC

15
AutoModeratorMOD•

You may find these links helpful:

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1
JohnQK•

There is no database of debt or automatic reporting of debt. Something only "hits" your credit if a creditor issues a consumer report regarding the debt to the credit reporting companies. Less than 5% of creditors do this.

If you do not think you owe the money, do not pay the money. Real life consequences (loss of money) always trump imaginary consequences (loss of points). Send the collection company a demand for validation of the debt. 9 times out of 10, that ends it.

1
ImperialHedonism•

Be careful, this could very well be scam.

1
431026•

First, check your credit reports to see if this collection account has been reported. If it hasn't, your credit has not (yet) taken a hit.

Next, read through the "dealing with collections" link the automod posted. You need to be clear on how things work before contacting them and/or paying. I would suggest requesting validation of the debt. If it's on your credit report, and they do not validate the debt, follow up with them to require that it be removed from your credit report. In all communications, do not say anything that would acknowledge the debt is yours.

It wouldn't hurt to contact the insurance company and ask about it. They may not tell you anything, since it's been passed off to collections, but you never know. It's possible this debt was a final bill with any remaining charges that you did not receive before moving away.

1
FoxIslanderOP•

I've never dealt with a collection agency before and was stabbing in the dark...I will go thru the links. Thank you all very much.

1