[PERKY2004]

Personally, I’d have just paid the two $11 bills and not let them go to Collections.

[raybbr]

....she found out the bills had been issued in error.

RTFA!

[driftdiver]

“Personally, I’d have just paid the two $11 bills and not let them go to Collections.”

You’re assuming the doctors office actually sent her the bills.

[RockinRight]

Sometimes, they never send a bill and it goes straight to collections.

This is a rare instance where I think there should be regulation. There was a bill last session (not sure what happened) that basically said that PAID medical collections must be stricken from credit record and deleted entirely, since they weren’t representative of risk the same way a late credit card payment or a collection from Verizon for an unpaid cell phone bill are.

As it stands now, the debt can be paid to zero, but the very fact a collection existed and is reporting to credit (even if it says “0” in balance field) hurts the FICO score. In fact, paying it once it appears on credit has zero positive effect on FICO score, it hurts just as much unless they actually DELETE the entire item from the credit bureau reports.