re: Disputing a charge from a debt collection agency.

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My main worry is that since it has already been sent to a collection agency, my credit is about to tank over $10.50.

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Under the new laws, you come out ahead with worse credit.

give them $3.50 and not a cent more

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Under the new laws, you come out ahead with worse credit.

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Such an uninformed hot take.

Call the collection agency. Tell them you'll pay it only if they agree to remove it from your credit report. Get it in writing.

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I don’t want my credit to be screwed over $10.50. Has anyone had success disputing one of these before?

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The new rules on medical debt collection established a minimum bill of 500 dollars of before it would report to your credit report.

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Starting January 1, 2023, the consumer credit-reporting bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — will no longer add medical debt less than $500 to credit reports. Amounts of $500 or more may still show up and can impact your credit score.

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I find it funny they even sent you the bill, the form letter, envelope, return envelope, postage would run about a dollar or two.

Then if you call and dispute the debt, it can take a several minutes of a call center operator’s time, let’s say she makes 10 dollars an hour, and you spend 15 minutes on the phone with her that is 2.50 in labor cost. Then there are toll free calling phone charges if calling long distance. If you dispute and ask them to send more details and the complete bill as they are required to do, they will need to print all that data and mail you more information about the debt how they acquired it, any forms or contracts and terms associated with that account. That packet of debt validation may cost another 2-3 dollars in postage to mail and that does include the labor of printing and stuffing the envelope to send to you.

I am just trying to illustrate how absurd medical debt collection can be for such a small amount. Now, if someone owes several hundreds or thousands dollars this can make sense, but for 10 dollars, they are going to spend more trying to collect it than forgetting about it.

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Medical debt under $100 is ignored on your credit report.

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isn’t that $500 now?


Eta: yep that’s what it was

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It takes a while for medical debt to show up and anyway as of this month Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian are not going to show medical debt under $500 on credit reports. However, idk if that applies to medical debt bought by a collection agency.

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Just pay it and be done. Is your time dealing with this worth more than $10.50?

I guess if you are one of those ‘work from home’ guys you have nothing else to do all day.

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isn’t that $500 now?


Eta: yep that’s what it was

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Well, it used to be under $100, which is more than $10.50 and less than $500. So, no wrong answers.

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Today my wife got a letter in the mail from Receivable Recovery Systems LLC located in Metairie.

The debt we’ve been sent to collections over is for a whopping $10.50. The letter claims we paid $1,119.50 toward a hospital bill from Singing River Health Systems, but the total bill was for $1,130 so we still owe $10.50.

Neither me or my wife remember receiving any medical bills in the mail especially for that small amount of money.

I don’t want my credit to be screwed over $10.50. Has anyone had success disputing one of these before?

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Pay it. It is most likely a scam as you probably never owed it but it ain't worth the effort and they know it thus the reason they attempt to collect it. It is a huge industry and providers are in on it...they should be charged with mail fraud when they use the US mail to run their scam but they have a powerful lobby and that ain't ever going to happen. Anyone who doubts there is a health care system in the US needs to reconcile the number of debt collecting scams operating out of every single medical professional complex in the nation...